Anti Indian- A watchable fare on flags, faiths and funerals

Cast: 'Blue shirt' Elamaran, Radha Ravi, 'Aadukalam' Naren

Director: Elamaran

Music director: Elamaran

Synopsis: A funeral of a person of mixed-parentage becomes a target of vested political interests.

Rating: 2.5/5

Shattering expectations of an all-out assault on religions, Anti Indian begins with verses from Rig Veda, Quran and Bible, playing to the sentiments of the  people of all faiths. The movie then takes on the 'rotten apples' belonging to every religion-- a theme that has been done to death across Indian cinema over the years.

The plot is organic and rooted to the motley fishermen community in Chennai, lending authenticity to the weeding-out-the-bad-people-from-good-religions template.

Like 'Blue shirt' Elamaran begins, indha padathoda kadhaiya pathi paathom na, an artist Basha (Elamaran) who designs publicity posters of political parties, is killed in mysterious circumstances. Hailing from a multi-religious family, Basha's funeral snowballs into a melee between religions and creates a milieu for political games. We believe that this lays a solid platform for an intriguing watch. 

The narration is linear and just over 120 minutes. One look at the runtime in the censor certificate of the film assures that Anti Indian won't make for an exhausting watch. The converging point of Basha's funeral and the ongoing Mylapore bypolls in the second half of the film is where things start to unfold and the movie gets brisk.

The budget constraint is evident in the making, particularly with the gawky cinematography. However, you feel you deserve more in the camera-work after a few laudable drone shots while  the opening credits roll. The background score feels cacophonous at times, but is bearable mostly. The funeral gaana songs, which are fun as it lasts, serve the modicum of masala.

Adding to it, the witty one liners provide chuckles liberally. All actors in the cast just seemed to toe the line of the script, which is one of the high points of the film. The quick-fix resolution of an exciting denouement makes the climax portion of Anti Indian underwhelming. 

In a nutshell, Anti Indian is a decent debut for director Elamaran, but definitely falls short of what he expects from the movies he reviewed unfavourably.