Hitler movie review: A promising revenge drama watered down by a lack of intrigue

The film opens with a village in a forest where exploitation of labour is rampant, and there is no proper bridge to help facilitate the crossing of a river. Incessant rains, lack of infrastructure, and an assembly line of women crossing the river, and all of them being shown in a black-and-white colour tone could only mean one thing. Disaster. And soon enough, we move to the present where there is an impending state election. We act as if we have moved past the opening, clearly aware that the mishap will definitely play a defining role in the narrative. For now, we forget. Then, an unemployed Vijay Antony forcefully establishes friendship with Redin Kingsley’s character and becomes his roommate. At the same time, he meets the heroine (Riya Suman), and a series of meet-cutes happen giving him time and space to flex his muscles, and be in the vicinity of major heists happening. For now, we would assume it is a random coincidence, even when the reddish herring involves Vivek Prasanna doubling up as a possible action star. For now, we accept all of this. Then, by this time, a suave Deputy Commissioner (Gautam Vasudev Menon), a not-so-suave but extremely persuasive Minister (Charan Raj), and his primary henchman (Tamizh) are thrown into the mix. Someone is murdering the secondary henchmen. Someone is stealing crores and crores of black money from them. Who is this ‘someone’ is anybody’s guess, I mean, everybody would guess it right, and there is no fun in this guessing game. The only thing we wait for is to see when the makers would get to the point. 

Apart from the overwhelming predictability, the biggest issue of Hitler is the lack of engagement when it comes to these heists where the money is swindled right from under the noses of the politicians and the police. It is just all too easy, and the explanation as to how it was pulled off is amateurish at best. The stakes are never really high considering the powers that are being swindled. Cramming all the information and the reveals in the final minutes of the final act is an overload of information that isn’t very effective. What had to be moments of poignancy is overshadowed by a sense of manufactured urgency.  

Vijay Antony and Riya Suman from Hitler.

In fact, the lighter moments of Hitler actually worked better because there was a sense of effort in them. The romantic angle was refreshing even if it had template beats. Riya and Vijay Antony were actually turning up the charm to give us a love story that runs parallel to the story, albeit randomly. Vijay Antony has also improved leaps and bounds when it comes to balancing his established action avatar with the cutesy facet of his acting range. But again, this angle overstays its welcome because the track of heist, trauma, and revenge is pushed to the background. 

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Hitler had everything in place. A decent star cast. A decent technical team, including composers Vivek-Mervin and cinematographer Naveen Kumar, have worked on the film. In fact, it does come as a surprise that Dhana, who made the compelling Vaanam Kottattum, has chosen this path for his next venture. In between a lot of disappointments, he does display a flair for staging and establishing the right visuals of the film. Even when missing the target on a lot of things, Dhana ticks a few important boxes impressively. Take, for instance, a scene where he establishes the setting where the swindled money is being counted and segregated. It is a powerful image, but, unfortunately, it amounts to very little. This is the actual problem of Hitler. The political isn’t political enough. The power-hungry aren’t dangerous enough. The tonal shifts aren’t subtle enough. The henchmen aren’t henchmen-ing enough. You get the drift, right?

Right from the title that follows Vijay Antony’s habit of choosing ‘negative’ names for his films to the actions of the protagonists and even the antagonists, everything feels like unfulfilled potential in Hitler. What unfolds on screen isn’t as smart as the makers deem it to be. Thankfully, the film doesn’t make tall claims about changing the system. It understands the basic idea of capitalism, and how ‘image’ is everything in politics. But, unfortunately, Hitler just ends up being a disappointing commentary on dictatorship that is just a gimmick, very much like the title. As the credits rolled, I was plagued by the biggest question of them all… Why unnecessarily play the cards too close to the chest when you are showing the audience the face of the cards right from the time of arranging them in order. Why?

Hitler Movie Director: Dhana
Hitler Movie Cast: Vijay Antony, Charan Raj, Riya Suman, Gautam Vasudev Menon, Tamizh
Hitler Movie Rating: 2 / 5