'Test' Review: Fleetingly Engaging Film Almost Betrays Its Complex Characters
'Test' starring Nayanthara, R Madhavan, and Siddharth is streaming on Netflix.
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Sashikanth’s Test – both by name and by nature – opens as a character study of three equally complex and fascinating characters; all of whom, as the name suggests, are about to be tested. When looking at Kumudha (Nayanthara) you see a woman dealing with her mother’s demise while simultaneously preparing herself for her last shot at motherhood through IVF.
Her husband Saravanan (R Madhavan), seemingly not as enthused by the idea of parenthood as she is, is fresh out of luck – a MIT graduate, he believes his invention will help the country but he seems to run into dead ends at all turns.
Nayanthara and R Madhavan in a still from Test.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
Add to that, his troubles with a loan shark, and a quickly disintegrating sense of self. Speaking of a sense of self, the third protagonist is Indian team cricket player Arjun (Siddharth) who has hit a slump in his career – once a legend, he’s now faced with the somber reality that any upcoming match might be his last.
R Madhavan in a still from Test.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
The film’s first half – most of which is spent explaining and dissecting these three characters – is engaging to the point of being a near-perfect setup. Every character’s hubris is palpable and the story’s descent into Machiavellian territory doesn’t particularly surprise you. Thankfully, because the writing has been doing its job so far, that isn’t a bad thing. It’s a complex telling that, for some unforeseen reason, decides to shift focus to one particular thread.
In doing so, it might not outwardly ignore the other arcs but the delicate balance between the three characters is disrupted – one clear focus emerges. The film makes a transition into a thriller with a kidnapping thrown into the mix and all the aforementioned threads converge into this one arc. When pushed to the limit, how will the characters react? It’s not a novel concept – in fact, it might be one of the most common tropes out there but that doesn’t make it any less enticing.
Siddharth in a still from Test.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
Test is more about how the characters react than how they act – between Sara and Kumudha, a quiet drama unfolds about simmering frustrations and secrets buried in plain sight. With Arjun, we see a high-stakes sports drama elevated by the suffocating agony of a player who might be beyond his prime but isn’t past his potential. But once the aforementioned balance is threatened, one can’t help but see the cracks in the story.
To get to the point that it does towards the second half, the story relies on some convenient coincidences. In a better film, it would’ve been easy to brush those off and focus on how the story unfolds. For instance, you might start to wonder how the perceptive Kumudha doesn’t catch on to her husband’s decisions quicker. Another drawback for the film is its inability to make its setting believable. With ample help from the cinematographer, the scenes on the cricket pitch – complete with believable commentary – stand out as the more well-detailed setups.
Nayanthara in a still from Test.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
But there is emptiness to the scenes shot in Arjun & Kumudha-Sara’s homes. The structures are starkly different – where Arjun and his family live in a home that reeks of isolation and wealth, Sara and Kumudha’s dwellings are more rustic. However, the rustic nature doesn’t translate to the domestic, lived-in feeling one would expect from it.
But Test squanders some of its premise, instead stepping into some predictable narrative territory and, in trying to stay true to its name, stretches the story too far. Towards the end, the story starts to flow in a loop – it’s the same basic structure with a few tweaks here and there. What was earlier an engaging story now becomes tiresome and in a way, disappointing.
Saravanan’s transformation is both a product of his circumstances and a consequence of his actions and his own hubris. In the deeper layers of his characters is a simple study of masculinity – how his own idea of a man, a husband, a potential father are all performances in the face of what he believes to be ‘real strength’. He wishes to be a ‘hero’ but he doesn’t see the makings of a hero in the life he’s building.
Much like The Great Gatsby (particularly with Jay), Sara’s greed stems from dissatisfaction – he’s always looking for the bigger, better life. And yet, these are all themes the story sets up and leaves for you to unravel. In taking quick, sudden turns to keep the story going, the real potential in these characterisations is sacrificed.
R Madhavan in a still from Test.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
Gone is the opportunity to explore Arjun’s inner turmoil – as a sportsperson and as a father. What does he owe to his family and what does he owe to his team? And when he doesn’t see a way out, how does he make his decision? Arjun’s story ends up becoming more about the ‘what’ than the ‘how’ and his real character lives in the latter.
The smartest thing, then, about these two characters is the way the writers skew the audience’s obvious tendency to empathise. When stripped down to the basics, Arjun and Sara aren’t that different – the only distinction between the two in the film comes from how different their moral choices are. The choices presented to Sara naturally skew heavily towards being antagonistic while the choices presented to Arjun present an easier path to being righteous.
A still from Test.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
But if the situation was reversed, one can’t say with complete conviction that Arjun wouldn’t make the choices Sara does or vice versa. And due credit for this goes to the actors as well. While Siddharth’s portrayal first comes off a little stiff, the actor finds his footing as the scenes progress – he unravels with Arjun, especially when it comes to capturing the grief and the awkwardness that come from becoming a spectator to his own life.
Madhavan, despite the confusing shift in his character, embodies the shift well. He goes from a proud but reckless man to one who loses sight of the consequences of his actions – so one-minded in his pursuit for success that he doesn’t care about what he loses. The act is similar to one he’s previously portrayed but it doesn’t sting.
The real pull in the film however is Nayanthara. Of the three protagonists, she ends up with the shortest stick. The way her duty as a teacher and her personal shortcomings influenced by a sense of loss and uncertainty clash with each other presents the actor with a tough task, especially since the writing lets her down towards the end.
Nayanthara in a still from Test.
(Photo Courtesy: YouTube)
But Nayanthara never lets it show – her performance is almost fluid in the way she goes from one emotion to another. Like the others, her character is one so committed to her singular goal that she is willing to make adjustments to her moral compass – once again, the writing makes empathy a complex reaction. The chemistry between Nayanthara and R Madhavan
Test survives all the trials it puts itself through primarily because of an able cast (Meera Jasmine included) and characters that are more complex than they seem on the surface. Even when it’s difficult to stay invested in the story, the actors keep pulling you back. But with the narrative spending so much time trying to streamline things instead of letting them naturally play out like one would expect, Test becomes a shadow – albeit a fleetingly interesting shadow – of what it could’ve been.