A great opportunity frittered- Cinema express
Over the previous decade, the notorious piracy group, Tamilrockers, has been a topic of a lot dialogue. Pirated variations of movies weren’t simply being made accessible on the date of launch; generally, they have been accessible even forward of launch. The piracy group continues to be lively and has been an enormous drawback for the movie fraternity for almost a decade now. The arrival of OTT platforms helped considerably, and it’s attention-grabbing that it’s on one such streaming platforms that an internet sequence primarily based on the group is out now. Undoubtedly, SonyLIV’s Tamilrockerz has an thrilling concept that screams potential. We see glimpses of the group chief, the modus operandi… However sadly, director Arivazhagan doesn’t give us sufficient for an eight-episode sequence.
Director: Arivazhagan
Forged: Arun Vijay, Vani Bhojan, Iswarya Menon
Streaming on: SonyLIV
First issues first—this SonyLIV sequence is closely fictionalised, and all of it begins when a famous person’s extremely bold movie gears up for launch per week later. The infamous piracy group launches an open risk that it could have the movie launched on its web site a day forward of its launch. It’s all then about how cops and cyber-forensic consultants attempt to stop this from taking place.
At a time when gripping documentaries and exhibits on true crimes are the order of the day, Tamilrockerz wanted to be tight and gripping. Nevertheless, what we get is a bland sequence that subscribes to a predictable template. There’s a grieving hero, his useless spouse (learn first heroine), his sensible new colleague (learn second heroine), a villain gang, weapons, bombs, human trafficking… Wait, wasn’t this alleged to be about pirated movies?
Arun Vijay’s ACP Rudra is a brooding cop who resorts to extra-judicial killings as he sulks over his spouse’s loss of life. Because of long-format storytelling, there is not any heroic entry or intro tune right here. Additionally, this format permits for the exploration of a number of tracks which can be interconnected. And but, the makers do not appear to make one of the best use of the format. The primary few episodes painting flashes of Rudra’s recollections haunting him. Greater than establishing his character, it serves to distract and hamper the tempo. We then get a caricaturish portrayal of a younger famous person and his overbearing dad—which looks like Arivazhagan’s criticism of nepotism. The famous person stays faceless, and this doesn’t precisely make issues higher.
To point out the far-reaching results of piracy, we see a manufacturing driver (Marimuthu) being affected. We see a failed producer who has grow to be mentally unstable (MS Bhaskar)—a personality who evokes Rudra to do extra concerning the case. These appear attention-grabbing plot factors, nevertheless it’s all slowed down by handy writing and an overdose of cinematic liberties. Take, as an illustration, the scene that exhibits cops getting maintain of an outdated {photograph} that includes the OG Tamilrockers group. We don’t get the ‘how’ of this occasion, and we don’t perceive why.
Probably the most disappointing facet of the sequence is the portrayal of the Tamilrockers group. In actual life, they possess a sure Robinhood-like picture among the many public. Right here, they get proven as one more legal gang. They work in dingy areas and are supposedly a part of an even bigger nexus that is into terrorism and human trafficking. There’s additionally a slightly typical backstory to point out the beginning of Tamilrockers, one which reduces such an attention-grabbing thought to a mere case of private vengeance.
The investigating officer is new to cyber crimes, and so, together with him, we too get taught the fundamentals of cyber operations, together with boring explanations about URLs, domains, and the way web sites get pulled down. A thriller like this must be a cat-and-mouse sport, however this sequence merely lacks depth regardless of the central race-against-time thought. There’s no nice exploration of know-how both—we get the identical outdated GPS monitoring, bug utilization, USB hacking…
The present ends with a cliffhanger that hints at a second season, however you’ll be able to predict the tip reveal and twist from an extended distance. For me, the slow-motion reveal didn’t encourage thrill; I felt reduction that it was all lastly over. There’s a dialogue that’s usually used on this present: “Cinema-la logic paakadheenga… magic paarunga.” I’m undecided Tamilrockerz has a lot of both.
