‘Test’ movie review: Great character writing turns the match around for this predictable screenplay-OxBig News Network

Siddharth as Arjun, Lirish Rahav as Aditya, Meera Jasmine as Padma, Nayanthara as Kumudha, R. Madhavan as Saravanan in ‘Test’
| Photo Credit: M.S. Anandan / Netflix

As is apparent from the title and promotional material, producer-turned-director S Sashikanth’s Netflix sports thriller Test follows characters through their most turbulent phase in a ‘test’ that would challenge their mettle and bring out their truest selves to the fore. There are many intricately connected subplots in this film, with a deciding cricketing match of a test series between India and Pakistan becoming the ticking time bomb of the story.

MIT graduate and a canteen owner, Saravanan a.k.a Sara (R Madhavan at his best), has been struggling for years to get his groundbreaking hydro-fuel project approved by the Central government, a hopeless endeavour his wife Kumudha (Nayanthara; refreshingly self-dubbed) believes he had let go of. Sara has borrowed ₹50 lakhs from a loan shark, hoping to repay when the approval goes through, the deadline of which falls on the fifth day of the test match.

Recovering from a terrible miscarriage a year ago, Kumudha is sinking within, with her maternal instincts even making appearances in her job as a school teacher. She is constantly on edge, and with Sara’s troubles on the horizon, their marriage is on the brink of falling apart. Kumudha’s fertility treatment appointment, too, is coincidentally scheduled on the final day of this match; it’s a pricey treatment, but this is her only chance to become a mother.

Kumudha particularly has a soft spot for a kid named Aditya, the son of Arjun Venkatraman (Siddharth), Kumudha’s schoolmate and India’s greatest batsman. Arjun, the poster boy of what it means to breathe cricket, is bracing through his career’s most turbulent phase; his poor form has not yielded runs, and he is facing immense pressure from his peers to retire. Clouded with self-doubt and oscillating with thoughts of this Chennai test potentially becoming his swansong match, homeboy Arjun needs to prove himself and lead India to victory. His wife Padma (Meera Jasmine) witnesses her husband’s unshakable grit beginning to crack, even affecting their family life. Arjun’s poor form has even led to Aditya being bullied by his classmates. The child also realises that the test might be his last chance to see his father’s batting in person.

Meanwhile, a crooked jewellery tycoon, Dharmesh (Vinay Varma), has just landed the deal of his life: the head of a notorious fixing syndicate has offered him ₹100 crores to fix the test match. The police, on the other hand, are pressured to arrest the kingpin to prevent thousands of crores from being funnelled through fixing. The trigger that alights this story is this: the loan shark (Aadukalam Murugadoss) who is after Sara has borrowed the money from Dharmesh.

So, in short, we have a cricket fixer whose henchman has lent money to a struggling family man whose wife is connected to the Virat Kohli of this world. This information flow is laid down pretty early in Test, so no brownie points to catch the drift of it all. However, director Sashikanth’s thriller isn’t interested in impressing you with its plot; even the biggest of turns the narrative takes, it does so from cyclic cause-and-effects between the lead characters.

Character writing, accentuated by excellent performances, forms the pillar of Test. Throughout the promotions of Test, Sashikanth stressed that the film was inspired by Kohli’s decision to play the 2006 Ranji Trophy match mere hours after his father’s death. Fascinatingly, Sashikanth seems to have laid down this quality as the foundation of most of the characters in this world. They chase after their goals with an unyielding, singularly focused doggedness that questions our very beliefs of what is right and wrong and how it all changes with perspective.

For instance, you wouldn’t assume a cricketing mind like Arjun to be so rude to his son for playing a poor shot in a school match, but you realise later on that this communicates how Arjun sees his own life. It even draws a thread as to why Sara has been hesitant to have a child. Be it how we are repeatedly hinted at the lens through which Sara sees Arjun’s success or all that rests at the bedrock of Kumudha’s resentment towards Sara, there’s a lot of psychological, even social, subtext that makes Test a rather interesting character study. The transitions these characters undergo are gradual but significant and, sometimes, shocking.

Despite all this, the proceedings themselves are quite predictable and sometimes too convenient, but what keeps you immersed are a few directorial calls that work wonders. Take, for instance, how scenes sometimes gently slip into the other, like how a news relay about the test match in the background cuts across scenes and adds to the tense atmosphere. Or how a background score drips into the next scene with Arjun playing it on the earphones. Instead of doing the routine montage to tell the story of how Arjun rose to where he is, Sashikanth tells the cricketers’ story through an animated slideshow in the opening credits.

Roping in singer Shakthishree Gopalan to score the music is yet another distinct creative choice that does the film wonders; like an intimate hum that breezes through in a scene in Arjun and Padma’s bedroom, Shakthishree’s music aptly tells the emotional landscape of the characters.

Meera Jasmine as Padma, Siddharth as Arjun in ‘Test’
| Photo Credit:
M.S. Anandan / Netflix

After Blue Star and Lubber Pandhu, we have yet another film that competently captures cricket on screen. Sashikanth has dared to recreate the feeling of an international test match, shot as professionally as they are, and with fresh faces; the result is surprisingly outstanding, which is why you might remember a killer inswinger from a Pakistani bowler hours after watching Test.

What plays spoilsport to such a smooth-sailing film is its cop-out final act, where intricate knots are conveniently and hurriedly dealt with. Is it that easy for any of these characters to reach the big shots of this world? Isn’t there a system in place to handle the issues Arjun deals with? Also, how amateur is it to say that a notorious fixing syndicate operates through regular phone calls? The cops in this film are as underutilised as the characters played by Kaali Venkat and Murugadoss; the film misses a trick by using the latter to keep Dharmesh and Sara apart, which could have added some mystery to how the events might pan out. Though the choice to not spoonfeed the fate of some characters in the epilogue works, the final note with which it ends doesn’t quite middle the ball.

Sashikanth’s directorial debut is a competent showcase of his abilities as a director. At a time when films largely rely on curveballs and subversions to keep the audiences gripped, Test refuses to become a T20 and prioritises character over plot.

Test is currently streaming on Netflix