Spoilers ahead…
If Chimbu Deven’s brief was to create a colourful diversion for undemanding children, then Puli, starring Vijay, must be counted as some sort of success. Through his career, the director has pitched his tent a couple of feet away from the mainstream – here too, his quirky inventiveness is charming. It isn’t just that an interlude in this Chosen One Saves The World saga features little people. It’s that the little women wear peanut-shell blouses. A touch like that shows you this isn’t a completely lazy movie. Or how about that man with a moustache? There’s no joke there – but imagine the moustache on his head. There’s a wisdom-spewing tortoise. A chatty bird. A frog that scratches its head while in deep thought. There’s strength-giving magic potion, like in the Asterix comics. The visual effects are nicely done, and cinematographer Natarajan Subramaniam opts for a keep-the-kids-happy palette – everywhere you turn, there’s rich colour. Even the contact lenses the villain (Sudeep) wears are a piercing blue.
Just how much of a children’s film Puli ultimately is may be up for debate in some quarters. There’s a running gag about a man’s frustration at not consummating his marriage. Our cinema, clearly, is incomplete without wedding-night jokes. More disturbingly, there’s a lot of sword-fighting, a lot of torsos being impaled – at one point, a little girl’s throat is slit. The audience watches numbly. (The censors too, apparently. The film is certified ‘U.’) I wouldn’t be making too big a point about this in what’s essentially a fun fantasy, but the nation seems to have gone mad – lynch mobs seem to be sprouting everywhere, and I wonder how much of this is the result of our becoming desensitised to violence through cinema.
Oh well, back to regular programming. The scale of Puli inevitably brings Baahubali to mind, but this isn’t as intense. The film is tailored to fit its star’s comic-hero persona. He makes the usual noises that can be read as declarations of political intent – “Aala porandhavan illa… makkalukkaaga vaazha porandhavan” – but consider his first fight sequence. After a lot of chasing, he ends up clinging to the enemy’s legs, grinning, asking for mercy. I kept thinking it was a ruse, that he’d soon snarl and unleash his inner Rana Daggubati, but that’s really the end of the scene.
But there was more to Baahubali, a sustained commitment to storytelling, a belief that even fantasy needs some kind of internal logic – and that’s missing in Puli. The narrative is lax and Chimbu Deven doesn’t build up to things so much as let them occur like an afterthought. You think the hero’s efforts to find the imprisoned heroine will take some doing – but he just stumbles upon her in a secret tower. The man who tells the hero about his past (there’s a flashback, plus a laughable wig) is introduced just for that scene – he isn’t a character, he’s a PowerPoint slide in disguise. At this juncture, we also learn that the hero has been consuming magic leaves from childhood. Wouldn’t it have been more fun to show him munching on those leaves – in other words, have the leaves make an appearance earlier on, like a character – and then tell us what their powers are?
Put differently, Chimbu Deven has forgotten to make a movie for adults. His inventions surprise us, delight us for a second or two – and then we’re back to the turgid story. The first half, especially, is a drag – generic comedy (Thambi Ramiah), generic romance (Shruti Haasan, who’s sure to snag a Best Supporting Belly Button nomination at next year’s award functions), a generic second heroine (Hansika Motwani), and the kind of generic background score that composers think scream ‘epic’. (You know the deep wail, the chorus that sounds as if it was belched out by a thousand Viking women during childbirth.)
Things get a little better in the second half, thanks to Sridevi’s evil queen – she gets a better ‘hero entry scene’ than the hero himself. There’s some fun watching this diva play another diva – though not nearly as much fun as the fact that her race is called Vedhaalam, which is the name of… Ajith’s upcoming movie. (Coincidence? A poke in the rib between professional rivals?) Another extra-textual fun fact: In a reversal of the Tamil-cinema tradition of the hero’s mother being played by an actress who once starred opposite him, as heroine, Sridevi’s father here is played by her Pagalil Oru Iravu hero, Vijayakumar. Say what you will about Puli, it does strike a small blow for gender equality.
KEY:
- Puli = tiger
- Baahubali = see here
- “Aala porandhavan illa… makkalukkaaga vaazha porandhavan” = I was born not to rule over people but to serve them.
An edited version of this piece can be found here. Copyright ©2015 The Hindu. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
brangan
October 2, 2015
Wow. I wondered why there were no comments (given this is such a big movie) and then I realise I’ve forgotten to publish this 😀 Old age beckoning, I guess 😀
LikeLiked by 3 people
Anu Warrier
October 2, 2015
🙂 Won’t be watching it any time soon, I don’t think, but I love the new categories of awards you keep coming up with. Poor Shruti Hassan doesn’t seem to have an iota of talent that both her parents have – in spades! I must confess to having liked her in D-Day, however.
