‘Titans’ Movie Review: Jayasurya starrer fails to capitalize on promising concept mixing humor and fantasy

There are quite a few unusual writing choices to be seen in Prince Joy’s Titans, especially in the way he treats his protagonist, Antony Yakuza (Jayasurya), a small-time outlaw. Although the hangover of Jayasurya’s character Shaji Pappan from Aad is very visible in Antony, he is perhaps one of the most unheroic leads in a film of this kind. In every situation, he is expected to either fail or do the wrong thing, and he lives up to that expectation most of the time.

Another interesting approach is how writer James Sebastian portrays the perfect battle between good and evil, going behind the workings of both sides, with Lucifer in a shiny corporate office and the other side in a place of stark contrast. A lot of it may have looked great on a conceptual level, but it doesn’t translate so well on screen.

What one is left with are a few scenes where everything fits together well, interspersed with long intervals of uninspired writing. The banter between Antony and his roommate Anwar (Nihal Nizam) and the many hare-brained schemes they come up with with getaway driver Rejimon (Vinayakan) provide plenty of room for humor, but they manage to pull it off only occasionally. Like the sequence where they try to pull off a big heist with a gas cutter, or the sequence where they try to rob a bank.

titans (malayalam)

Directed by Prince Joy

Cast: Jayasurya, Vinayakan, Nihal Nizam, Baby Jean, Indrans, Sunny Wayne, Suresh Krishna

Plot: A small-time outlaw plans a big heist to make a name for himself as a respected gangster, but things don’t really turn out the way he’d like.

Length: 134 minutes

If Titans appears to be better than the sum of its parts, much of the credit must go to Vinayakan, who adds great depth to the character of Rejimon and elevates an otherwise predictable third act. After the point, he alone carries the film. The action sequences in these parts are also effective, considering the limited budgets. Rapper Baby Jean is convincing as the local don, but is given a signature character with limited room to perform. As a tech-savvy con man specializing in digital arrests, Nihal manages to evoke laughter with some simple words.

One of the few positives of the film is that some fantasy elements are seamlessly woven into the story of a man aspiring to be a big gangster, that it seems almost believable. But the fact that women, apart from a few winking characters, are mostly absent from the film is glaring. None of them even get two or three lines to speak either.

Titans had a lot going for it as a concept, but the creators failed to exploit all the possibilities it had.

Published – 22 Oct 2026 21:01 IST