enemy tamil movie review

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Enemy Movie Review : Vishal and Arya star in a watchable thriller that is not boring

• Times Of India

Enemy - Official Hindi Teaser

Enemy - Official Tamil Teaser

​Enemy - Official Tamil Trailer

Users' Reviews

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive . Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.

Navaneethakrishnan K 1038 days ago

Very nice movie and fantastic experience while watching this movie we are already know many lines but when we saw this type of movie again and again we would know which is good or bad so many ingredients mixed in this movie.

Sylent Screamer 1046 days ago

one time watch movie, how come directors & producers make fool of public by saying Singapore and shot most of the movie in Dubai , atleast the director should have made sure not to capture Dubai landmarks .. over the top action scenes like always in Vishal movies ..story was interesting

Natarajan 1053 days ago

In the recent times, Vishal's movies are very technical and very interesting. I enjoyed the movie after a very long time. Like "Irumbu Therai" vishal has given an another interesting movie. Every scene has a reason behind it and you will enjoy the movie for the full duration.

Meyyappan Ramanath 1064 days ago

R Sridhar 1071 days ago

Below average movie .. Over hype given ...

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'Enemy 'movie review: A no-frills action thriller that strikes the right emotional chords

Enemy is not only a film with lots of weaponry, but also one that takes a different type of gun—the Chekhov’s gun—quite seriously. There’s quite a bit of evident foreshadowing as well. A dialogue like, “Naan un rani-a thookiten parthiya?” is followed by a shot of a girl close to one of the leads getting kidnapped. A shot that lingers on a digital board, is later followed by the villain hacking into it.

Does all the familiarising get us excited throughout the film? The results are varied. You go ‘wow’, but you also go ‘meh’. Where the film excels in though, is with the emotions. Though we are puzzled about how the leads, Chozhan (Vishal) and Rajiv (Arya), orchestrate missions and evade the law enforcement— like every other action film—it is the ‘why’ that is of interest.

Both men in the film are aware that they can’t inflict pain on each other physically, and so, they aim for each other’s hearts. Though this isn’t an entirely novel idea on the silver screen, the way Anand Shankar builds everything on top of a solid backstory, involving Prakash Raj and the two kids, makes for interesting cinema. Some may be slightly confused by terms like heat-radiating paints, photographic memory and remote-controlled pacemakers, but if you enjoy these gadgets and the novelty, you are guaranteed a fun ride in this film that is full of such concepts.

Though the film doesn’t quite outwit the audience with reveals, it keeps trying. Excluding the overlong video call episode of Arya, the film steadily throws you something new to be invested in. While logic can take a backseat in such action affairs, it does get disconcerting when some basic questions don’t seem to get answered. “Why didn’t the leads choose to settle their score by combat when they met for the first time as adults?” “How did one of the leads walk away scot-free, after killing a foreign minister?” “How did Mamta’s Anisha guard her identity for decades, while having an obvious surname?” For these reasons and more, the film isn’t Vishal’s career-best, but the actor is very much back to form, after some mellow outings recently.

The dancing reminds you of his Chellamae days, and he looks the part as the alpha male, excelling in action sequences and looking at home with the performance as well. I found it a tad strange that the character seemed to, for some reason, show high levels of concern for Non-Resident Tamils. It is a part of the narrative, sure, but the treatment feels like an advertorial aimed to project the actor as a saviour. Arya as an actor has the gift of a disarming smile, it’s one that can conceal kind intentions or black malice. It’s hard to truly predict what’s underneath until he chooses to reveal it.

And this comes in extremely handy for his character, Rajiv, i n Enemy . Though Vishal holds an upper hand in action, Arya charms with his style. His ‘I have seen everything’ attitude in the film explains what Rajiv could have potentially gone on to become such a cold person. In many action-thrillers, the customary love track and songs come through as speed breakers, but even these elements are quite enjoyable, in the context of this film being a festival release.

The sequences are written not to dilute the essence of the main plot. Enemy is a simple, yet refreshing action thriller, that is self-aware of its potential and refrains from biting more than it can chew. Even the social message towards the end is subtle. Sometimes, it’s better not to aspire for the skies, and pick a level that’s reachable. It’s why Enemy feels like such an efficient film.

Director: Anand Shankar Cast: Vishal, Arya, Mirnalini Ravi, Mamta Mohandas

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Enemy Review - A predictable tiff taking place in a comfort zone.

Published date : 04/nov/2021.

