Read the full review on Cinema Express, here
Remember the suave go-getter Subbu from Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Aaranya Kaandam? The one who orchestrated the entire crescendo of catastrophes with a smile hiding a tear, and tears masking a smile. Remember the patient yet manipulative Chandra from Vetri Maaran’s Vada Chennai? While a revenge story from a woman’s perspective might not be new in Tamil cinema, what if the female lead doesn’t want to wait for years to exact justice? What if she doesn’t want to just keep scheming on the sidelines? What if she isn’t content being just the judge and the jury? ‘Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned,’ goes the old saying, and in Gangs of Madras (GoM), it is not so much about the gangs and Madras, as it is about the bloody, gory, and cathartic hell that Raziya (An effortlessly brilliant Priyanka Ruth) unleashes on the gangs that wronged her.
GoM is the story of Jaya and Ibrahim (Ashok). There is a no-frills religious conversion that enables Jaya, now Raziya, to marry Ibrahim, which, of course, makes her a family outcast. While Raziya’s immediate acceptance of another religion does feel out of place, it does usher in an important punch line about how despite being true to both religions, none of the gods came to her rescue when she needed it the most. “Namakkaana nyaayatha naama dhaan thedanum“ (We have to seek the justice we need), she says.
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Avinash Ramachandran 