Good Bad Ugly (2025): All Style, No Story

Good Bad Ugly (2025) is a run-of-the-mill gangster film. Director Adhik Ravichandran doesn’t seem interested in developing characters or narrating a coherent story. Instead, he stitches together a series of high-energy, but repetitive action sequences that lack any variation. For fans of Ajith Kumar—both young and old—the film appears to be a treat, going by the loud cheers inside the theatre. For me, the middle word in the title summed up the experience. Mangoidiots gives it a Raw.

If you ask me about the story, I would struggle to piece it together. The film opens with an animated sequence and a voiceover introducing the world’s most dreaded gangster, Red Dragon, also known as AK, who decides to surrender to the law. This change of heart is prompted by his wife (played by Trisha) warning him not to touch their newborn son unless he reforms. Eighteen years later, AK visits Spain to see his grown-up son, only to find him imprisoned on trumped-up charges. The rest of the film follows AK’s attempt to free his son and uncover who is behind the setup.

We are told little about AK, his past, or his wife. Instead, most of the runtime is filled with gangsters speaking in hyperbole about Red Dragon’s feared persona. Characters from Ajith’s earlier films are referenced repeatedly, and the film places him as a partner to global fictional gangsters like John Wick. Much of this is conveyed through animation rather than live-action scenes. Several songs in the film are remixes of old hits, and they begin to feel repetitive as well. By the end, it felt more like a documentary on Ajith Kumar’s filmography than a fresh film.

Trisha has barely a few minutes of screen time and utters hardly a dozen words. Arjun Das, playing the antagonist, does a commendable job. The film features many others in brief roles, including Prasanna, Jackie Shroff, Sunil, Redin Kingsley, and Simran. Priya Prakash Varrier appears in a dance number that is the only mildly refreshing moment in the otherwise monotonous film.

Overall, Good Bad Ugly is a full-fledged fan-service film for Ajith Kumar. Others can safely skip it.