Spoilers ahead…
The opening stretch is solid, but the rest of the film is flat and generic. Much of the cast – Yogi Babu, Redin, Pooja Hegde, poor Shine Tom Chacko – is underutilised.
The first fifteen-odd minutes of Nelson’s Beast show promise. The tone of Vijay’s introduction scene is pleasantly low-key. (He plays a RAW field operative named Veeraraghavan.) There is a pretty decent action stretch. And we get a death that is as unexpected as the death of the little boys in Master. There, those boys died due to the hero’s alcoholism. Here, the death is due to a betrayal, and it changes the Vijay character. He resigns from RAW and begins to see a therapist. A therapist! At this point, I was genuinely surprised. Are we going to get a Vijay movie where the hero is really vulnerable, where his psyche is scarred like in Daniel Craig’s Bond movies?
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/beast/
And you can watch the video review here:
Copyright ©2022 GALATTA.
Baradwaj Rangan 
vijay
April 13, 2022
‘Die hard’ in a mall with some Rush hour type humor thrown in? Nelson seems to be going down the same path as Murukkuvikkaradoss and Fartlee..
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vijay
April 13, 2022
“At this point, I was genuinely surprised. Are we going to get a Vijay movie where the hero is really vulnerable, where his psyche is scarred like in Daniel Craig’s Bond movies?”
idhu konjam overa illa? 🙂 Atleast you didnt expect a Decaprio from Departed..
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Satya
April 13, 2022
Are we going to get a Vijay movie where the hero is really vulnerable, where his psyche is scarred like in Daniel Craig’s Bond movies?
Not gonna lie, but because of Vijay’s look and the visuals in the trailer I almost expected a Bond movie / Indian version of Die Hard. And the Arabic Kuthu song felt like an end credits number, you know, the kind of songs mainstream Bollywood has made a staple in the last few years. Yet to watch the film, so I’ll be here again after I do that.
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shaviswa
April 13, 2022
@satya
Even in Doctor, the duet was in the end credits and not part of the main film.
But then, this is a Vijay film and the director cannot make a film of his choice, no?
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ram1976
April 13, 2022
One thing is clear..whether it is in IT or cinema, Hyderabad has raced ahead of Chennai and thats embarrassing.
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H. Prasanna
April 13, 2022
“And we get a death that is as unexpected as the death of the little boys in Master. There, those boys died due to the hero’s alcoholism.”
This is isn’t unexpected in a Vijay movie, actually. Anyone who follows Vijay lore knows he lost a sister in real life so a death (young girl, usually, until Master) shadows him in his movies. Also, in Jilla, he plays an irresponsible cop and many people die because he refuses to intervene in an incident. And exactly as in Master, he ends up having to hear the cries of the victims to become the “hero”. Even in Master, the “herione” is actually responsible for the boys’ death because she doesn’t tell Vijay what he signs up for (saving the children) until after they are dead.
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KS
April 13, 2022
Did anyone expect anything great from this movie? The promotions were grating and omnipresent, but no number of kuriyeedu and hidden message videos could arouse interest in a trailer that felt flat.
Also, whats the big deal with Nelson and his apparent “dark humor”? There was hardly any humor (dark or otherwise) even in Doctor (no, Redin Kingsley yelling out his idiotic lines does not qualify as humor). The reality is that Tamil cinema currently has no comedians or comic writers. The old guard of comedians are either retired, saturated, dead, or hero aspirants, while the new entrants are pure cringe, inspired more by viral memes than any sense of humor.
As @ram1976 mentioned, Telugu cinema (that we Tamils have always condescendingly mocked for its cartoonishness) is transcending to the next level in scale and imagination while still retaining its organic roots, and getting rewarded with wide acclaim and deserved success. Meanwhile Tamil cinema is still retarded by these wannabe-cool directors sucking up to the Thala-Thalapathies.
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hari
April 13, 2022
wondering how that tamizh la pesu dialogue will be dubbed in hindi. The last suriya movie had prakash raj say the same thing. the hindi issue is getting played out in TN for more than 6 decades so it is not entirely new. any actor well worth thinking of a shot in TN political scape will utter such mass dialogues.
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Sri Prabhuram
April 13, 2022
If this is the result, I’d hate to see what Nelson has for Rajinikanth.
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Spandana
April 13, 2022
BR Sir, may I ask why your reviews on the Galatta site have an Actress Gallery on the side?
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Rahini David
April 13, 2022
BR: Regarding the Tamil review in the side. Should it not be made clear that it is not a translation but a review by someone else?
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TamilThanos
April 13, 2022
Vikram is my last hope and then I will be ready to give up on Tamil massala movies. If these young directors with all their sensibilities cannot resurrect this genre, no one can.
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Rajesh
April 13, 2022
@ram1976 – I dont know about IT. but, w.r.t cinema – For masala cinema – yes, Telugu cinema has crossed the tamil cinema. w.r. t writing, malayalam cinema has crossed … However, Tamil cinema still has a unique space which is of course dwindling
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Rajesh
April 13, 2022
Beast makes us worry about Rajni’s next movie.
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Thupparivaalan
April 14, 2022
Enough with the comparisons already. We don’t even watch all the good Tamil movies being released. Based on one single release season we’re singing the death knell, it’s such a knee jerk reaction. kadaisi vivasayi, Sarpatta Parambarai, Maanaadu, etc we had so many good Tamil films recently.
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Vivek
April 14, 2022
Who knew that such a flat trailer would lead to such a flat movie? 😉
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therag
April 14, 2022
Maanadu was the best film of 2021. Fight me on this.
As for Beast, meh. Even the trailer was unwatchable.
The only Tamil “star” whose movies were worth watching on name recognition alone (for as long as I have been watching Tamil films) was Kamal. And he’s currently in purgatory so I haven’t watched a star film for like 7 years now and it has served me really well.
