Aadu 3 Movie Review: Has Baahubali never done anything stupid in his life? Not just Baahubali; take any Indian epic film — historical or fictional — that revolves around monarchs, for that matter. All of them give the impression that these kings were devoid of any dorkiness. I mean, to err is human, right? Also, for how long can a person keep talking in measured lines/verses, and how on earth is it possible for one’s every action to be heroic? So, I guess it’s just that creators like SS Rajamouli chose to include in their movies only those moments when their kings did heroic things, right? They basically overlooked the rulers’ goofy and frivolous sides to align with the tone they envisioned. That means, those like King Pulikesi (Vadivelu) from Imsai Arasan 23-am Pulikecei (2006) could have also existed, couldn’t they?
If Aadu (2015) taught us that even idiots might become gangsters, Aadu 3, the third instalment in the eponymous franchise, shows that even dimwits could have been kings, and that their lives obviously won’t have been like how mainstream epic actioners have shown us thus far. And what would happen if the lives and fates of these dorks intertwined across timelines? How much idiocy can the world take before it tears itself in two? However, as ambitious as writer-director Midhun Manuel Thomas’ Aadu 3 is, it ends up choking under the weight of its own lofty ambitions, leaving one to commend the creator a bit for the idea at the film’s core but ultimately be disappointed with what can only be dubbed a snoozefest.
Unfolding across three distinct eras, Aadu 3 opens in the future, 2370 AD, where an evil entity called The Organisation has assumed absolute control over the world, dethroning governments. How did they manage to do that? Through time travel, which they mastered by acquiring a celestial stone called Star Dust that controls timelines. The movie is built on the concept that time isn’t linear and that the past, present, and future coexist. Thus, the events in one period have a direct impact on the others. People also don’t necessarily die forever but are reborn and live across various periods, separated only by time itself.
Just as aliens only visit the US in sci-fi movies, whenever a new threat arises, it will inevitably come searching for Shaji Pappan (Jayasurya) and his gang, and this time is no different. In 2025, the present, a search for Star Dust has commenced, led by groups headed by Dude (Vinayakan), Satan Xavier (Sunny Wayne), and The Organisation’s Kate Lara (Alleya Bourne). As usual, Pappan and his gang get embroiled in this mess as well. But the only difference this time is that their entanglement in this web didn’t begin today; it traces back to 1790 AD, the third timeline in the narrative. And the fate of the world fully relies on them now.
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Despite having many elements and an ambitious plot, Aadu 3 ends up being an absolute letdown. Although crafted by Midhun Manuel Thomas himself, the creator of the franchise, the movie comes across as an amateurish fan-fiction, with the soul of the original completely missing. One of the major attractions of the first instalment was how unhinged the characters were. They could and would say anything, anywhere. They had zero filters and were too naive to understand the importance of thinking before speaking. Just as important was Pappan’s equation with each member of his gang. Unfortunately, those elements are totally missing in Aadu 3.
Although Arakkal Abu (Saiju Kurup), Captain Cleetus (Dharmajan Bolgatty), Sasi Aashan (Indrans), and Sarbath Shameer (Vijay Babu), among others, are present in this instalment too, they seem to have lost their voice and soul. Aside from their iconic BGMs, they have little else here that is attractive. In Aadu, they were original and individualistic. The story unfolded based on their actions. But in Aadu 3, they merely exist to deliver lines as per the cue. The preset story dictates how they should behave, while the defiance from such a conventional template was what made Aadu fascinating.
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At the same time, as exaggerated as it was, Aadu gave the feeling that all these characters were inherently idiots. They weren’t behaving like that to make the audience laugh; it never felt like part of a plan. In their hearts, they were all mass heroes, and only we, the audience, saw them for who they were. However, this time, perhaps to balance the tones of the different timelines, Midhun has made the characters less cartoonish, thereby compromising the franchise’s very essence. If Aadu was an out-and-out nonsensical comedy, which was its biggest draw, Aadu 3 ends up as a mere comedy-drama with fantasy elements, making it just one among many similar films, with time travel as the sole novel element.
In the 1790 timeline, we have King Padmanabhan (Jayasurya), Azam Khan (Vinayakan), Vareeth Mappila (Vijay Babu), Lt Col Walter Joseph (Sunny Wayne), Kelu (Indrans), and a slew of others. However, the beauty and sharpness that Anees Nadodi and Akhil George have brought to the production design and cinematography, respectively, are completely missing in Midhun’s narrative. Much like the interval block, this entire segment is neither fascinating nor funny. Worse still, although Midhun may have been trying to show history repeating itself, the lack of intrigue in the bygone timeline makes the incidents feel like lazy writing, with the same events from the present repeated in the past.
Despite having many elements and an ambitious plot, Aadu 3 ends up being an absolute letdown.
What adds to the woes of Aadu 3 is the sheer lack of jokes and comedic situations that hit the mark. While the Kazhuthajeevitham (The Donkey Life) spin on Aadujeevitham (The Goat Life), certain back-and-forths between Pappan and Dude here and there, and the making-face battle between their gangs work, Aadu 3 is extremely low on jokes. The few one-liners that may have sounded funny to the makers simply fail to leave the same impact on the audience.
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Even the intros, which played a key role in making the first instalment iconic, disappoint here, with the only satisfying one being Satan Xavier’s, reminiscent of the ending of Kaththi’s (2014) iconic coin fight scene. Another major attraction of Aadu was the chaos that was splashed all across. However, in Aadu 3, this is mostly confined to the final act, and one has to endure over two and a half hours of boredom to reach it.
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Yet, there’s no denying that the idea presented in the climax is extremely fascinating, and the movie would have undoubtedly worked better had we been able to see more of that and less of whatever Midhun was trying to serve this time. However, the unfortunate thing is that we have to sit through the entire snoozefest to catch this intriguing climax, which seems like too high a price to pay.
Since this is the first of the two-part third instalment, this climax sets the stage for the endgame. But whether this trainwreck of a film has ended the game for the Aadu franchise is something only its overall performance can prove.
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Aadu 3 movie cast: Jayasurya, Vinayakan, Vijay Babu, Indrans, Sunny Wayne, Saiju Kurup, Dharmajan, Harikrishnan, Bhagath Manuel
Aadu 3 movie director: Midhun Manuel Thomas
Aadu 3 movie rating: 2 stars
