Con City Review: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
A quirky family of con artists, plenty of laughs, and heartfelt moments make Con City an enjoyable watch despite its uneven screenplay. Con City stars Arjun Das, Anna Ben, and Yogi Babu in a fun Tamil scam comedy. Arjun Das surprises in a comic role while Yogi Babu delivers the laughs in this warm but flawed Tamil entertainer. Read our honest review to find out if this crime caper is worth watching.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Director: Harish Durairaj |
Release: June 26, 2026
Language: Tamil
Cast: Arjun Das, Anna Ben, Yogi Babu, Vadivukkarasi
Runtime: 152 mins
Tamil cinema has a good track record with scam films. From Sathuranga Vettai to Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal, the genre has produced some genuinely clever, entertaining films. Con City arrives knowing that legacy and wanting to be part of it. The ambition is visible. The result is more mixed — charming and frequently funny, but never quite as sharp as the genre demands.
The story follows Saravanan, played by Arjun Das, and his wife Mithra, played by Anna Ben, who run a small restaurant in Mangalore. They share their home with Mithra’s brother Jackie, played by Yogi Babu, and his mother Janaki, played by Vadivukkarasi. On the surface, it looks like a regular dysfunctional family barely holding things together.
Underneath, they are all scam artists.
When their young son Jeeva goes missing from school, a CCTV clip reveals a secret that pulls all their backstories into the open. How did these four people find each other? What are they running from? Who took the child, and what will they do to get him back? The film answers all of these questions across two and a half hours, and does so with enough warmth and humour to keep you largely on board.
Arjun Das is a genuine surprise here.
Best known for playing menacing villains, he steps into a comic role and handles it with far more ease than you might expect. He is funny without trying too hard, and when the emotional moments arrive — particularly anything involving his son — he switches registers cleanly. It is the kind of performance that makes you wish the script had given him sharper material to work with.
Yogi Babu is reliably entertaining. His timing is impeccable, and his scenes with Vadivukkarasi generate the film’s biggest laughs. Vadivukkarasi, playing the family matriarch who is herself a seasoned con artist, is an absolute highlight every time she is on screen. Anna Ben, despite being a strong performer in Malayalam cinema, does not get nearly enough to do here.
The film’s biggest problem is pacing.
The opening stretch is slow. Some scenes play out and then get replayed through a character’s narration minutes later, which tests patience quickly. The con sequences themselves are often over-presented — stylised with slick camera movements and music that promise brilliance, then deliver something remarkably simple. A printer scam involving a magnet and a metal ball is perfectly believable, but the elaborate build-up the film gives it sets expectations it cannot meet.
The found-family dynamic is the film’s most genuine strength. These are people who came together through unusual circumstances and ended up becoming each other’s only real safety net. The film handles that thread with restraint — no forced melodrama, no overwrought sentimentality. A simple quiet exchange between Yogi Babu and Vadivukkarasi near the end lands better than most of the bigger set pieces precisely because of that restraint.
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Sean Roldan’s music suits the film’s tone well, and the technical package is clean throughout.
Con City is an enjoyable watch despite its flaws. It is not as clever as it wants to be, but it is warmer and funnier than many films that try harder.
Con City is now playing in cinemas.