LikeLiked by 1 person
sanjana
October 2, 2015
Very straightforward review!
LikeLike
sanjana
October 2, 2015
If you dont moderate comments, the comments will pileup in no time.
LikeLike
S.P
October 2, 2015
BR how come no discussion about Vijay’s performance and how out of place he looked?
LikeLike
bart
October 2, 2015
Netla puli ya puLiya karachi karachi oothranga boss. Highlight of this review is “he isn’t a character, he’s a PowerPoint slide in disguise.” Looks like some more word doc would’ve helped.
LikeLike
Ankit
October 2, 2015
Hi baddie,
Absolutely loved your review! Vijay should put more thought into script selection here afterwards, else in this age of social media, where the word LOGIC is referred to so many times, his movies will fall!!
But, you being a writer, a national award winning writer at that, should get your facts right. This movie was shot, dubbed and was ready by the time Ajith’s next movie title was released. Don’t make things worse for online harmony. PLEASE!
LikeLiked by 2 people
cl
October 2, 2015
I was reminded of this song when I read about Vijayakumar playing Sridevi’s father:
LikeLike
Swatkat
October 2, 2015
Nice review, as usual BR! I am at times astounded by our filmmakers’ inability to utilise the budget as well as the stars in such big vehicle flicks. What a cinematic experience it would have been if chimbudevan had managed to pull it off!
LikeLike
Sreedhar
October 2, 2015
“Shruti Haasan, who’s sure to snag a Best Supporting Belly Button nomination at next year’s award functions”
Not while Ms. Belly Button Tamannaah (did i get the no of n and h correctly?) is here.
LikeLike
Amit Joki
October 2, 2015
After having the social media tell me how much goofed-up film this is, I was interestingly waiting for your review.
I already found the edited article on The Hindu first and expected much more of your quirkiness in your full-fledged review, but there was nothing additional.
You’ve been slightly less bashing than most of the other reviewers. Kudos!
LikeLike
superfan
October 2, 2015
Amma needn’t have bothered with the IT raids. There is no way vijay would have toppled her with this stupid film. Amma would have done a great service to the state if she had seized the print of this film with all the black money. Then it would have been vijay’s lost masterpiece. Pity. Perhaps she got angry with sridevi’s character.
LikeLike
venkatesh
October 2, 2015
“Best Supporting Belly Button”
First Day First show saar.
LikeLike
ThouShaltNot
October 2, 2015
Is the lost art of pointless navel gazing reemerging as an art form? As for the bickering over credits, it is settled science that Tummy (or is it Tammu?) is the original Navel Architect 🙂
LikeLike
Rm
October 2, 2015
Regarding the ‘Vedhalam’ aspect, wasn’t the name come up with only recently? How the makers of Puli could have known this when it was in production? Puzzled… And do anybody else find the name of Ajith’s next movie utterly ordinary?? I mean, why name it Vedhalam when you could have come up with a much captivating title? Should we expect any allegorical references to the mythological vedhalam and his nemesis, a character whose name starts with a big ‘V’ and a small ‘i’?
LikeLike
avn
October 2, 2015
Hey Bart – you’re not Ram in disguise, rite?
LikeLike
sabharinath
October 2, 2015
This movie made me clearly understand the difference between screenplay and direction…. Each and every scene had great potential to be interesting and entertaining… But everything was played out so bland….. As if a plain paper was translated on screen. This plot is very interesting on paper to be read or heard…. So no wonder why vijay, sridevi & sudeep were impressed…. But chimbudevan really was over-excited with their faith that he wrote the film on screen too…. I was so disappointed that a mainstream hero’s attempt to explore different genres went awry…. If puli becomes a boxoffice success, then every hero will attempt different genres, taking tamil cinema to the next level…. Otherwise, not only vijay…. Every other hero in his league will hesitate to explore and remain in their comfort zones, which would lead to same old masala films…. Now puli has made the prospects of the latter look brighter…. Thats what I’m afraid of.
LikeLiked by 4 people
doctorhari
October 2, 2015
Haven’t seen this movie. Neither do I plan to watch it. The review gives a clear sense of what to expect from it (and hence keep away). But have to say that I feel sorry for vijay. As a far cry from his Sura and Kuruvi days, he has of late at least shown some willingness to choose different kind of films and bend his back a bit – unlike few other mass heroes who seem to believe their very presence in the screen and spouting customised punches is enough to satisfy the audience. But from what I hear, this Puli seems to be a dead duck – which means we can only expect more of the usual fare from him and others for some time.
