Test (Tamil)
Test–with its cardboard cut-out characters–opens two days before Arjun (Siddharth), a player on the Indian cricket team, may or may not be selected for an upcoming test match with Pakistan. From the get-go, the film tries to lean into the tension that usually prevails before an India-Pakistan match. Test quickly sets up high stakes for all its characters. Once a star player, Arjun’s career now hangs by a thread. His childhood friend and cricket fanatic Kumudha (Nayanthara) has one last chance to try pregnancy through IVF before it’s no longer medically advisable. Her husband Saravanan (Madhavan), a generically written scientist, is in trouble with loan sharks. And since it’s a cricket movie, there are betting syndicates and various cops chasing after them.
All of this comes through to a viewer as flatly as reading this paragraph.
Why should anybody care about these characters and their troubles? Director S Sashikanth doesn’t indicate. The script, instead, flatlines its way to the end, meeting up with every conceivable cliche en route.
Siddharth’s attempt as a cold and ambitious sportsman is ludicrous, if not shocking, to see such a wooden performance from an actor of his calibre. There’s a moment early in the film when Arjun is told “not to react emotionally”. What emotions he is displaying at the moment is anyone’s guess.
We are informed of Kumudha’s need to become a mother from her doting over Arjun’s son who studies in the school she teaches. She is pulled up by the school principal because she is “too affectionate” with the students. All of this is to indicate her desire for motherhood. Since this is Tamil cinema, motherhood can be accomplished only through giving birth. Adoption, for example, seems to be unthinkable.
The film plods on with many lectures on dreams. A cricketer’s dream. The dream of motherhood (note that a woman can only dream of motherhood). Saravannan’s dream of an engine that runs on clean energy. It throws punch dialogues like “Latchatha paakadha, latchiyatha paaru” (Don’t look at how many lakhs a thing costs; look at the ambition behind it).
When it doesn’t throw punch dialogues, Test tries to sound cerebral by quoting Beat Generation writers like Jack Kerouac. But simply quoting a brilliant author doesn’t mean their genius rubs off on you.
What marginally saves the film is Saravanan’s descent into complete chaos, thanks to Madhavan’s acting. Something of his instability looks out at you through his eyes from the moment we are introduced to Saravanan. Later, when he goes to terrible lengths to try and make his dream project come true, Madhavan’s performance is unsettling. He seems to be the only actor on screen who wants to truly bring his character to life rather than simply mouth off the dialogues assigned to him.
Nayanthra’s performance, on the other hand, is erratic. There are fleeting moments when she shines, but for the most part of the film, her acting veers closer to a caricature of her character.
The film also wastes actors like Meera Jasmine and Kali Venkat, making them almost inconsequential to the story.
Test comes off as a cautionary tale about ambition and to what depths people may be willing to go to accomplish it. But ultimately, it’s that very dissoluteness that the film celebrates as heroism.
With a run time of 2 hours and 26 minutes, Test is exactly 2 hours 26 minutes too long. The film manages to be an endurance test for the viewer, like it is for the players on the field during a test match. If you’re willing to suffer through this, you’ll likely find yourself questioning what the concept of heroism means to male directors.
Mercifully, there are almost no musical interludes, as is customary for Tamil cinema, to lengthen the run time further. Yogi B’s opening song ‘Arena’–meant to give Arjun a heroic sheen— unintentionally serves to emphasise what an underwhelming performance Siddharth delivers.
Released straight to Netflix, Test will bore you to tears with its frantic attempts to move you to tears, when all its working with are three people who make ridiculous choices under even more ridiculously concocted circumstances.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.