Test Movie Cast/Actors: Nayanthara, R. Madhavan, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, Nassar, Lirish Rahav, Kaali Venkat, Murugadoss, Mohan Raman, Vinay Varma & Others
Test Movie Director: S. Sashikanth
Test Movie Production House: YNOT Studios & Netflix
Test Movie Release Date: 4th April, 2025
Test Movie Available On: Netflix OTT Platform
Test Movie Released/Available In Languages: Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada & Malayalam
Test Movie Runtime: 2h 25m
Test Movie Critic Review:
Throw a crore of rupees at Arjun (Siddharth) or a cricket ball, his eye will watch only the ball. Cricket before all else, before family, wife, even school-going son Adi or his own mother’s funeral. And now, he’s batting to save his place in the national team, he’s been in bad form for a couple of matches. Time to retire? The question every star cricketer dreads to hear from the board.
Adi’s 30+ schoolteacher Kumudha (Nayanthara) has been warned that she cannot step beyond her duties and get personal with her students. Her obsession – to have a child of her own. The doctor’s told her that this will probably be her last attempt at an IVF procedure. She needs Rs 5 lakh for it.
Kumudha’s husband Saravanan alias Sara (R. Madhavan), an MIT trained scientist with a dream project to save fuel. On the sly, will funnel Rs 50 lakh into his dream project, a Rs 50 lakh loan ostensibly taken to upgrade a canteen his late father-in-law had set up for the jobless genius. With the canteen shut and loan sharks at his throat, there’s Kumudha nagging him for Rs 5 lakh.
Writer-director S. Sashikanth and co-writer Suman Kumar weave an intricate web of obsessions and the choices people make. There is a crucial Indo-Pak test match being played in the background while Kumudha, Sara, Arjun and their obsessions are put to the test.
A betting syndicate, cops on the trail, a kidnap, blackmail. When choices are thrown up, each lets the devil within come to the fore.
There are moments of convenient writing. For instance, when she’s taken an upset student home, why doesn’t Kumudha call up his mother to assure her that the child is safe with her? A low battery doesn’t quite cut it – it takes hardly any time to charge a phone enough to make a few crucial calls.
But crucial calls of life are what Sashikanth sets out to address as we make choices.
Those five days of a test match are when it gradually unfolds with all key characters having to play their individual matches.
Your heart ultimately goes out only to the child unwittingly caught in the mess of his elders.
You understand Sara but would you go to the extent he does to turn his life’s sole dream project into a reality?
You sympathise with Kumudha’s pangs but would you choose what she chose?
And you wonder at the choice Arjun will make when he goes out to bat against Pakistan. Is this his last match?
Make allowances for cinematic drama and Test is a film that makes one examine oneself, one’s own choices.
Convinced that the crazy are what move the world forward, R Madhavan is a delight, switching from cosying up to wife, wanting to please her, and having a side to him that she doesn’t know about. Nayanthara wearing lovely sarees is a pleasure to watch even when you wonder why she’s doing what she does. Siddharth has less scope for chameleon-like changes as he has one troubled expression all through.
Test – Watch Or Not?: A definite thumbs up from me.
Test Review Score Rating: 3 out of 5 (i.e. 3/5)
Test Movie Official Trailer:
Credits: Netflix India
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