Diesel is a commercial action film you have seen countless times, repackaged to help actor Harish Kalyan, who tasted tremendous success with Parking and Lubber Pandhu, with the mileage to become a bankable star. It’s a long and convoluted film that is strangely reductive of its own objectives.
We are taken into the world of Diesel through a lengthy narration, surprisingly voiced by director Vetri Maaran, about how a 17-kilometre-long crude oil pipeline laid on the shores of North Chennai in the ‘80s hindered the livelihood of the local fishing communities. With all protests failing, Manohar (Sai Kumar) sees an opportunity; he sets up an oil smuggling outfit on the shores of Royapuram and profiteers from the very same pipeline that destroyed countless lives. Decades later, Manohar has built an oil empire by extracting fuel subproducts from crude oil and selling them to local petrol pumps. Manohar’s business features some small fish, like employees at the Oil Corporation of India and a local DSP, Mayavel (Vinay Rai), to big whales, like the business mogul who indirectly controls the fate of all of India, Pathan (Sachin Khedekar). But make no mistake, Manohar isn’t doing this for selfish reasons.
Harish Kalyan in a still from ‘Diesel’
| Photo Credit:
Think Music India/YouTube
Diesel bends over backwards to portray Manohar — and in the present timeline of 2014, his son, ‘Diesel’ Vasudevan (Harish) — as a Robin Hood figure who uses the pipeline to help the fishing community. You wonder why the film keeps thrusting Vasu’s philanthropy on our faces — even his introductory song-dance celebrates his charitable nature — and this is, in fact, the first sign of the film Diesel intends to be. Soon, Manohar’s monopolistic oil regime is threatened by Balamurugan (Vivek Prasanna), and an ego clash between Vasu and Mayavel creates further trouble.
The sole issue that perils Diesel is how it takes itself too seriously, and never builds upon the promise this world inhabited by gangsters, police, and the petroleum mafia fostered. Director Shanmugam Muthusamy throws many trivia and sheds light on some of the things that go behind the fuel we use every day. At one point, when he unmasks the parties who control the single-biggest commodity in the world, you can’t help but feel like a helpless pawn in a game you know nothing about. However, all this doesn’t necessarily translate into a film worth investing in.
Diesel (Tamil)
Director: Shanmugam Muthusamy
Cast: Harish Kalyan, Athulya Ravi, Sai Kumar, Vinay Rai
Runtime: 144 minutes
Storyline: A Robin Hood who hails from the petroleum mafia takes on a big fish who threatens to disrupt the Indian economy
There’s a stretch in the middle where the film shifts gears with the revelation of what happens when oil is under siege, and it makes for the only thrilling space in the runtime. However, the way it gets resolved truly tests your patience, and you are left with many questions and slips in logical reasoning (like why Central government officers attend the funeral of a criminal who looted from them for decades, just because they realise he had a moral spine).
To dampen it further, we get an off-putting romance arc between Athulya Ravi’s character, the lawyer daughter of Manohar’s lawyer, and Vasu. She is written in for a specific purpose in the plot, and Shanmugam wastes a lot of precious runtime chasing after this subplot. An ill-conceived angle about a mermaid who appears in these love birds’ dreams goes nowhere, and you are left scratching your head as to why the global hit track from the film ‘Beer Song’ was conceived in the first place, as there just isn’t a suitable situation for it. The song is supposedly sung by Vasu’s lovelorn friend (Thangadurai) — a line goes, ‘valiyila kudichen di 10,000 beer’a’ — but then the visuals are of Harish and Athulya, who just professed their feelings for each other, playing with torchlights and beer bottles on the seashores!
Harish and Athulya on the sets of ‘Diesel’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The way the awful pre-intermission scene and the climax sequence of Diesel are written and executed, how the story grows to pose itself as larger than life, and the many action sequences, all make it very clear that this is a product tailored for one purpose: to help Harish’s star image.
Vijay’s Kaththi and Sarkar. Ajith Kumar’s Arrambam. Arjun’s Mudhalvan. Jayam Ravi’s Nimirndhu Nil and Bhoomi. What do all these Tamil films have in common? These are commercial star vehicles with song, dance and fight; have a star making a social statement that will be heard; tell a story that attempts to elevate them as the hero for the masses; and use the power of the media to help resolve a social issue and have the star address the gallery. It’s a tested formula, and you can see why Harish Kalyan might have seen it as a way of levelling up. And yes, it is a level-up of sorts — it’s a ‘big hero’ blunder, after all.
Diesel is a forgettable outing for Harish Kalyan, but you can’t help but appreciate the actor for the effort he puts in this all-new space. The actor looks the part, dances well and appears convincing as an action hero. However, this engine needed more ignition and less imitation of a formula, and perhaps a convincing re-draft and some trust in the audience could have made Harish’s efforts worthwhile.
Diesel is currently running in theatres
Published – October 17, 2025 05:10 pm IST
