Retro (2025), misses the mark by a mile

I enjoy Karthik Subbaraj’s films and admire Suriya as an actor. So, naturally, I was curious about Retro (2025), a film that brings them together. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disappointment. Retro ends up feeling like a pale mashup of several period gangster films we’ve already seen. Mangoidiots gives it a Rotten rating.

The story is set in the 1960s, first in Thoothukudi and later in the Andaman Islands. A gangster’s wife adopts a young orphaned boy and raises him as her own. The boy, Paari, grows into a tough and capable man. He falls in love with his childhood friend Rukmini, played by Pooja Hegde. This love changes him, and he decides to leave the violent path. Naturally, this does not sit well with his gangster father. How the father and son deal with this rift forms the core of the story.

In parallel, for reasons known only to the director, there is a subplot set on a remote island in the Andamans, ruled by a cruel landlord and his son. This part introduces bizarre elements like (white) tourists paying to watch people being killed in a gladiator-style arena. It reminded me oddly of Squid Game, and I just couldn’t understand how this was passed off as acceptable.

If this plot sounds engaging, you might enjoy Retro. But for me, it didn’t work. The entire film felt like a stitched-together patchwork of Aayirathil Oruvan (1965), Leo (2023), and bits of Squid Game. I was hoping that the romantic portions between Suriya and Pooja Hegde—highlighted in the trailer—would at least be interesting. Sadly, they came across as clichéd. Pooja looked graceful in her understated costumes, but there was little on-screen chemistry between her and Suriya. Santhosh Narayanan’s background score lifts the energy where possible, but the songs felt like speed-breakers.

Whether it was Jigarthanda, Petta, DoubleX, or the socially charged Iraivi (2016), I’ve admired how Karthik Subbaraj brings something novel to the table—be it in visuals, characters, or staging. With Retro, I was waiting for that spark, but it never came. From start to end, nothing stood out as new or unexpected. That made the experience all the more disappointing.