‘DC’ movie review: Anirudh Ravichander goes berserk in Arun Matheswaran’s slick but shallow bloodfest

A crafty paean to cinematic violence, ‘DC,’ starring Lokesh Kanagaraj and Wamiqa Gabbi, is slick with some superbly staged action set pieces, but its emotional undercurrents rarely live up to Anirudh’s spectacular scores

Published - August 07, 2026 05:48 pm IST

Lokesh Kanagaraj and Wamiqa Gabbi in a still from ‘DC’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

After finding a method to madness in his impressive debut, Rocky, filmmaker Arun Matheswaran has been struggling to find fresher ways to explore human depravity and celebrate cinematic violence. After Rocky, every successive film has felt less grounded and more emotionally contrived, as if even the slightest scope for lyricism in writing exists only to propel the oncoming action set piece. This is once again the case with his latest film, DC, whose title denotes the two central characters, Devadas (played by filmmaker Lokesh Kanagaraj in his debut lead role) and Chandra (Wamiqa Gabbi).

Arun’s leading men have come across as emotionally stunted, and this is the case with Lokesh’s Devadas as well. He has the same thirst for violence, but the emotional core feels eroded. Chandra, however, refrains from becoming Saani Kaayidham’s Ponni, who appeared manufactured for revenge and cinematic violence. Chandra here, thankfully, is the soul of the story. Her feminine rage often promises to satisfyingly thwart the bloated egos of the men who populate her world, but Arun gives us enough to show us the girl child who has been imprisoned for life.

On one hand, Das is a gangster who is aware of how big his world is, but is fed up with the disparity and injustice in human society. Chandra, meanwhile, is a sex worker who was sold off to pimps at the age of six and has remained in her room for over 18 years. If Das is a beast who grew up in war and mayhem, Chandra is a caged spirit brutalised all day — Arun keeps asserting this primal difference to give us the satisfaction of when they eventually meet and change each other’s lives.

But neither Das nor Chandra are saints; these are morally grey characters who don’t hesitate to kill to survive. And in DC, their daggers and guns taste more blood than in any recent Tamil film. In fact, much of the story of DC feels spring-loaded for this mad, mad mayhem. On paper, the story all feels time-worn; but in effect, it works ... almost. After hitting a consignment of the police department’s ammunition in Gobichettipalayam and exacting revenge upon a cop, Das and other henchmen in his team — all working under cop-turned-gangster Arasu (Thalaivasal Vijay) — take refuge in a lodge in Chennai to escape from Inspector Bhojraj (Krish Dayal) and his team of cops. There, Das meets a bar singer, Parvathy (Sanjana Krishnamoorthy), but this Ilaiyaraaja-assisted meet-cute ends tragically. Simultaneously, we begin to see the story of a sex worker called Chandra.

Wamiqa Gabbi and Lokesh Kanagaraj in a still from ‘DC’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

This is essentially Arun attempting to put a twist on the classic ‘Devadas’ story by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay: what if Devadas loses Parvathy before they can even fall in love or ruminate on the possibility? And what if Devadas was a brash gangster with a mean streak? What if Parvathy wasn’t in his fate, but another woman, who also comes from waging a long war herself? And what if this Devadas ends up playing a Robin Hood-like figure?

Interestingly, Arun’s scheme works for much of the first half. The setting offers enough scope for strong character arcs, but what really captivates your attention are the superb action scenes. In fact, every set piece in DC is a lesson on action choreography. Even a shootout at a wedding hall thrills you endlessly. The standout action scenes in the film follow the mini-revenge arcs that Devadas and Chandra traverse during their cat-and-mouse with the cops. After a point, though, the violence-heavy action feels repetitive and without proper emotional propulsion. Bullets shower as rain and cops die like flies, and every time Das and Co face trouble, you know they will escape, only to somehow cross paths with the cops again and open fire — it’s as if it were all a game of police dress-up with a toy set.

The primary issue plaguing the film, as stated above, is the weak emotional core. At some point, Das asks Chandra what she knows about him, and she tells him everything she knows — about how he lost his mother, his feelings about his estranged father, about the deaths of Parvathy and his friend Sebastian, and that he is afraid of losing her. In truth, this is everything that defines Das’ character. Oh, wait, he also smokes like a chimney when he is agitated, and calls it quits when he isn’t.