Buffoon (film)

Buffoon is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language crime drama film written and directed by Ashok Veerappan in his directorial debut. The film stars Vaibhav, Anagha, and Anthakudi Ilayaraja, while Aadukalam Naren and Joju George play supporting roles. The film has songs and score composed by Santhosh Narayanan. The cinematography and editing were handled by Dinesh Purushothaman and Vetre Krishnan, respectively. It was produced by Karthik Subbaraj, Kaarthekeyen Santhanam, Sudhan Sundaram and Jayaram under, Stone Bench Films and Passion Studios. The film was released theatrically on 23 September 2022.

Plot
Two koothu artists become pawns in a political power game and are falsely implicated in a drug smuggling case.

Music
The music was composed by Santhosh Narayanan. The audio rights were acquired by Maajja.

Theatrical
The film is scheduled to be released in theatres on 23 September 2022. The teaser of the film was released on 14 March 2022. The distribution rights of the film in Tamil Nadu were acquired by B. Sakthivelan under the banner of Sakthi Film Factory.

Home media
The post-theatrical streaming rights of the film were bought by Netflix, where it began stream from 14 October 2022.

Critical reception
M. Suganth of The Times of India who gave 3 stars out of 5 stars after reviewing the film stated that,"Santhosh Narayanan adds to the tense nature of the scenes with his score". Avinash Ravichandran of Cinema Express who gave 2.5 stars out of 5 stars after reviewing the film stated that "Although Buffoon definitely has a lot of heart and even more potential, there is only so much that intent can do when it has to contend with lackadaisical execution bogged further down by nonchalant writing". Bharath Vijayakumar of Moviecrow rated the film 2.75 out of 5 and stated that "For now, Buffoon is a film that remains watchable". Harshini S V of Film Companion wrote that "Buffoon is not tempted to take the predictable route and does justice to its story with a convincing climax.