LikeLike
Meghnath
October 2, 2015
I have not watched this movie yet… Going by the reviews on facebook you seem to have gone a bit easy on this movie 😉
LikeLike
Ravi K
October 2, 2015
Judging from the trailer Puli looks like a grade school theatre production compared to the visual splendor of Baahubali. I don’t see how it won’t pale in comparison.
LikeLike
Srinivas
October 2, 2015
Thank you for the point about the violence in our movies. I watched Bahubali in horror as well wondering how it got past the censors. We have truly become desensitised to all the horrors being depicted on the screen and no wonder to what happens in true life as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
rety
October 2, 2015
@Anu Warrier – Anu anty please don’t have this Indian mentality of comparing kids with parents – read
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_I_Braved_Anu_Aunty_and_Co-Founded_a_Million_Dollar_Company 🙂
LikeLike
Ananthakrishnan Suresh
October 3, 2015
“Best Supporting Belly Button nomination at next year’s award functions”.
That was epic!!! 😀
LikeLike
bart
October 3, 2015
@avn: illa boss… I never mentioned about Kamal, crazy mohan, Vasanth, Parthiban, Cheran or related stuff in that comment. Still ….😛
@ram: Advance mannichoo 😀
LikeLike
Anu Warrier
October 3, 2015
@rety, I’ll pass. 🙂 Wondering why Shruti Hassan’s acting skills are relatively mediocre compared to her very talented parents is not putting her down (as the book you recommended, suggests). It’s collateral damage when someone enters a field – any field – that has already been conquered by another member of their family – whether it is a parent or a sibling or another relative.
If you mind so much, let me just say that I think Shruti is an extremely limited actress. And stop it at that. Does that make it any better? No comparisons. Just an opinion on her acting skills, or lack thereof.
p.s. Just another point – I’m no one’s ‘Anu anty’ – not belonging to Order: Hymenoptera, Family: Formicidae. 🙂
LikeLiked by 4 people
Supertramp
October 3, 2015
All I wanted was to know about the context of a certain image that went viral from the trailer ( with many poor background dancing girls holding on to Vijay) and I see you have no explanation for it. Puli looked like something that kids who have no access to cartoon channels or good animation films or generally the world could watch and you starts the review with that. Even the fonts seemed like something a kid with only access to MS Powerpoint Word Art would create and you used a powerpoint slide metaphor to talk about that. So can we say that this has to be the most honest trailers in recent times?
P.S : Sorry that I can’t stop recommending (or hoping you would write about) some regional films. Can we expect you to watch and write a few words about new malayalam superhit “Ennu Ninte Moideen”. Playing with subs in SPI Escape Chennai.
LikeLike
Rahul
October 3, 2015
Talking of belly buttons, I saw this comment on a youtube video, (yes, that treasure trove of undiscovered postmodern subversive literature)
“When I die I want to be buried in Kiran Rathod’s belly button”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Santosh Kumar T K
October 3, 2015
BR, I can’t articulate more but this was a bad review. 🙂
LikeLike
MANK
October 3, 2015
Santhosh kumar T.K. oh it isn’t that bad :), if you care to read it a second time, there is lot to read between the lines 😀
It just that, this review doesnt meet with our expectations of a Brangan review for a film of this quality. We were all expecting Brangan to take a baseball bat and bash this film on its head to death, but here he has taken a different, a more subtle approach. But he has laid out the hollowness and stupidity of the film pretty well. He just didnt go over the top this time with sarcastic jibes. May be he is spooked about the possibility of getting one of those ‘Bastard be careful’ letters from rabid vijay fanboys 🙂
LikeLike
brangan
October 3, 2015
MANK: Why should I take a baseball bat and bash this film? I do that when it’s frustratingly bad — this was more like meh.
It was dull, generic, could’ve used better writing — but it wasn’t wretchedly unwatchable or some such thing. I do think little kids will like it. It’s colourful. Some of the effects are nicely realised. All of this is in the review.
I can’t write the reviews you want me to write, you know? 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
rajandr
October 3, 2015
Casting a female antagonist has been the formula of the proclaimed screen super stars of Tamil Cinema (Mannan, Padayappa, Pandian). It’s their regressive exhibition of male chauvinism to tame and defeat a female and hence prove their superiority. Puli simply follows this tradition and I don’t see it as a role reversal or emancipation of woman’s rights.
