Madras Cafe | Not There But Almost There | The Critique

I will always bear the grudge that they named a thriller titled Madras Café. It would have been wonderful title for a romantic drama. Jaffna would have been more apt, undoubtedly. Sircar has made probably one of the most realistic war film made in Hindi. It has elements of every major Hollywood war film made in last two decades and blends it perfectly with prologue and conspiracy of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. Also, before people jump onto conclusions, Madras Café is not Kannathil Muthamittal. It doesn’t creates a strong opinion about Tamil cause. Probably, that’s where Sircar got his first step right.

Madras Café is nicely divided in two parts – genesis of Anti India sentiments among Tigers and assassination of Ex PM. Blending fiction with facts, Madras Café is not fool proof. It has its own share of mistakes. For example, there is an agent who is known as agent to everyone. But despite of such mistakes which are probably intentional to carry the story in the stated timeframe, Madras Café brings out elements of thrill and suspense nicely. At no point movie feels dragged. Top RAW agent goes Jaffna with a covert mission to overthrow Tiger leader Bhaskaran. After some hiccups, he does that almost successfully. His failure messes up nation’s involvement in Lanka. Enraged Bhaskaran plots Ex. PM’s assassination.

Madras Café however failed on two points – Pace and Performances. The pace of the movie is a little too much. Lots of information is provided and at times it is not backed with reasoning. Stretching movie by 10 minutes wouldn’t have hurt. Performances are on the inferior side. John is not convincing in most of the scenes. Prakas (playing Bala) and Nargis (playing reporter Jaya) did their part well. Dialogues could have been better. Editing was apt and could have been better. On the positive, cinematography and background score is simple brilliant. Blending video with stills especially B&W stills was a masterstroke. Direction is impressive. Shoojit Sircar has proved his point thrice. With Yahaan and Vicky Donor he explored romance. With Madras Café, he nailed the thriller. When is Shoebite coming?

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh