If you give some more time to Arun Kumar Aravind's stylish yet hollow crime drama Under World after it has finished majority of its stitching of slow-mo sequences mainly involving Asif Ali's character after he's blurted out some punchy dialogues, it will start making sense to you. That the story revolving around a sum of INR 500 crore that has been stolen by a biggie, foxy former politician (Mukesh) and now a couple of goons are behind the stash which has somehow also undergone conversion to USD is unimaginative is obvious. Other than the terrible editing by Aravind himself (which is why the film is at least 45 minutes longer), Under World boasts of a poor storyline and an overall lukewarm attempt at creating a grisly crime ambience. Of course, the score by Neha Nair and Yakzan Pereira add to the haunting mood of the film (especially involving Mukesh and his monologues in front of his one- or two-person large audience) and the production setup makes it all feel glamorous. But when you look back and think about the film after it has ended, there's nothing to take away from it. Except for Mukesh's starling good yet wooden performance and Lal Jr.'s horrendous debut as an actor. One of the damp squibs of 2019. TN.
