Tughlaq Durbar Review: A Boring Watch!

On the 22nd anniversary of David Fincher’s cult-classic, Fight Club debutant director Delhi Prasad Deenadayalan pays his “tribute” with his version of alter ego film, Tughlaq Durbar. A political satire film with fewer politics, more drama has Vijay Sethupathi and R. Parthiepan in the lead and Manjima Mohan, Raashi Khanna and Karunakaran as the supporting cast.

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Singaravelan (Vijay Sethupathi), inspired by a rogue politician Rayappan (Parthiepan), aspires to become like him from his childhood. Being a budding politician, Singaravelan has wicked ideas to ascend in the ranks and earn Rayappan’s trust and a functionary position in the party until he, out of nowhere, develops an alter ego that meddles with his each slanted move.

Right from the beginning, Tughlaq Durbar grandstands that it was impacted by several commercial Tamil film’s. With each passing scene and the pace with which the screenplay moves, you cannot avoid but think of other films which similar settings. The scenes that were tried tested, and retired from the industry make a comeback in this spiritless mediocre film.

Director Delhi Prasad Deenadayalan, an obedient student of the Tamil Cinema Industry, refuses to experiment with the script to make it more engaging. Surprisingly, Balaji Tharaneetharan of Naduvula Konjam Pakatha Kanom fame has co-written this film’s screenplay. Unfortunately, they use the age-old formulas to make a template lacklustre commercial movie.

Vijay Sethupathi does the bare minimum he was in his natural self with no extra efforts to make the character stand apart. Parthiepan, like always, was quirky with his quick wit and provided some comic relief. Raashi Khanna was a forced inclusion to give the movie the mandatory love angle.

Manjima Mohan, as the hero’s sister, looked dull and bumped out. She spoke little to no dialogues, appeared in few scenes, and put in zero efforts to improvise her character. It was as if she did the film reluctantly and, it was so awkward to see her act.

Another negative is that Tughlaq Durbar had a dozen hype scenes, where Vijay Sethupathi walks in slow motion or comes in face to face with the antagonist. Also, towards the end of the movie, the director again decides to pick up one of the obsolete formulas where the hero changes his mind and starts doing good deeds after being the bad guy throughout the entire film.

In short, Tughlaq Durbar is littered with scenes and segments like this which isn’t anything new to the audience. We have seen this somewhere multiple times, and we can, without much of a stretch, foresee what you are up to as well.

On the whole, Tughlaq Durbar has little to zero positives, offers nothing new, enjoyable or entertaining. The technical nor the music departments positively help the film. It falls flat as a mundane commercial potboiler which Vijay Sethupathi enacts now and then. While his intention to give chances to new directors is highly appreciated, his choice of script is questionable. Watch ‘Tughlaq Durbar’ on Netflix here.

‘Tughlaq Durbar’ Rating – 1/5

Images via Netflix India