2023, Theatrical Release, Tamil, 8.3/10 IMDB, Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj
‘Leo’, a seeming remake of a Hollywood flick, is set in a very familiar premise, a worn out, decades old template of Indian cinema. However, the extraordinary finesse in making and extreme attentive detailing in the action sequences, makes the film stand confident. The director lets the hero shine big, through minimal shout outs, contrary to the usually loud heroism.
What might have been a cringe worthy opening sequence of a spotted hyena, by and large substituting the usual mass hero introduction, disproves the audience. Crisp stunt narrative and convincing visual effects does the magic. As the director doesn’t space out his shots much, the audience are never left idle to dwell on the much trolled hair extensions of actor Vijay. To our surprise, the introduction stint of the hero, boldly end as the camera trails behind him, exposing his ‘ordinary person’ backdrop, thanks to Anirudh for reiterating that same, musically. When the actor sits behind the small cashier desk in a fancy coffee shop that lights a ‘wild beans chocolate coffee’ logo at night, the mood is set just right. Equivalent to a Hollywood copy, the director efficiently brakes all barriers of ‘mass hero cliches’.
During the launch and trailer release of his previous film Vikram, Director Lokesh, teased the audience with a monologue, of Kamal Haasan, taking jungle as a metaphor for the underworld drug mafia. Similarly the teaser for Leo, spoke a self-defense story, which lured the audience in making them believe it to be the film’s premise. The mysteries, as they unravel on-screen, kindles expectations, giving a high, as the makers prove the viewers ‘wrong’. It doesn’t take much time to realize that the teaser was yet again a metaphor and not a mere one-liner. For the lot who had walked in, with a script of their own, it might have been disappointing to see Sandy’s and Mysskin’s story fizz out too quick.
The story of hero Parthiban begins, as he enganges his son in tactical training during family time, pretty much like the animals in the wild, training their young ones. Parthiban, an animal rescuer, poses ‘managerial scenarios’ to his son, to test his ability to decide an effective way of handling similar real life situations. When Parthiban himself is posed with such a real life scenario, his self defense reflexes kicks in. One is lead to believe that the movie may thread similar paths of the 2021 movie ‘Nobody’, as Parthiban’s reflexes were precise and trained.
Going back to Parthiban’s training game with his son, it does gives away clues that the gener might be a mere version of the thirty years old template, where the hero has a ‘secret past’. The 1991 Hindi movie ‘Hum’ becoming an inspiration for Rajinikanth’s ‘Baasha’, had been recycled by many heroes including Vijay himself in the 2016 ‘Theri’.
But the director yet again lures the audience to make believe that, it is a ‘Naan Avan Illai’ kind, ‘mistaken identity’ films, which are aplenty accross the globe. But the screenplay trots back and forth making the audience shuttle between Parthiban’s version of mistaken identity, over his wife Sathya’s suspicion, about his secret past. The director impresses by maintaining the genre’s suspense till the very end and Vijay scores befittingly with his insistence that he is not Leo, all along. He in fact duly convinces the viewers through the emotional exchanges with his wife Sathya, played by the elegant Trisha.
Lokesh to me seemed focused in making the audience interpret the story by being the eyes and ears of his character Parthiban. As audience we see what visuals Parthiban sees and interpret only what the character would analyse. The maker’s are left with a challenge of covering up the genre-suspense to the maximum. And the director thankfully keeps the gener specific cliches at bay, saving possible embarrassement through melodramatic exchanges in the process. The downside of this challenge though is, the viewers are left with a handful of mulitated character arcs, sans powerful set ups to back the lead character’s traits.
But again the director’s intention steers clear, not to thread the path of milking on hero’s losses. Rather the focus is on the perseverance of the character, in believing that ‘He is not the person whom He doesn’t want to be any longer’. These words of the hero before he takes on his uncle, is what sums up Vijay’s characterization, for me as a viewer. The end did seem as if the director succumbed to the grand old template. But again, to me it translated as, the director smartly hushed, to cash in on Vijay’s mighty heroism, without a noise.
