This is a movie I started and then rewound to rewatch bits a bunch.  And then realized that I didn’t really have to rewind that much, because it was just moving forward, without much discussion of what we saw in the past.

That’s what made it so different, that the plot just unrolled before us, with minimal circling back to the past.  And also, that’s what made it actually funny!  At least, to me.  All the humor was in images and cuts and situations.  Not so much in slow build set-ups for gags (which I personally find boring) and subtleties of language (which I can’t catch).

Instead, it was in stuff like an electrician getting arrested because he put the label for his shop on the illegal transistor he sold.  For advertising! (as he kept explaining).  See, that’s funny!  At least, to me.

The whole thing had kind of a light touch to it.  It wasn’t like a Priyadarshan movie, where everything is basically a tragedy, except we are laughing instead of crying.  No, it was actually light!  Sure, everyone gets arrested at the beginning, but then they get to make friends in jail!  It’s all fine!  And they get released promptly and legally (I was all set for it to start with them escaping from prison).  And then they could pick their lives back up again if they wanted, but instead they choose to plan and pull off a heist.  Just cause they want to.  Well, a little bit for revenge against those who have wronged them, but it’s not like they have to pay for a life-saving operation for a dying child or something like that.

(My goodness, Brothers was a depressing movie!  Although, it wasn’t a heist for a dying child in that one, it was risking their life in mixed martial arts matches)

Actually, there’s basically no family related storylines.  One of the characters has daughters, and was cheated by his son-in-law (or brother-in-law?  I wasn’t sure).  Oh, and our “hero” has the sad backstory about his dead pregnant wife (more on that in a moment).  But everyone else is just basically a thief!  No big backstory or familial stress, it’s just them.  Which is so relaxing!  Unlike your usual Indian film, where I always have this huge stress about all the poor people who are relying on our hero to pull off the heist and bring home money, in this case, who cares!  So they go back to jail again, so what?  It’s kind a nice place!  They’ll make more little friends, and then get out again in a few months.

(Indian jail is always fun and full of friendship!)

I was going to say the jail bits are the best part, but really it’s more like the first and second halves are entirely different movies.  So the jail bits are great for what they are, but they can’t really be compared with the second half, which is also great for what it is.

The one thing they have in common is the general framework.  The bigger frame, within which there are all these little frames in the first half, and then series of, I don’t know, linked boxes (I’ve lost control of this metaphor), in the second half.  And it’s the framework which is the greatest triumph of the film.

I guess I can talk about the first half without spoiling anything really, at least in terms of structure.  We start with two clumsy thieves digging a tunnel.  They’ve brought in an additional digger to help, and they are all proud of being smart enough to find someone who is mute and deaf so they don’t have to risk him talking to the cops.  They dig dig dig, and then they break through the floor, and the camera swings around to look through the hole at their surprised faces.

And then we are at a church!  And the priest is being woken up to come hear an emergency confession.  This is what I mean about the clever little cuts!  And funny situations, having this grumpy priest who doesn’t want to hear the confession, but then gets all caught up in the story.  Also, this is the big picture framework, that this entire film is being told to the priest.

But the little frames come in right away.  Our thief was arrested, and on the bus to jail, he met a bunch of other criminals.  And over the next few days/weeks, they all get to know each other and share their stories.  They range from the comic (owner of an electronics store who is arrested because of the store labels on the illegal cameras found in a hotel) to the tragic (the grande finale story of Prithviraj, who’s pregnant state employee wife was killed as a side effect of the corruption of her boss).

The one thing they all have in common is that those who were imprisoned for the crimes, are not the true villains of their story.  It’s the uncaring completely self-focused ones, those are the bad guys!  Really, now that I think about it, that’s all the “heroes” have in common.  That they seem to see and acknowledge the connections and responsibilities within a society, to the point that they make friends with each other and decide to work as a group, even while in jail.

I think that’s the point, that they are a group, a team, equals who function as one or don’t function at all.  Which is why we can root for them and be happy when they succeed and worry when they fail.  Even though they aren’t stealing because of a big important reason, even though they are thieves, even though they do all those things, we still want them to win, because they’re friends!

But that’s all in the first half.  I also want to deal with the second half, only that means I have to get all Spoiler-y now to deal with it.  So, SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

After the first half, which is just a series of little separate backstories culminating in Prithviraj’s super tragic one, our whole team is together and ready to get revenge on their enemies!  Who, coincidentally, all keep their money in the same place.  And, coincidentally, that place is hidden within a charity hospital where Nedumudi Vedu’s daughter works as a nurse!  What luck!

That is the bit where I started to think maybe this was all an elaborate con, but I think it isn’t?  All of these people just happened to end up in jail together and were all done wrong by the same people.  Or else, now that I think about it, it’s a bigger statement.  That when you work your way up the responsibility chain for the bad things in society, there are only a few people at the top of it, who control business, government, and crime.

On the other hand, how bad can it be if the “bad guys” got our heroes into jail, but only for like a year?  Or a few months?  Something small, anyway.  Because they all get out at the same time pretty soon after they come up with their plan.  There’s no sense of patient waiting with burning anger until they can finally be free, no bad aging make-up, nothing like that.

Once they get out, thank goodness, women enter the story!  Yay!  Someone I can relate to!  They are nice women, too.  The nurse, who is pretty snappy and pretty spunky.  And who doesn’t get regulated to just being a love interest, but becomes a full part of the gang, just like anyone else.

Okay, the other woman isn’t so great, a circus performer who is just there to do the fancy acrobatic stuff, and doesn’t seem to have much of a personality.  But her fancy acrobatic stuff is fancy!  So that’s nice.  And, more importantly, that’s the main feature of her character, that she has a special skill they need, just like the skill of the electrician or the safe cracker.  She isn’t just a pretty face.

And then heist heist heist.  Ending with them taking off in 7 separate vehicles, the bad guys stopping the wrong vehicle, and everyone coming back to the meeting place to discover that Prithviraj, the one who’s vehicle actually had the money, hasn’t shown up!

Structurally, I get why they did this.  So there could be the fake out, before money is mysteriously delivered to each of them a week later (once again, the Indian Post Office is the most honest place in the country!).  And then the twist at the end when we see where Prithviraj is now.

But, then all of the surprises and twists are over, and it kind of doesn’t make sense?  So, Prithviraj made up a whole sad story about his wife dying to gain sympathy from the others.  And then he managed to take off with all the money.  But then he returned it anyway?  Why?  Why not just show up and pretend one last time and share out the money in person?

And then on the other hand, what is the point of the tag at the end?  When Prithviraj is revealed in a formal business man’s outfit, with nice language skills, trying to sell a group of government officials (I think?) on solar boxes.  Is this a new con?  Because wouldn’t that make him evil?  To be ripping off the government with fake solar boxes?  Or maybe it isn’t the government, it’s some evil group, and that’s why it’s okay to rip them off.  Or maybe it isn’t a rip off?  I’m so confused!  It was a cool surprise ending in the moment, but it doesn’t make much sense when you think about it.