Coming to this movie as you have rightly pointed out political ambitions of Vijay being nurtured in this movie. The antagonists are clearly written keeping the political situation in Tamil Nadu. There are two villains in the movie. One is “தளபதி” (no prize for guessing who goes with this name in TN politics) who’s is simply cruel and a “ruling queen” who’s under some black magic kept under the influence of evil forces surrounding her unleashes tyranny without her knowledge. So Sridevi’s casting should be seen from this perspective where they wanted as yesteryear diva and also a face where they can sell the movie to Hindi audience too. Pure economics.
In one scene Vijay is seen as worshipping a deity or pagan god (damn auto correct always capitalising the g) which is a male. Not sure which indegenious society before Abrahamic religion even thought of a male form as worship worthy. So much for woman’s right.
LikeLike
ThouShaltNot
October 3, 2015
“We were all expecting Brangan to take a baseball bat and bash this film on its head to death”
Easy there MANK! Just when people are decrying levels of violence (& desensitization) within the movie, you have now introduced a new brand of violent imagery – one where you imagine this reviewer brandishing words like director Bala wields the bludgeon at the end of a movie. At this rate, we might have to start rating comments on a Bahubali scale of 1- 5 for its degree of bloodlust. Your comment gets a Bahubali 3 rating 🙂
LikeLike
rajandr
October 3, 2015
One more thing.
While you have been writing continually about the inconsistency with the CBFC in awarding certificate to films I don’t remember you writing about this entertainment waiver scheme of TN government and how that’s affecting the creativive Liberty of artist. One movie (ராஜதந்திரம்) had to even change the climax to be seem fit for tax waive off.
It would be good if liberal minded people write and start a debate around this.
LikeLike
MANK
October 3, 2015
Ah, come come now Brangan sir, you know me better than that. I never insist you write reviews that i expect. It just happens that you always write the reviews that i expect you write. now thats not my fault 😀. so when one of these odd times when you stray from the script, it does set alarm bell ringing. But i liked and appreciated your review – even though i dont concur with most of your views, i thought the VFX were terrible and the photography just not to my liking and the overall scope and scale of the film pretty amateurish at best and so on and on – and i have made it clear in my comment
LikeLiked by 2 people
MANK
October 3, 2015
ThouShaltNot, sorry if i gave you nightmares there, as it happens i was watching The untouchables on my Blu ray and the the head bashing with the bat scene popped the moment i was writing that. it just went right into the comment – you know something like nivin pauly comparing his lady love to sardine fry in the love letter in Premam – another time i might have used a less violent imagery. But our concern was about these violent imagery sneaking into films for kids. Anyway that is scene in an R rated film and strictl5ly for adults and i presume that everybody around here are adults, physically at least 🙂
LikeLike
ThouShaltNot
October 3, 2015
Thank God, you weren’t watching Sharon Stone’s ice pick act from “Basic Instinct”. Your comment after that might have given me an apoplexy 🙂
Presumptuous, I’m not (on that matter) 🙂
LikeLike
brangan
October 3, 2015
I really don’t get this hate for Puli. It’s dull, meh, yes, but hardly an I or Lingaa. 🙂 Big star and big director film seem to get people hysterical.
Another thing I don’t get is how many people rush out to see this despite the bad WOM. It’s horrible that even people who say they like good cinema choose to see this and ignore a Kirumi.
LikeLiked by 2 people
MANK
October 3, 2015
Brangan, there are couple of reasons for that
firstly, Peer pressure
Secondly, ease of access
you go out with a bunch of friends and you choose a film that everyone wants to see and its always these big films with a wide release that we choose to watch. unless its a real crowd pleaser like Jigarthanda, Banglore days or Premam, thats always the routine. You had to go along for these films even against your will as happened with me on this one. Even if these films are bad – in the company of friends we are guaranteed to have a good time. In our group, its just me or may be another guy who is really interested in watching something off beat like kirumi or kakkamuttai, so we plan to catch it later, unfortunately sometimes its too late. a film like kirumi is released in very few theaters and plays for a very short time as opposed to something like puli which is showing in at least 2 theaters near you. so by the time we get down to watching something offbeat, it would have already disappeared. from the theaters. sad but true.
