‘Su From So’ (2025) Movie Review - Unremarkable Style Meets Undigested Substance

J. P. Thuminad knows how to create a world through gags. In Su From So (his directorial debut), he takes us into a colorful world filled with colorful characters, drawing humor from their beliefs and behaviors. For instance, the villagers respect a man named Ravi Anna (Shaneel Gautham) with such passion that when, under the heavy influence of alcohol, he crashes his scooter and says that he simply parked it in the corner, his men (or call them followers) nod in agreement. Then there is Bhaava (Pushparaj Bolar), "the village drunk," who, when sober, thinks of himself as an important man, and when he's intoxicated, he can be seen lying in the garbage or between sofas. What's more, there is an exorciser who's scared of ghosts, a foolish senex with weak vision who fails to identify people, and a man who worries that his shirt might get crumpled. Su From So, for the most part, is boisterous, funny, watchable. The unsophisticated jokes work in tandem with an equally unpolished filmmaking style, and although Thuminad lacks the vision to fully develop his ideas or add depth to the humor, he nonetheless keeps Su From So moving toward its destination.

But what this means is that Thuminad is more like a mechanical machine than an intuitive filmmaker. If I had to compare his filmmaking skills to those of another director, I would bring up Pradeep Ranganathan. Like that Love Today director, Thuminad reduces his story, his tone, his characters to mere buttons that, when pushed, generate the desired response from within the audience. Thuminad tackles traditional values and superstitions with humor — or rather, he exposes the humor that lies beneath the facade of tradition and superstition (the "Su" in Su From So could stand for Superstition). A physically healthy (and a little paunchy) man like Ravi can silence people with his eyes or muscles, but even he's susceptible to mental fear, delusion, and paranoia. Superstitious beliefs cause the characters to behave like clowns, and this clownery is expressed through screams, fever, and terror. Everybody, from ordinary villagers to a celebrity Guruji (Raj B. Shetty), starts shaking in the presence of Ashoka (Thuminad). The director's points and intentions are obvious, and they become clear well before the interval. Thuminad then spends the rest of the film recycling jokes based on already established notions, which is why Su From So, after a while, begins to feel monotonous.
 

Perhaps Thuminad, too, might have sensed that his movie is lacking in variety and beginning to descend into tedium, which is why he introduces a plot point so bad it reeks of desperation. It's here where Thuminad reminds you of Sudheesh Sankar (Maareesan) and Nithilan Saminathan (Maharaja). Without giving much voice or agency to the female characters (one of whom is reduced to eye candy for a horny Ashoka), Thuminad lowers a woman to the level of a victim for the sake of cheap sentiment. This victim is Bhaanu (Sandhya Arakere), who is portrayed solely through the lens of her abuse and struggles. Unfortunately, those hardships are depicted in an exploitative manner, as Thuminad once again uses her suffering to provoke a shallow emotional response from the audience. Thuminad's so-called solidarity for women is nothing but tokenism. Yet, tokenism has earned him critical acclaim and box office success. In this respect, Su From So is very much like Lokah: Chapter 1 — Chandra. Both movies merely touch on interesting ideas without expanding them into something meaningful. For critics and audiences alike, the mere presence of a progressive attitude seems enough to make them lavish praise on unremarkable style and undigested substance (no wonder many people still consider codswallop like Jawan and Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani as some kind of cinematic tour de force). With Su From So, Thuminad's inspiration and imagination peaked on the keyboard as soon as he typed the title (Su From So means Sulochana from Someshwara). After that, all he did was insert half-baked ideas about toxic masculinity, hero worship, and sexual abuse — and the audience carried the rest of the film on their shoulders. If Thuminad had good sense and judgment, he would have realized that this material is better suited to comedy than to drama. In this regard, Love Today comes across as a distant cousin of Su From So.

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times