Enemy Tamil Movie Review - A predictable tiff taking place in a comfort zone.

Director Anand Sankar’s Enemy starring Vishal and Arya in the lead, as expected is a game of cat & mouse played conveniently in a comfort zone. 

Vishal as Cholan plays the “good” while Arya as Rajiv takes the ”evil” spot. This good vs evil action thriller is extremely predictable. The story is about two high school boys’ rivalry and their unexpected meet after 25 years. How do Cholan & Rajiv attend to this unfinished business after 25 years forms the crux of the story.

However, one wishes that the incidents that lead to the predicted is engaging but loose ends on the writer’s desk cause the ultimate threat to the film’s overall experience.

The major part of the film is set in Singapore but it almost feels like it is set in a fantasy city that seems to revolve around only the characters the writer decided to feature. This restricted scope makes you question the various loopholes the story casually offers every now & then. The film lacks intelligence in writing and eventually takes the viewers’ intelligence for granted    

Vishal & Arya shoulder the offered opportunity quite well.  Mrinalini Ravi as the heroine doesn't seem to offer much to the story as her job has been restricted to the moves & tunes. Mamtha Mohandas, Prakash Raj, Thambhi Ramiah, and Karunas deliver a functional performance.

Technically Enemy is sleek and packaged aesthetically. However the issues aforementioned overshadow the well-executed technical part. Thaman’s work on the songs sounds a lot like how own work from the past.

Special mention to the junior artist who set the mood for the film in the initial few minutes. Earnest performances from the two boys offer a decent prelude to the film.

Overall, Enemy is like a friend who turns into an Enemy because he/she pretends to share everything with you but holds back numerous details which make you realize that he/she took your intelligence & trust for granted.

Bottomline: 

Despite the issues with the writing Enemy is a watchable affair.

Rating: 2.5/5

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Enemy Movie Review: A no-frills action thriller that strikes the right emotional chords

Rating: ( 3 / 5).

Enemy is not only a film with lots of weaponry, but also one that takes a different type of gun—the Chekhov's gun—quite seriously. There’s quite a bit of evident foreshadowing as well. A dialogue like, "Naan un rani-a thookiten parthiya?" is followed by a shot of a girl close to one of the leads getting kidnapped. A shot that lingers on a digital board, is later followed by the villain hacking into it. Does all the familiarising get us excited throughout the film? The results are varied. You go ‘wow’, but you also go ‘meh’.

Cast: Vishal, Arya, Mirnalini Ravi, Mamta Mohandas

Director: Anand Shankar

Where the film excels in though, is with the emotions. Though we are puzzled about how the leads, Chozhan (Vishal) and Rajiv (Arya), orchestrate missions and evade the law enforcement—like every other action film—it is the 'why' that is of interest. Both men in the film are aware that they can't inflict pain on each other physically, and so, they aim for each other's hearts. Though this isn't an entirely novel idea on the silver screen, the way Anand Shankar builds everything on top of a solid backstory, involving Prakash Raj and the two kids, makes for interesting cinema.  

Some may be slightly confused by terms like heat-radiating paints, photographic memory and remote-controlled pacemakers, but if you enjoy these gadgets and the novelty, you are guaranteed a fun ride in this film that is full of such concepts. Though the film doesn't quite outwit the audience with reveals, it keeps trying. Excluding the overlong video call episode of Arya, the film steadily throws you something new to be invested in.

While logic can take a backseat in such action affairs, it does get disconcerting when some basic questions don’t seem to get answered. "Why didn't the leads choose to settle their score by combat when they met for the first time as adults?" "How did one of the leads walk away scot-free, after killing a foreign minister?" "How did Mamta's Anisha guard her identity for decades, while having an obvious surname?"

For these reasons and more, the film isn't Vishal's career-best, but the actor is very much back to form, after some mellow outings recently. The dancing reminds you of his Chellame days, and he looks the part as the alpha male, excelling in action sequences and looking at home with the performance as well. I found it a tad strange that the character seemed to, for some reason, show high levels of concern for Non-Resident Tamils. It is a part of the narrative, sure, but the treatment feels like an advertorial aimed to project the actor as a saviour.

Arya as an actor has the gift of a disarming smile, it’s one that can conceal kind intentions or black malice. It’s hard to truly predict what's underneath until he chooses to reveal it. And this comes in extremely handy for his character, Rajiv, in Enemy . Though Vishal holds an upper hand in action, Arya charms with his style. His 'I have seen everything' attitude in the film explains what Rajiv could have potentially gone on to become such a cold person.

