At least it moves, and Mukesh and Dogra exhibit a combustible chemistry. The one in London is a little better, given the period styling (it is set in 1975 the one in Mumbai takes place in 1999, and the one in Goa in 2010) and the action-splattered plotting. The episode set in Mumbai, especially, never catches fire despite a stirring David-versus-Goliath premise (yes, another David), it is the least convincing. Other than the existential dilemma that preys on the protagonists, thereвЂ™s little that connects the three stories, and we begin to feel if the film has at least one David too many. ItвЂ™s when the canvas broadens and we are asked to care about things that matter that the film falters.

Like characters in a short story, the characters here are brought alive through small, vivid brush strokes. I especially enjoyed the reveal about Frenny towards the end, and in London, Iqbal Ghani, who gently rebukes NoorвЂ™s (an excellent Monica Dogra) mother for wanting to marry her off against her wishes, has no qualms, later, about hitching Noor to his useless son (Neil Bhoopalam) in order to uphold family honour. Some small character flourishes too are done very well. A more mature filmmaker may have used this to make a bigger point, and here itвЂ™s just a moment of cool вЂ“ but what a moment it is. (Or you could say he finds the extraordinary in the ordinary.) When we stumble on Frenny and David on opposite sides of the iron bars of a jail cell, the angle of the shot makes it unclear whoвЂ™s in, whoвЂ™s out. Nambiar shoots the most ordinary things in most extraordinary ways.

Scene after scene is so thrillingly shot and staged that the film could have worked without sound.

Elsewhere, we may complain that the raw power of these three stories is diluted by the seductive music-video approach, but in David, the style is part of the substance. Given its focus on three men dealing with their inner devils, this movie too could have been named Shaitan, and here too Nambiar comes off more super-cool technician than storyteller. Or, to put it differently, will he be able to prove wrong the filmвЂ™s thesis: Galat kabhi sahi nahin ho sakta? The other two Davids find themselves in similar soups вЂ“ the one in London (Neil Nitin Mukesh, landing, after ages, a role that plays to his strengths) may have to assassinate a father figure named Iqbal Ghani (Akarsh Khurana), and the one in Mumbai (Vinay Virmani), a dreadlocked dude, is looking to avenge the insult to his father (Nasser) by an opportunistic, spittle-spraying politician (Rohini Hattangadi). Will David find it in himself to screw his friend over and make a move on Roma? What he doesnвЂ™t have is a story, and this aimlessness makes these portions, set in Goa, the filmвЂ™s most delightful. His story is set in Goa, and he has for company the friendвЂ™s fiancГ©e Roma (Isha Sharvani, in only the second movie that makes good use of her, after Luck by Chance), his conscience-keeper and massage-parlour owner Frenny (Tabu), a mother (Rubi Chakravarti) who wants him remarried pronto, and a long-deceased father (Saurabh Shukla) who just canвЂ™t seem to stay dead. I donвЂ™t think IвЂ™ve seen Vikram have so much fun. And she even speaks with a Tamilian accent. What may have won Vikram over completely is the sock in the jaw he gets to plant on a harridan, which feels like gloriously pent-up revenge for years of having to worship womanhood, hewing to Tamil cinemaвЂ™s notions of thaaikulam. And to top it all, you fall in love with your best friendвЂ™s fiancГ©e.вЂќ And where else will you get to play an amiable loser whose wife has run away? Tamil cinema will skewer a hero whoвЂ™s been emasculated thus. In fact, youвЂ™re pretty much smashed in every scene. You get to stick a funnel in your mouth and drain bottles of whiskey and soda. вЂњWell, here you get to do all the wrong things, which youвЂ™ll never get away with in a solo-hero movie. вЂњRemember all those times, as a hero, you were straightjacketed into doing the right thing?вЂќ Nambiar might have said. Just how might Bejoy Nambiar, the director of the tripartite feature David, have convinced a huge star like Vikram to take on what is essentially a supporting actorвЂ™s part? (Even if Vikram is the star of his segment in this film, which tells the interleaved stories of three different men named David, in three different places.) Well, hereвЂ™s a theory.

David tamil movie review