2019, Tamil, Amazon Prime, 6.8/10 IMDB, directed by Atlee Kumar
A sincere attempt to bring back the ‘Gilli’ Vijay whom we fell in love with, using the women empowerment quotient to dig deeper on the ‘Vijay Anna’, psychology- saved only by actor Vijay’s fan following and AR Rahman.
Atlee loves Vijay, as in Karthik Subbaraj loves Rajinikanth. This is a tribute to the actor’s child-like performance which is a charm in itself.
There are many sequences that are way too familiar because they were part of many epic movies. This happens when the director is a huge fan of the star that he is directing, he wants to recreate his favorite actor in all those epic scenes.
Inspiration differs from duplication. Fantasies of the director doesn’t account for creativity.
Check boxes ticked👇
*Recreate, Vijay in Manirathnam’s Thalapathi movie style police compromise between gangs.
*Chakde India and Dhangal kind, coaching women to win a national finale
*Fantasy of making Vijay sing a MGR song
*Desire to make Vijay ride a racing bike
*Basha kind gangster following
*Nayagan like mannerism along with an Iyer assistant
*Kanaa like women empowerment
*Irudhi Suttru like coach snapping at the players
*Chewing gums trick like Shivaji movie Thalaivar
*Vasoolraja MBBS like Kattipudi vaithiam
*Vazhakku en 18/9 and Uyare like acid attack victim motivations
*Thevar Mahan like quitting violence to motivate children take up education seriously
*Gilli like enthusiastic playful Vijay (man, got to give it to the actor, he does look the same after 15 years, not one bit of fatigue on the face).
The big plus for me was, what Nerkonda paarvai was for Ajith, Bigil is for Vijay. Both the mega fan based actors, let women folk take the center stage to bask in the limelite a little longer than themselves.
Singapenne song was the highlight of the movie.
Nayanthara, sadly is the ‘moh maaya’ of the movie.
180cr budget was not justified atall as it looks like the major chunk went into the green mat football match scenes, which were shot technically but not to justify the exuberant budget.
Biggest drawback of the movie was Atlee’s predictable screenplay which reminds of the 80’s Rajinikanth movies.
Acid attack victims, married women getting back to achieve their passion like Mary Kom achieving after her 3 kids, Obese children winning over humiliation through reverse psychology, all these were good intentioned but lacked finesse in filming. Thank God there was no rape victim to remind us of Nirbhaya.
The father and son double action would have been memorable if not for the deliberate attempt to make it score. The hugging sentiment where each time the Vijay playing the son, taking petty steps to hug and kiss his dad on the shoulder, were filmed far too many times. The repetitions of the same scenario took away the special moment charm from it.
The acid sequence reminder flash backs, literally test your patience. These are way too old 90’s techniques.
‘Logic’ is happily thrown out of the window and the team member’s fitness seems to be of no concern for national football matches.
The Ted talks kind pep talk, gets on your nerve and most of it are literal narrations of the Watsapp forwards that we have read million times over.
The movie never intended to do something like a true tribute to the sports, like Irudhi Suttru. Kanaa scored better in that aspect as well.
Old wine made in to a fantasy cocktail served in a fancy glass, tasting sweet and sour.