Bongu, which stars Natarajan Subramaniam (or ‘Rare Piece’ Natty as he is credited) in the lead role, is a highly mangled Tamil version of Nicolas Cage’s Gone in 60 seconds minus the whizzing cars but replete with useless item numbers, a good-for-nothing sidekick and fight sequences that belongs in a 90s Vijay and Ajith films.
The success of almost every heist film – from Ocean’s Eleven to Inception to Natty’s very own Sathuranga Vettai - lies in its ability to show not only why a bunch of rag-tag criminals are going to rob the villain, but properly set up how these presumably skilled thieves prepare, set up the villain and ultimately rob him.
- Cast: Natarajan Subramaniam, Ruhi Singh, Sharath Lohitashwa, Atul Kulkarni
- Director: Taj
- Storyline: Three ‘experts’ turn to stealing cars after being made scapegoats in a car-theft case
This is perhaps why Natty’s earlier film, Sathuranga Vettai , worked at the box-office – it explained how con-men choose their victims, exploit their ignorance and execute the job. The problem with Bongu is that the filmmaker overlooks all these details, which essentially makes heist films interesting to watch.
So, when three former car ‘experts’ drive away with ten of his expensive cars – which presumably have sophisticated security systems – during his raunchy birthday party, we, as an audience are just expected to swallow it. The film shows images such as ‘hacking in progress’ and ‘door unlocked’ but is simply not interested in going into the details of how the thieves did it. The writing for most part is pedestrian and the actors rarely light up a scene. Bongu is barely watchable.
