PEN Studios, Stone Bench Films, Five Star Creations and Invenio Origin’s Jigar Thanda Double X (dubbed from the Tamil film of the same name; UA) is an action film set in 1975.
Caesar (Raghava Lawrence) is a criminal who is keen on becoming a film hero. He appoints Kirubakar (S.J. Suryah) as a director. Actually, Kirubakar is not a film director but is rather trained to be a police officer. A politician has asked Kirubakar to kill Caesar and hence Kirubakar has come to Caesar posing as a film director. In reality, Kirubakar is a wimp.
Anyway, Kirubakar takes Caesar to his own village and asks him to become a messiah for the villagers who would then patronise his film, make it a hit and, therefore, make the film a worthy entry for the Oscar Award, as desired by Caesar. Kirubakar plans to shoot in real time all that Caesar is doing for the well-being of the villagers. Sethani is a dreaded criminal in Caesar’s village, who poaches elephants in the jungle. Kirubakar feels, if Caesar and Sethani have a faceoff, the latter would kill the former, saving him (Kirubakar) the task of eliminating Caesar.
Anyway, the DSP of the village asks Caesar to capture Sethani and hand him over, which Caesar does. But Sethani later informs Caesar and Kirubakar about the insidious plan of the chief minister to kill the entire village, usurp the entire land of the village and sell it to a Delhi-based businessman to build a playground. Caesar is unable to save the villagers and even himself.
Meanwhile, Kirubakar has shot the entire real-life drama. He releases the film and it goes on to become a hit.
Karthik Subbaraj’s story is silly and doesn’t care for logic. Kirubakar is shown to assume that a film patronised by just one village would become a hit and even win an Oscar! Subbaraj’s screenplay is weak. Although Kirubakar is trained to be a police officer, he is shown to be a wimp! Caesar insisting on handing over Sethani to the chief minister doesn’t make any sense in the context of the story. Caesar’s heroism goes for a toss when he is unable to save the villagers and even himself. Karthik Subbaraj’s dialogues are ordinary.
Raghava Lawrence does well as Caesar. S.J. Suryah is okay as Kirubakar. Nimisha Sajayan is good as Caesar’s wife, Nimisha. Shine Tom Chacko is so-so as politician Jaykondi. Naveen Chandra lends routine support as the DSP. Sathyan, Aravind Akash, Ilavarasu and Bava Chelladurai provide average support.
Karthik Subbaraj’s direction is dull. Music (Santhosh Narayanan) and lyrics (Raqueeb Alam) are functional. Sherif M. and Baba Bhaskar’s choreography is nice. Background music is effective. S. Thirunavukkarasu’s cinematography is alright. Dhilip Subbarayan’s action and stunt scenes afford thrill. T. Santanam’s production designing, and Balasubramanian and Kumar Gangappan’s art direction are alright. Shafique Mohamed Ali’s editing is loose. The film is unduly long. Dubbing is proper.
On the whole, Jigar Thanda Double X is a flop show.
Released on 10-11-’23 at Maratha Mandir (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.