Jana Nayagan: Vijay’s propaganda film makes even Sura and Villu look like masterpieces
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After “Vinveli Nayagan” ( Thug Life ), here is yet another Nayagan who is equally bloviated but a tad less comical. Director H Vinoth’s Jana Nayagan embodies much of what’s wrong with the culture of superstardom. Everything becomes solely about one person, making all else around them insignificant. The makers’ tactics always appear the same: they place the superstar in every frame and get them to do their trademark/signature antics, so followers may overlook the palpable shoddiness throughout, not even realising that the star and the movie’s creators have made fools of them by delivering something not worth even half of what they paid for their tickets.
Adding to this, Billed as the swan song of star-turned-politician Vijay , who currently serves as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, the Jana Nayagan certification row, which delayed its rollout by seven months, is well-documented ; so, no recap needed.
Meanwhile, Don’t Miss | Jana Nayagan movie review: Vijay’s last movie unravels under pressure of being Vijay’s last movie
Notably, But a close look at the timeline of the movie’s development — starting from the initial stages when it was launched under the working title Thalapathy 69 — and the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’s (TVK) political journey exemplifies that the intention of Vijay and the movie’s makers was for the movie and the party to play a key role in the shaping of one another.
As per the latest buzz, While his announcement that Thalapathy 69 would be his last movie and that he was “ throwing it (his cinematic journey) away at the absolute height of my career” helped the TVK gather momentum, one cannot say that the star showed the same spirit towards the movie. Watching Jana Nayagan would prove that gifting the followers who made him who he is one last memorable ride was not even a consideration for him, as neither he nor the makers have even tried to create a decent watch.
In further updates, You might have thought that I resorted to rage-baiting with the headline, but in all honesty, I did feel that director SP Rajkumar’s Sura (2010) and Prabhu Deva’s Villu (2009) — which, in my opinion, are the worst Vijay films ever (though since he has done quite a few abominations, your choices might differ from mine) — no longer deserve so much hate.
On top of that, Sura and Villu aren’t just bad films; they are unapologetically bad. They don’t try to prove points, make elaborate statements, or pretend to be cinematic extravaganzas. They are simply brain-rot star vehicles. And also, let’s not forget that they came out in the late 2000s when Indian commercial cinema’s overall quality was at an all-time low.
But in 2026, when Indian cinema has improved significantly and we have such cutting-edge technological support at our fingertips, if all that these people could make is Jana Nayagan — where everything is a statement claiming that Vijay is better than every other person alive in this country, and artistic and aesthetic value are nil in the movie — then please, I would rather watch Sura and Villu again.
Source: The Indian Express