In many action-thrillers, the customary love track and songs come through as speed breakers, but even these elements are quite enjoyable, in the context of this film being a festival release. The sequences are written not to dilute the essence of the main plot.

Enemy is a simple, yet refreshing action thriller, that is self-aware of its potential and refrains from biting more than it can chew. Even the social message towards the end is subtle. Sometimes, it’s better not to aspire for the skies, and pick a level that’s reachable. It’s why Enemy feels like such an efficient film.

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As Formula Outings Go, Enemy Is A Pretty Decent Thriller, But Also Overlong

Director: Anand Shankar Cast: Vishal, Arya, Thambi Ramaiah, Prakash Raj, Mamta Mohandas, Mrinalini Ravi, Karunakaran Language: Tamil

Enemy , directed by Anand Shankar , stars Vishal and Arya battling it out as sworn enemies. Of all the genres, a thriller is most difficult to pull off in mainstream Tamil cinema. Traditionally, you are expected to have a romance track, songs, comedy track, so on and so forth. All this comes in the way of the nail-bitingness of a thriller. 

When Anand Shankar debuted with Arima Nambi , I was pleasantly surprised. There was no flashy cutting or mood killing romance. The atmosphere was tense and had a real mood there. I don't know how that movie did in the box office but since then, Anand Shankar has become more mainstream with films like Iru Mugan and NOTA which were underwhelming compared to Arima Nambi . 

The big relief about Enemy is that it is a return to form for this filmmaker. Yes, the film is too long and there is a mood-killing romance but it is not allowed to go on for too long. The slick Anand Shankar sensibility that we saw in Arima Nambi is back. I don't want to make it sound like a revolutionary movie. It is a pretty formulaic, Hollywood-y outing but even that, when done well, has its own kind of pleasures. This is that kind of a movie. When this is done with nice sensibilities, it also feels like Tamil cinema can absorb these aspects while still retaining its soul. 

I won't give away too much of the story because a lot of the film happens with you trying not to out-guess it. But, take for instance, this one romance track where the details are revealed slowly and they turn out to be connected to childhood events which we see at the beginning of the film. I really like that. Despite some really flabby dialogue, and there's a lot of talking, the basic writing of the film is pretty solid. There are several concepts like photographic memory, seafood allergy, a line when two people are playing chess where one guy says, "Yen rani ya nee thodave mudiyaadu" (You cannot touch my queen) and there is the entirely accidental way in which Arya and Vishal's characters meet in childhood. All of these come back at least once in the screenplay. They're not just cool things or events that are being thrown about but they actually play a function in the overall story and structure. 

Refreshingly, as Arya and Vishal battle each other, there is serious collateral damage. The hero may save the day but he also loses a lot. It's not just physical fighting and there is brain work and strategic thinking involved, at least compared to normal masala or mass movies that we usually get. 

Despite all this, why don't we get that nail-biting feeling like in the Hollywood films? One reason is the length which is two hours and forty minutes! It is simply too long for this kind of a movie. Another reason is the songs, especially one really idiotically placed song right at the time when there is a murder being attempted. I wish the time devoted to these songs was instead used to flesh out Vishal's actions better. For example, how he locates the fact that there is a bounty hunter. 

Then again, as I said in the beginning, thrillers are very difficult to pull off in Tamil cinema. Especially, the kind of thrillers that retain a sense of something continuous, interesting and different happening, even within the predictable framework. In that sense, Enemy delivers. It is stylishly shot and the action scenes are fairly different from what we usually see. It's not just about one guy punching another guy who then lands three feet away. Some of the stunts are pretty preposterous with a level of fun which almost makes you say, "oh my god, seriously?" 

Vishal and Arya are perfectly cast in the sense that they are needed more for their physicality than for their acting abilities. Except for one really embarrassing scene at the end, both of them aren't required to act at all. That suits this movie just fine. At the end, you do come away with a "that wasn't a bad at all" feeling.

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It's the story of two childhood friends and their escalating competitive nature. To what extent are they ready to go? It's the story of two childhood friends and their escalating competitive nature. To what extent are they ready to go? It's the story of two childhood friends and their escalating competitive nature. To what extent are they ready to go?

