Following his recent hit, 2023’s ‘Mark Antony,’ Adhik Ravichandran returns to the screen having teamed up with his idol Ajith Kumar for ‘Good Bad Ugly.’ Fanboy cinema has yielded interesting results for the industry recently: Karthik Subbaraj collaborated with Rajinikanth for 2019’s ‘Petta’ and Lokesh Kanagaraj worked with his idol Kamal Haasan for 2022’s ‘Vikram.’ These films are primarily made to celebrate the work of the star, throwing in an abundance of meta references to induce nostalgia. ‘Good Bad Ugly’ is the same, to the detriment of its own storytelling.
The film follows AK (Ajith Kumar), a notorious don who attempts to change his ways for the sake of his family. However, this is easier said than done, as his past catches up to him, throwing his family’s life in jeopardy. The cast is rounded off by Trisha Krishnan playing his wife Ramya, Sunil and Prasanna as AK’s right hand men Baby Tyson and Jaegar, Prabhu Ganesan as Jayaprakash and Arjun Das as the antagonist Johnny. The performance highlight of the film is provided by Arjun Das, who from his first appearance seems to be a formidable opponent to the star Ajith Kumar. However, the potential threat is defanged and quashed from the outset, as the film does not allow Arjun Das’s Johnny to ever be an imposing character: always being outsmarted, out-muscled and outdone by its hero. When your protagonist is revered to this extent, it disengages your audience.
Much like ‘Mark Antony,’ ‘Good Bad Ugly’ does not take itself seriously at all. However, this worked better for ‘Mark Antony,’ as the absurdity of the film’s plot matched its filmmaking style, both being cranked up to maximum. ‘Good Bad Ugly’ dials down the zaniness, which works against it. A half-hearted attempt at character development and writing create a substandard overall product. Instead the focus is placed on fitting a reference in almost every line, tying the onscreen characters to their actors, other films within their filmography, and even ties to international cinema.
The technical crew work well to execute Ravichandran’s vision. Although it scales down the maximalism of his previous feature film, there is still a lot to rejoice in here. Ravichandran retains his cinematographer from his last two projects, Abinandhan Ramanujam, whose camerawork is often interesting. Major credit is due to the set design, costume, makeup and lighting teams, who have put in the most effort to elevate the film out of complete mediocrity.
The film also uses plenty of retro songs in its score, which remind the audience that composer GV Prakash Kumar’s contributions pale in comparison to the greatness of soundtracks of the past. The highlight of the soundtrack is easily a revamped version of Darkkey Nagaraja’s rock song ‘Arakana,’ – presented in the film as ‘AK - The Tiger’ – which is not an original composition. The song ‘God Bless U’ is an underwhelming hero entry track sung by Anirudh Ravichander, which only shines during Paal Dabba’s supporting rap verse.
The Ajith references in this film run in its DNA: the dialogue, cameos, lyrics, performances, set design, makeup, props, costumes, and more are all in celebration of Ajith’s career. For those looking for two hours and twenty minutes of pure Ajith Kumar worship, I would highly recommend ‘Good Bad Ugly.’ For those wanting something more, you may leave a little underwhelmed. For better Ajith Kumar films, I would recommend ‘Aasai,’ ‘Vaalee,’ ‘Amarkalam,’ ‘Dheena,’ ‘Kandukondain Kandukondain’ and ‘Billa.’
Krishna's rating: 2.5 stars
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Official trailer for film below.