LikeLike
MANK
October 3, 2015
Regarding good films, Brangan try and watch the latest malayalam film Ennu Ninte Moideen starring prithviraj and Parvathy. Its had great success at the BO. Its a charming romantic tragedy – something i havent seen for a long time, superb performances by a great cast and to top that its a very visual film very cinematic. you ought to like it. oh and the subtitling is superb. i have watched it twice, with and without the subtitles and i felt that that this is the best subtitled malayalam film to date. kudos to Rekhs and Latha.
LikeLike
Ram Murali
October 4, 2015
bart and avn – Ha ha! No disguises, avn! And Bart, that was hilarious, no need to mannichoo! I can take a joke, that too a good one 🙂
LikeLike
Sutharsan Ravi
October 4, 2015
@rajandr: Mannan and Padayappa are different. Here in Puli, Vijay didn’t defeat Sridevi. He just broke the magic wand to get the evil off her body. There was no defeat here at all for Sridevi’s Yavana Devi character.
But Mr. Rangan – Can you ever imagine a Kamalhaasan or Rajnikanth play Sridevi’s father in a film? Vijaykumar is a character actor and he was never even big enough a hero to be called “B Grade”.
LikeLike
Prasad
October 4, 2015
BR,
Would be writing review for Talvar? I read very good reviews about Irfan and heard screenplay of Vishal Bharadwaj is very sharp and tight
I know you’re not big time into Television. But have you watched breaking bad? Just wrapped up watching” Breaking Bad”(Probably the last 🙂 ). Actually not seen anything in television like this before. 65 episodes of Pure Genius from Vince Gulligan… the screenplay, characterization, photography, music and acting are TOP NOTCH. Pl do catch up if not already seen.
Other’s
Any other TV episodes you guys can recommend in the league of “Breaking Bad”. Have seen “Fargo” and “Sherlock” they’re good but not like “Breaking Bad”.
LikeLike
Kurinji
October 4, 2015
Seriously ? You are blaming cinema for the lynch mobs ?
LikeLike
Rm
October 4, 2015
@prasad: True detective, the finale turned out to be somewhat disappointing though (not bad, but disappointing).
I did post sometime back requesting Mr.Rangan to do write ups on TV shows as well, occasionally. These days TV series turn out to be much better than most of the movies out there, with their production value on par with commercial films.
LikeLike
SG
October 4, 2015
@brangan: As you rightly said, Chimbu Devan is not lazy, but he is not competent enough to pull this off. Where a single shot is enough, there is an exposition followed by reaction shots(May be he is targeting only kids). Once again one wonders why the directors don’t get an outside opinion. Why don’t they hire better writers? Do they want to take all the glory? Even then surely there are some writers willing to do uncredited rewrites for money?
“I really don’t get this hate for Puli. It’s dull, meh, yes, but hardly an I or Lingaa. 🙂 Big star and big director film seem to get people hysterical.”
Here is the reason why there is so much hate. (This applies to all big star movies). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNZFUgiq7t4&feature=youtu.be
PS: As others said, it is unlikely Vedhalam is inspired by Ajith movie title as the movie is in the making for a long time. The other theory going around is that Ajith is using that title to continue to project him as a competitor for Vijay (considering his box office fortunes in recent times). But I personally don’t think our heroes would stoop to that level. But you never know 🙂
LikeLike
bored (@sasimeka)
October 4, 2015
@prasad the wire is arguably better than breaking bad. try that if you have not already
LikeLike
Supertramp
October 5, 2015
@Prasad Better Call Saul is very good if you have completed Breaking Bad and still craving for more. There are other series like Utopia (UK), Black Mirror, Mr Robot all dealing with dark themes. Then there is of course Narcos. Orange is the new Black has been weak this season, but it is still a good watch. House of Cards too had two good seasons. Inside No. 9, Review with Forrest McNeil if you are craving for black humor and such. Silicon Valley too is a great watch.
LikeLike
Ram
October 5, 2015
“A colourful diversion for undemanding kids”
Heh heh!!! Vijay fans would be tweeting this review on social media, thinking the headline is a compliment 😉
LikeLike
venkatesh
October 5, 2015
@SG: There is a proliferation of “reviewers” on YouTube now. 99.9% of them have no business being in front of a camera.
This is a curious mixture of Andy Warhols “everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes” and the fact that the Indian media has the sensitivity of the British tabloid and the competitiveness of the American TV Channels.
This leads to a situation where we are inundated with banality and cater to the Lowest Common Denominator.
LikeLike
praneshp
October 5, 2015
@venkatesh: Who, in your opinion, has some business being in front of a camera? Many online reviewers today do a better job than biased TV channels. I found a couple of them who look at movies from a diametrically opposite perspective than brangan, and it’s pretty cool to see where in the middle I fall.