• Anand Shankar
• Shan Karuppusamy
• Mirnalini Ravi
• 83 User reviews
• 2 Critic reviews
• 1 nomination

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• Trivia This is Vishal and Arya's second movie together after Avan Ivan (2011).
• Alternate versions The UK release was cut, the distributor made cuts to remove moments of strong bloody violence and injury detail in order to obtain a 12A classification. An uncut 15 classification was available.

User reviews 83

A great plot but not well written.

• Nov 5, 2021
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• Runtime 2 hours 39 minutes

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Home » Review » Enemy movie review: This action thriller, starring Vishal and Arya, is a lost opportunity despite some entertaining moments »

Enemy movie review: This action thriller, starring Vishal and Arya, is a lost opportunity despite some entertaining moments

The ideas are good on paper, but the execution falters after a point, making it only a partially entertaining fare

Arya and Vishal in Enemy 

• Thinkal Menon

Last Updated: 06.25 PM, Dec 31, 2021

Story: Two brilliant school boys, who aspire to become cops, become estranged after a murder happens at one of their homes. When they meet after 25 years in another country, they realize that their priorities, ambitions and lifestyles are different. Little did they know that the two, who were once close to each other, would turn out to be dreaded enemies.   

Review: Anand Shankar's Enemy has garnered good expectations ever since the project was announced, thanks to Vishal and Arya teaming up as the protagonist and antagonist respectively in it. The movie had hit the headlines a few times during the shooting, especially when Vishal was said to have pulled off a dare-devil stunt sequence in Dubai. 

The news of Arya playing a ruthless villain and the face-off between him and Vishal were claimed by the makers as the highlights of the movie before its release. Moreover, its been a while since a hardcore action flick has released in Tamil. Has the film met the expectations?  

The story of Enemy begins in Ooty. Two school friends Chozhan (Vishal) and Rajiv (Arya) are neighbours. The former's father Ramalingam (Thambi Ramaiah), a middle-class man, is worried about his son's future and often instructs him not to take unnecessary risks in life. 

However, the latter's father Paari (Prakash Raj), a retired cop, wants his son to be a brilliant police officer and starts training him at a small age. As time passes by, Chozhan, too, joins Rajiv and learns a lot of things from Paari. A few months into training, Paari understands that Chozhan is smarter and intelligent than his son Rajiv. However, a murder at Rajiv's home leaves him and Chozhan separated.

Around 25 years later, we are told that Chozhan, who has settled in Singapore with his father Ramalingam, is running a provision store. He also lends a helping hand to people who belong to the Tamil community there. In an unexpected circumstance, he meets his old friend Rajiv. But they soon realize that they are no more the friends they used to be. 

While Chozhan uses his skills for the welfare of the public, Rajiv, who is now a dreaded criminal, is planning an attack on Minister for Foreign Affairs. Upon knowing his old friend's dangerous plans, Chozhan tries to stop him and the network which controls him. 

The movie, which begins on a promising note, has all the ingredients required for a high-octane action thriller. The characters of Vishal and Arya as school going kids are elevated slowly, but steadily in the initial scenes of the film. Prakash Raj's presence is a big advantage which helps in convincing the viewers about the proceedings on screen.

However, the story starts falling off when the whole set up is shifted to Singapore. Vishal comes across as a typical hero and reminds us of things which he has played in many films of his. He dances, fights and is a do-gooder who goes to any extent to help people around him. 

The female lead essayed by Mirnalini Ravi slows down the screenplay and adds no value to the script. Among the three okayish songs, the two of them are unnecessarily inserted just for the sake of it, leaving us disappointed. The story becomes interesting with Arya's entry as a dreaded antagonist. 

However, despite an earnest attempt from him, his characterization becomes weak as the story progresses, thanks to his equation with the role essayed by Mamta Mohandas. Nevertheless, Vishal and Arya impress in action scenes, especially in the climax episode. Thambi Ramaiah, too, comes up with a solid portrayal of a doting dad.             

The big let down of the movie is its logical loopholes. There are massive crimes happening and the cops in Singapore seem to be way too inefficient in curbing them or nabbing the ones behind them. Vishal's character gets arrested by cops for shooting down a Central Minister, but his father gets to know about his adventures only towards the end. 

A few predictable sequences also spoil the huge scope the story had. Had the director concentrated more on the screenplay and characterizations of Vishal and Arya, Enemy would have been a solid thriller.  

Verdict: Despite an intriguing premise and a few impressive action scenes, Enemy couldn't cash in on the myriad of opportunities it had.  

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