The much-awaited film Retro, produced by Suriya and Jyothika and starring Suriya with Karthik Subbaraj at the director’s helm, finally released on 1st May 2025 with blue-sky hopes. The film generated a huge buzz with its teaser, trailer, and high-energy musical tracks by Santosh Narayanan. Fans widely expected Retro to be a super comeback for Suriya—sadly, what transpires is a dull box office debacle.
With a running time of more than two hours, Retro tries to balance several genres—romance, action, and crime—and becomes a messy jumble with a poor script and uninspiring emotional journeys. Although there are glimpses of excellence and a couple of impressive scenes in the first half, the movie gradually loses its steam, leading to a disappointing experience.
A Promising Premise That Goes Nowhere
Retro begins with a compelling setup. The narrative revolves around Paarivel Kannan (Suriya), Tilak’s (Joju George) adopted son, a notorious smuggler on a cryptic mission to find something called the Gold Fish. Paarivel, caught between love and legacy, falls in love with Rukmini (Pooja Hegde) and decides to leave his life of crime behind to live a peaceful life.
But fate isn’t kind. Paarivel ends up in jail due to an unexpected twist, and the plot then revolves around whether he can win back Rukmini’s love and confront his estranged father, who is hell-bent on obtaining the elusive Gold Fish.
On paper, the concept has every ingredient of a gripping drama loaded with emotion, suspense, and moral conflict. Sadly, none of these ever come to the screen meaningfully. The plot keeps changing directions—romance to crime thriller to action drama—without transitions, resulting in a disjointed and jerky cinematic experience.
Performances That Deserve a Better Script
Suriya pours his heart and soul into the role. His body transformation, subtle emotional nuances, and dedication to the character are visible on the screen throughout the movie. But his performance is restricted by the muddled and patchy characterization that does not give him much scope to tap his full potential. His emotional scenes end up flat because of an absence of a well-developed context.
Pooja Hegde, attempting to deviate from her typical glamorous roles, tries something new here. Unfortunately, the script does not enable her transformation, turning her into a beauty mainly for ornamental purposes. Her on-screen presence with Suriya is also short of that required spark for an effective romantic crux.
Joju George, an intense performer, is criminally underused. His romance with Suriya’s character could’ve been the heart of the movie, but is instead underwritten and at a distance. Jayaram, Nassar, Karunakaran, and Prakash Raj only go through the motions in their roles, offering very little to the story.
Technically Stylish, Narratively Chaotic
Offbeat storytelling specialist director Karthik Subbaraj, with his robust grip on visuals, appears to have veered away from his natural style in Retro. The opening half contains sequences that demonstrate his talent—particularly the stylized shots, flashback episodes, and the skillfully choreographed “Kannamma” song sequence montage. They lead one to hope that the film would eventually turn out to be an enduring experience.
But the second half is where it all falls apart. The narrative becomes fractured, the pace drops significantly, and most scenes are fillers instead of crucial plot drivers. Emotional confrontations are shallow, and the flow between significant story beats is forced and unnatural.
The climax, which must be emotionally and story-wise potent, becomes instead a confusing and near-comic disaster. Rather than thrilling or touching, the third act has people scratching their heads.
Music and Visuals: The Only Bright Spots
Santosh Narayanan’s music is perhaps the lone saving grace of Retro. The background score is tense and effective in the first half, while numbers like Kannamma and En Uyir Thozhi are enjoyable and aptly placed. His sound design also rescues scenes that are otherwise hollow in terms of narrative.
The cinematography of Shreyaas Krishna is well able to capture the retro look with the help of grainy filters, sepia tones, and bright lighting that go very well with the title. Art direction and costume design are also worthy of some thumbs up for creating the vintage feel without making it seem too gimmicky.
Yet, although the film is well-groomed visually, whatever lies beneath the look is still woefully inadequate, demonstrating once again that technical perfection cannot compensate for poor storytelling.
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Verdict: Retro is a Missed Opportunity
Essentially, Retro is a film that sets out to deliver much and gives little. It begins on a strong note with real promise and excitement, but the fundamental issues of the film—its disorganized screenplay, two-dimensional characters, and poorly focused direction—become evident all too soon. For all Suriya’s good work and a great soundtrack, the film cannot find an emotional or narrative connection.
For viewers who were praying that Retro would be Suriya’s comeback to greatness, the movie will be a huge disappointment. It’s far from the worst movie of the year, but it is an intensely aggravating experience, largely because it had absolutely everything working in its favor—until it didn’t.
Rating: 2.25/5
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