dushyant chaturvedi 4/5An aspiring director who wants to make a gangster epic that is different from the clichéd stuff, a brutal gang lord who becomes the subject of his fascination and who is also on the cross sight of the police and the rivalsthe aforementioned gangster's right hand who is a porn addict, but is a family man and a teetotaler, another who is a violent alcoholic and the third who irritates the hell out of people by telling them stories from his distant past; novice who wants to start his career in chopping up peopleSome of the most fascinating characters in crime genre populate this gangster epic and make the first half an incredibly enjoyable ride through the underbelly of Madurai.Unlike the usual gangster movies wherein the mole who wants to infiltrate the group earns the trust quite easily and just gets in, "Jigar" explores the efforts that go into this much overlooked aspect of such films. The second half is as diametrically opposite from the first as it can be. The denouement is real doozy and makes for a truly different, genre-crossing and rules defying visual experience.Bobby Simha, who plays the gangster, is the beating heart of this epic. He gets the role of a lifetime and dazzles the mind with his brilliance. He, deservedly, won the national award for best supporting actor.This is Mr. Subbaraj's second directorial venture (haven't seen his first, a horror movie, Pizza , which was remade in Hindi, too). He has written the script and the screenplay, too, and that is evident from the sure hand that he displays while helming this outstanding movie.A mandatory watch for any person who loves gangster films, both of yore and of modern times, this is available with English subtitles, on Hotstar

Muthuvel Sivakumar I went to the theatre without much anticipation in this movie even if the trailer looks good. From the first scene itself, I was rooted to this movie. I thought of it as an action movie. But the move cannot be termed in any one genre but it is tailor-made to classify it in all genre. It has romance, comedy, action, suspense and a great story to tell. The director Karthick subburaj stands out in every frame in the movie. There is no forced songs or comedy. Everything comes in flow in this movie. And Unexpected twists till the climax makes you glued till the end. Every actor is done their part well but bobby simha excels all the above. Fine performance by him. Every character has a purpose in the movie. Even the petty shop old man has a small but meaningful character in the movie. I wholeheartedly praise the director and I wish him to make many more great movies in his career.

Aravind Prakash While Jigarthanda is a drink from Madurai and enriches your taste buds, the movie Jigarthanda is sure shot treat to your ears (considering the comedy in the movie).The movie begins with Siddharth aspiring to become a director. He then decides to make a gangster movie. He wants to take the story of a gangster who is alive. He goes to Madurai after getting to know about Sethu. With the help of his friend Oorani, he begins gathering information.While doing so, he meets Kayalvizhi and they both fall in love. Little does he know that Kayal has a link to Sethu. Their romance takes a turn after a while.Turn of events leads to Sethu and his gang agreeing to help Karthik to make his movie. Does Karthik succeed in making the movie on Sethu? Does Karthik and Kayal's love end?The movie is a mix of Suspense, Action, Humour, and Romance. It is, by far, the best movie of 2014 and even the average IMDb rating proves the same.

Prakash Alagar Many will miss this man when they start praising this movie. But I would like to start with him. Yes. Thank you Siddarth for accepting this script even after knowing the how much big the role of Villain is. I respect you.Many movies came in Tamil with a powerful villain. I would say our 'Assault Sethu' is the most powerful villain Tamil cinema ever saw. In the trailer itself they have clearly portrayed Villain as the most important character in the movie. I believe Simmah's portrayal in the trailer is the reason for pre-release expectation of this movie even though many of us were aware that this movie is Pizza director's next.Coming to the plot, young aspiring director Karthik played by Siddarth (might be named after Karthiksubburaja himself) insulted by one director-judge and defended by a producer-judge in the semifinals of short movie competition. At the end of this ego clash, director eliminated Siddarth but producer assured him to produce his film. This is the very first scene in the movie that led the story to kick start. This scene was so real as a reality show and it even showed what may happened behind the screen in reality shows.The producer wants Siddarth to direct a gangster movie with blood and gore. He even gave him the option (movie may be his own or a copy). He decided to write script based on a living gangster. After getting help from his journalist uncle and his police friend he got file of Madurai Don Assault Sethu . The very first buildup for villain begins here.Siddarth then reached Madurai and succeeded in convincing his friend to let him stay in his home by offering him the role of second hero in his upcoming movie. He starts to chase Simmah from now. He is trying hard to collect information about him that makes us to believe him as Pukka don even before he appears on the screen. Even the hero started seeing villain as a idol. He glorifies his achievements even though himself and his friend have the fear inside of getting caught.Villain assault Sethu grabs all our attention with his superb performance and Siddharth also got meaty role and more screen space.The flow of movie changes for every 10 or 20 mins keeping us hooked up with the movie. All the scenes looked so fresh and real. the romance between siddharth and Lakshmi menon was minimal and fragile. Anyhow it looked okay since siddharth's intention is to act like loving her to get information about Simmah. When the movie nears the end of first half we all would have got thrilled with such engaging scenes. These thrilling sequences reminded me that of Pizza. Interval block was perfect to stir our expectation.It is no more a gangster movie when the second half starts. Simmah gave permission to take movie about him and second half gets its pace with scenes by Vijay Sethupathi as rising Assault Sethu. Then in next course of movie Siddarth joins Simmah gang fulltime to observe and write the script lively. Siddarth does influence Simmah some times. It all makes us to laugh. Meanwhile Siddharth started ignoring Lakshmi as she is no more useful to him. In order to give heroine the role, Lakshmi Menon was used to change the movie's course a major one this time by polluting Simmah's mind making him desirous to become hero of his own movie that eventually will trouble Siddarth. She did this to take revenge on Siddharth as he cheated her.Initially Siddarth opposed this plan but later agreed make him as hero. Then the training sessions and shooting sequences moved with funny scenes that lags a little as weak portion in the movie. But not too boring.In the next course of this movie , The movie 'AA.Kumar' gets released. I would like to leave at least this last surprise to the readers of this review. This last portion of this movie brings back the last pace in the previous portion. Finally the movie ends with a silly twist which i don't consider as so.It is completely a new treatment of a gangster based story. But i expected that the movie would join the league of Pudhupettai and Aaranyakandam. But it doesn't since it a path breaking genre defining movie (don't ask me what genre it is). We can expect some movies in future to join the league of Jigarthanda.Positives:Simmah Screenplay (twists/changing courses) BGM by Santosh narayanan Story Characterization Portrayal of Cine industry Negatives:Romance Acting training and shooting portions Disappointment:Not a gangster movieSummary:It will be good movie for most It will be favourite movie of film buffs who loves cine industry Jigarthanda- When Kodambakkam meets Madurai