Vijay’s usual ridiculing humor had been forced to take a back seat. His body language and dialogue delivery had been mellowed to transform with a purpose, in achieving the movie’s Hollywood tone. While LCU’s ‘Napolean’ Geroge and ‘Escort’ Maya fail to create a stir, the mention of Dilli’s name and voice of Kamal as Vikram did make the crowd hysteric. The barebody climax fight, not more than one song to showcase the actor to his mass crowd, stylish dance moves to the family that boos and hisses at him, are many firsts for actor Vijay.
But the mature intimate scene with Trisha where Vijay’s Parthiban character is trying to convince his wife Sathya that he is not Leo, scores the best for both the actors and the director. The two characters are emoting as the light towers above their heads, to cast a shadow on both their faces, letting them be. It is easily Vijay’s career best emotional sequence. Trisha’s soft kiss to Vijay, backed by the ‘Kambalipuchi’ dialogue from Manirathanam’s Mauna Raagam movie, did seem a little rushed and imposed for the sake of it. But it made complete sense, post climax, as Parthiban didn’t want to lose his wife by any means and hence spoke that dialogue to cling on to his happy life with his wife. Again the fact that Trisha is deprived of the truth, hurts big time in the end, but to me the premise seem to contain an intense ‘interogation drama scope’ in a sequel, if there is one, as the climax is left open ended as always in LCU.
Sanjay Dutt’s earth-moving performance in the first half, falls flat in the flash backed portion owing to weak writing. On the contrary Arjun’s uncle character, was left to fend for himself in the past, but couldn’t pull the weight of the story towards the climax, as it lacked momentum, again due to the hiatus in writing. Having said that, both the actors did have the audience swooned with their on-screen charisma.
Anirudh’s swaggy numbers does sound familiar inside Lokesh’s universe, but makes you want more. Anbariv’s stunt choreography is the back bone of the movie and the proof lies in the first action sequence when Vijay kills the psycho killer gang as the gramophone plays a Tamil number on the background.
The director did bite bigger than what he could chew, as the ambitious casting, couldn’t translate the grandeur as it did in Vikram, owing to less complexity in story telling. Probably in Vikram, the characters were unveiled to the audience through Fahad, a third person’s perspective but eventually confirmed with actuals by Kamal’s character himself. Whereas in Leo, the stroy unravels through the eyes of the lead character who claims a mistaken identity. Hence the characters are left to lack a complete arc, as the audience are dwelling only on Parthiban’s perspective.
Gautham Vasudev Menon as his Ranger friend Joshi, does gather information to fix the puzzle pieces right, trying to solve the mystery in Parthiban’s life. But again it is bound to remain blank and lose ended, as Leo’s perspective is missing as to why he made certain decisions. The flashback portion is also a version of a disinterested aide’s perspective, hence not overloaded with emotions and sentiments, which again is seen a big miss by the many movie goers. There is a possibility that the flashback content might not be the real truth and might have been cooked up to mislead the interrogator.
Lokesh like Thiyagarajan Kumararaja, handles his on- screen drama differently, in comparison to few others, who tries to spell out every other emotion and manipulate the audience to emote in acknowledgement. But when a director is left to explain his work outside the movie, rather than his work being interpreted rightly in the sense it was intended to be received, it fails a creator. We had seen it in Selvaragavan’s NGK and now we see it happen in Lokesh’s work.
‘Evil’ had always been done away with, right from our black and white sword-fighting hero days in the past, leaving them villains dead for their ill intentions and wrong doings. The template has not changed, except, with technology, it makes those ‘blood baths’, look and feel real and gory.
A stylish no nonsense making, of a face-lifted premise, daringly made by incorporating western sensibilities in an otherwise mundane star vehicle.