Titans review: Vinayakan lifts Jayasurya's fantasy caper

Verdict: A promising gangster-meets-fantasy idea with a lively first hour and a superb Vinayakan, let down by a script that runs out of ideas after the interval.

Rating: 2.5/5

Titans, Prince Joy's third outing as director, brings Jayasurya and Vinayakan together again, this time in Fort Kochi, for a comedy that starts as a small-time crime caper and slowly turns into something supernatural. It is a bold mix on paper. On screen, it works in patches.

The story

Antony Yakuza (Jayasurya) once ran errands for a respected local gangster. Now the old man is gone, his son Peter (Baby Jean) treats Antony like a delivery boy, and Antony is desperate for one big job that will finally earn him a name. He drags in his flatmate Anwar (Nihal Nizam), a smooth-talking online scammer, and the pair cook up a plan that needs a third pair of hands. That is where Rejimon (Vinayakan) walks in, a quiet stranger who feels slightly wrong from his very first scene. Who he really is, and what he wants, is the hook that pulls the film into fantasy territory. We will leave it there.

Performances

This is Vinayakan's film. Those expecting a repeat of his Aadu energy with Jayasurya will be surprised: Rejimon is restrained, a little eerie and oddly moving, and he gives the character a weight the writing alone does not. In the last act, he is the main reason to stay in your seat. Jayasurya is in comfortable territory as the wannabe don, and his timing still lands the odd laugh, but Antony is written as a bundle of mannerisms rather than a person, and at times you can see traces of Shaji Pappan. Nihal Nizam is a likeable sidekick and gets some of the better one-liners. Baby Jean, Sunny Wayne, Indrans and Suresh Krishna all add colour, though most of them are stuck with half-written roles. Women are almost absent from the film, which is hard to ignore.

Direction and technical work

After Anugraheethan Antony played with life and death, Prince Joy here plays with good and evil, and the big idea is genuinely interesting. The trouble is James Sebastian's screenplay. Some points are explained twice over, while others jump ahead without the connecting tissue, and the suspense around Sunny Wayne's character feels more like confusion than mystery. On the craft side, Titans holds up better. Vishnu Sarma's frames give Fort Kochi a colourful, almost Western-comic look, the costumes are fun, and the VFX do a decent job of placing the supernatural on ordinary streets. The action in the final stretch is effective for the budget. Don Vincent's music keeps the mood light.

Rejimon's entry is the film's best piece of staging. Vinayakan walks into Antony and Anwar's scheme almost without a word, and the stillness he brings against Jayasurya's busy, mannered energy tells you something is off long before the script does. Later, when the supernatural finally breaks into Fort Kochi's bright, comic-book streets, the VFX keeps it grounded in ordinary lanes rather than turning the city into a set piece.

Where Titans fits

Malayalam cinema has been edging towards fantasy for a few years now, mostly through folklore and horror. Titans tries something different by dropping the supernatural into a scruffy, street-level gangster comedy, a mix the industry has rarely attempted. That is also why the film's stumbles sting. The Jayasurya-Vinayakan pairing comes with huge goodwill from the Aadu films, and Prince Joy had already shown with Anugraheethan Antony that he could fold a big metaphysical idea into a mainstream story. Here, the ambition is visible in every frame, but the comedy and the fantasy never quite lock together. A sharper rewrite of the second half could have made this a cult favourite.

What works

Vinayakan's layered, against-type turn as Rejimon
A breezy first half where the humour comes out of situations
Fantasy elements that blend believably into everyday Kochi

What doesn't

A loose, uneven script that never fully exploits its premise
A sluggish second half and jokes that misfire more often than they should
Supporting characters, and almost every woman, given little to do

Final word

Titans has the bones of a memorable Malayalam fantasy comedy and a lead pair that audiences already love together. What it lacks is a script sharp enough to match the idea. Go in for Vinayakan and a fun first hour, keep your expectations modest for the rest, and it makes for a passable family outing in theatres.

Also read: Titans release teaser is out, with bookings open for the Oct 22 release