The ones that create an account just to trash Thala/Thalapathy will fall away sooner or later. It’s not easy to build a “brand” just hating on one actor, I guess.
LikeLiked by 1 person
kartkum
October 6, 2015
I am a neutral cinema fan and I love watching good movies. This online tweet war is distasteful. True Vijay or Ajith fans are not Dumb. Now, they are sharing praises showered by Superstar and I find most of the tweets even by most of hardcore vijay fans accepting reality by saying the film is average and it is for family/kids audience. Friendly Poking each other’s success and failure is acceptable, but some get more personal, ugly jibes etc. This has to stop and if this trend continues it is not good for cinema and its high time for the supposed superstars to speak on this issue and try stop this online nonsense.
Even @Brangan has replied and I quote ‘I really don’t get this hate for Puli. It’s dull, meh, yes, but hardly an I or Lingaa. 🙂 Big star and big director film seem to get people hysterical’.
@ Brangan – After reading your reviews I watched Burma and Kirumi – Really commendable effort.
LikeLike
chandra prakash
October 7, 2015
“A colorful diversion for undemanding kids”
Heh heh!!! Vijay fans would be tweeting this review on social media, thinking the headline is a compliment 😉 – by RAM,
True, these headlines may give a semi positive tone.
Hi BR, a very candid question, you may chose not to answer, by any chance have you ever been approached by distributors, Movie producers (their assistant/PR guys), Directors, or other film personalities associated with a movie
a. to write positive comments (not necessarily thale mele thookki vechi vilaiyadaradhu) in your review,
b. to not write not very negative comments or
c. not to bash a movie.
Your reviews IMHO have a huge fan following, and to some extent most readers or followers of your reviews have a better taste, than many other online even well established sites reviews (ex: sify,rediff, and others). Your review highlights, recommendations appear regularly in almost all movies info that are on wikipedia (many read them to get additional info on the movies), this is possible because of your official association with The Hindu newspaper.
Also, have you ever written personal letters /commentaries directly to the producers/directors/actors and other film personalities lauding their efforts for making above average or great movies like ‘Kaakka Muttai” or have you written letters (may be e mails) in a nice way to critic them when they failed miserably or took viewers for granted. I feel both Ajith and Vijay are two over rated actors and couldn’t digest the fact that Ajith was paid 25 crores, for such mediocre performance and movie “Ennai Arindhal”. IMHO, they both have some talent but definitely not worth 25 crores, there are many other talents, and I can’t understand the screen presence funda… and all those crap with either of them.
LikeLike
brangan
October 7, 2015
chandra prakash: No one approaches me, alas 🙂 — I think because the English press is not seen as having much influence on the outcome of a film. In the sense, if I rave about Kaaka Muttai, then maybe some fence-sitter audiences will go watch it, but if I diss I, it won’t make a difference.
Also, no “personal letters /commentaries directly to the producers/directors/actors” — unless I know them somewhat (and that’s a very tiny lot). I don’t see the point. I think my reviews are extremely personal themselves, and everything I want to say to the team is right there in the review.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Shankar
December 6, 2015
I finally got around to watching this film… and was pleasantly surprised. I kept myself from reading your review before watching the film so I could have my own judgement. I have to agree with pretty much everything you say here. The writing could have been much better, the script could have packed some more urgency in the first half, the comedy track could have been better etc. However, I did like the film, especially from a fantasy film angle suited for kids. There were little things like the peanut blouse you mentioned that were nice touches. The CGI work was really decent and the sets were nicely done too. The film did have a disadvantage since it released after Baahubali in inviting the comparisons about production and grandeur. But I thought it was okay from that aspect too. Sridevi was a knockout and had a superb role. I was so reminded of Anjelina Jolie in Maleficent. The back story of Vijay was also well thought out though, as you say, the flashback narration could have had seeds planted all along. So, overall, the film was a good mix of ideas from various sources, while still allowing for the star’s needs. You know, when Vijay keeps making his usual masala stuff, we complain… when he tries something completely out of the ordinary, we still complain. Some guys can’t win! 🙂 From that aspect, I wish this film had been better directed and eventually succeeded…
Also, typically we always wish that stars would speak in their own voices… but as I watched the film, I kept wishing that someone should actually dub for Shruti! 🙂
LikeLike
brangan
December 6, 2015
Shankar: I know 🙂 People get all kinds of hysterical when it comes to these big-star movies 🙂
LikeLike