Spoilers ahead…
After the fairly funny Thamizhukku Enn Ondrai Azhuthavum (never mind that it was supposed to be a thriller), director Ramprakash Rayappa returns with a comedy about a man who expels huge gusts of air from a bodily orifice and causes much unpleasantness to others. No. It’s not that. I’m talking about yawning, which, in the world of Pokkiri Raja, is a potent wind generator. Apparently, it’s a thing. We see videos of a South Korean girl who yawned in a restaurant and created a mini-tornado. You just have to be able to harness that power, like Spider-Man harnessed the sticky fluids shooting out of his teenaged body. I think this film is meant as a spoofy riff on superhero movies – but it’s so wretchedly amateurish, it’s hard to say. Sanjeevi (Jiiva) is the chronic yawner. Sunita (Hansika Motwani) is a social activist who hoses down men who pee in public. Sibiraj is a gangster named ‘Cooling Glass’ Guna who’s… um, I don’t think even he knows what he’s doing in the film. During action scenes, the background score goes “Get ready ready ready to die.” Of course. We bought the ticket, didn’t we?
KEY:
- Pokkiri Raja = rogue
- Thamizhukku Enn Ondrai Azhuthavum = see here
Copyright ©2016 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Sreedhar
March 4, 2016
Ouch! 😛
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
March 5, 2016
So you’re back? 🙂
Did you really walk out of the film halfway through or there isn’t anything more to be said?
Sibiraj is a privileged kid (albeit unlucky) – Mani Ratnam kandukkave maatenguraaru. 🙂
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Hari
March 5, 2016
Loooool shortest writeup by BR ever? 😂
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vijay
March 5, 2016
any other Rajini titles still left untouched? Although I don’t see “Bhuvana oru kelvikuri” being used anytime soon..
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jussomebody
March 5, 2016
I like Jeeva. He has such a sweet guy vibe about him, and potential, it seemed like. But with the trash being churned out these days… sigh. This was the industry kid who took some risks early in his career. I wonder what happened. Do middle rung mainstream actors also fall into their own rut in terms of their choice of films, or are there just not enough opportunities for these guys? These indie-film directors and actors seem to be a clique, and work only with each other… and the others are doing the same thing over and over again, irrespective of potential or star power.
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Ravi K
March 5, 2016
The reuse of the title of old Rajini films is a sign that the film is going to be shit. Hopefully it is a reminder that people should go watch those old Rajini films instead of supporting people who pointlessly try to invoke Rajini’s films.
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Iswarya
March 5, 2016
vijay: Nor Aarilirundhu Arubadhu Varai or Nettrikann. Small mercies! 🙂
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Swatkat
March 5, 2016
Why is the movie called pokkiri Raja if it’s about the hero having yawning based adventures? genuinely curious
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Iswarya
March 5, 2016
BR: I hate digging up this topic again but then, there certainly is some method to the madness of the upvote-downvote business here, not even counting the rigging done in the more infamous threads. Just for a sample, this post was created last night and 6 people have responded here so far. Most responses are innocuous observations/mildly exclamatory comments.
I land on this thread, read the review, chuckle. Then I scroll down to the comments, nod in agreement with many of the comments and then notice that every single one of the comments has exactly 1 down vote and 0 up votes. To right the balance and also because I agree with some of the sentiments, I click the up vote here on a few comments and with that, I’m done. I could stop and give no further thought to this, except that there’s a slightly nagging feeling left in me to think that somebody bothered to get up early morning on a Saturday to visit this thread and downvote every single comment here, irrespective of the content, due to.. What? Misanthropy? Peevishness? Just having got out of the wrong side of the bed?
I join the chorus of commenters again to request you to remove this voting option because it’s turning out to be less than meaningless. I also realise that I will be among the first few to be affected by the change since I can no longer lazily click on a button to express agreement or disagreement. But that’s fine. I’m still too lazy to sign up with WP in order to click “Like.” Hereafter let me cultivate the discipline to at least put in a comment saying “I vote this up.” That would also remove the anonymity factor which I think is the culprit.
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Rakesh
March 5, 2016
‘Kottavi’ kumaru.. Is something I could think of… For a movie with this story line.. Better than pokkiri raja!!
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sabharinath
March 5, 2016
“a man who expels huge gusts of air from a bodily orifice and causes much unpleasantness to others. No. It’s not that. I’m talking about yawning”
ROFLZZZZ
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sabharinath
March 5, 2016
After reading the funny intro, I was scrolling down with excitement to read the review passage, expecting your typical sarcasms, and……… Holy COW!!!!! That wasn’t an intro!! That ‘WAS’ the whole review!!!!!!!!….. Probably your shortest review for any film however worse…..as far as I remember…. Excited to see how will it get published in the hindu cinema column…… Probably, the left side box which shows the review summary is enough;-) Bottomline: YAWN…. That’s it;-)
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shaviswa
March 7, 2016
Remember some movie review by Ananda Vikatan which had just one line at the bottom of an empty page – Vetkakedu!
This review is no different! 🙂
But seriously, although this is your job, how do you even gather the courage to go to a movie like this!
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VJ
March 8, 2016
What is with Jeeva and superhero films ? Didn’t he learn anything from the Mugamoodi debacle ?
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venkatesh
March 13, 2016
What a pointless exercise – Jeeva was so good in the initial phase of his career. willing to take risks and do off-beat roles. And it has now come to this.
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