Why do I still comment on this film and not the Kadaisi Vivasayis or whatever? Still interested in commercial cinema and what works in that realm. And every once in a while, a star surprises us with a Maanaadu or a VIP.
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vandana lakshmi
April 14, 2022
Paavam Rajini. He must be nervous. With his last few disasters like Darbar and Annatthe he must be regretting why he chose Nelson.
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ram1976
April 14, 2022
@Rajesh.. Yes when it comes to Masala and purely commerce we were the 2nd biggest after Hindi. We have lost that spot to Telugu.
In terms of quality, we were never a match for malayalam, but were slightly ahead of Hindi till a decade back. Even now we are ahead of Telugu i believe.
But yes.. overall we a society/culture/civilisation have been on a slump for over a decade now.
Just a few years back we were the 3rd busiest airport..now we are 6th..From 2nd weve fallen to 4th in IT exports. They are all co-related i believe.. lack of reading/imagination results in personality cult which in turn contributes to economic/cultural loss.
There is no doubt about Rajini movie being another disaster in making.
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ram1976
April 14, 2022
When we look at all these star movies in the last few years, We have to say Kaala and Kabali were very refreshing and deserve a re-watch and re-review.
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Raj
April 14, 2022
Pretty much what I expected after seeing the trailer. As TamilThanos said, if these talented directors can’t make a good masala movie with Vijay or Ajith no one can.
Curious to see how long can these actors continue acting in crap movies with their insane salaries.
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brangan
April 14, 2022
Raj: if these talented directors can’t make a good masala movie with Vijay or Ajith no one can.
Just because a director is talented in one kind of film doesn’t automatically mean they can make a “good masala movie”. That is not just five fights, five songs. That is a sensibility. You either have it or you don’t. SSR has it. It flows in his blood. You can see it even in early films like SIMHADRI — how he sets up not just scenes but moments and stages them, or how he writes the echoes. The script-writing for a masala movie is as difficult as for a “serious” movie — if not more.
The problem is that – unlike the Telugu industry — here they refuse to hire talented scriptwriters who may have those instincts. The director is the writer, too.
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H. Prasanna
April 14, 2022
I think we should consider other heroes and BO failures when measuring success of masala movies (after all that is the parameter we use of “serious” movies). People expect more mass than masala things from Vijay, Ajith, Salman, Mahesh Babu, Rajni, Balayya, etc. They are kind of too big to succeed in making a good masala movie. I think the last good masala film I saw in Tamil was Thimir Pidichavan from Vijay Antony.
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Aman Basha
April 14, 2022
“unlike the Telugu industry”-Disagree. Again, I think you’re taking the singular exception of SS Rajamouli (who also works with his father) as the norm. Directors like Koratala Siva or Sukumar or even Puri Jagannadh write their own scripts. And the best masala film to come out of Tamil was Vijay’s own Master, directed by the new gen Lokesh Kanagaraj.
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vijay
April 14, 2022
The average telugu movie or music is not any better than Tamil films. And SSR makes certain kind of myth-masalas well, that’s all. Once every 3-4 years. Lets not overhype them. The underwhelming films dont get blogged about here much. I dont see a sarpatta parambarai or a Asuran or even a Maanadu kind of films coming from Goltland. And these are not arthouse films exactly, they are as mainstream as it can get.
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crash
April 14, 2022
lol everyone getting butthurt cos the shittiness of tamil mass movies is finally (hopefully) catching up to them. all tamil heroes sitting with 100crs per movie, not giving a shit about what the movie is. I hope there’s a crashing fall. a rupee for everytime I hear “they don’t have an asuran. they don’t have a sarpatta” I tried watching visaranai long back and gave up within 45 mins – i felt no emotion except feeling tortured. but what do i know – i’m a philistine. oh yeah, i found kaala and pariyerum to be crashing bores. they just went on and on and barely engaged. sacrilege. seriously, it doesnt take much to make me emotional. awaiting caste jibes in response and taunts about my privelege.
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Shankar
April 14, 2022
Baddy, you were quite generous with your review of this film! It was terrible! I had huge problems with the film. First off, it was pure lazy film making…no effort at all, just action and loud bgm does not maketh a film! I felt the film could have had an ounce of interest if say, the fact that Vijay was a RAW agent was not revealed and the film began directly with the mall takeover. The cries of the child in the mall could be the point of a flashback to the current opening sequence with a bit of reveal of who he was and how he got to be in a security agency. The linear storytelling did not work for me at all. Most if not all characters were just caricatures and one could never invest in any of them. The cringeworthy dialogs added to the caricatureness, some of them quite incredulous. The exposition via the dialogs added to the torture, resulting in my forehead having to deal with pain, and not just from the headache! VTV was grating, and many of us wanted Vijay to put a gun to that patti in the mall! Nothing really led anywhere, be it the IPS lady nor the leading lady! This was just lazy film making and surprising that it came from Nelson, if you considered his previous films. As you said, not all directors can handle big star movies, especially when the stars themselves proclaim that they are risk averse and want to play it safe with a package that has everything for everyone (though Master was a break from that and a good one!). God save Rajini!
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ram1976
April 14, 2022
In a fair world , Rajini/Vijay would be drawing a salary of around 30 crores..Ajith around 20.Surya/Vikam/Dhanush etc around 5-10 as per their market value.
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brangan
April 14, 2022
Shankar: I was generous with this review? Everything you said – no effort in script, VTV Ganesh is a bore – is there in my review.
So unless you troll a film, you are “generous”? 🙂
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vijay
April 14, 2022
Folks here were sufficiently warned. Not sure what made them rush to catch this flick in the first few days itself. It is this kind of ritualistic movie watching on festival days which the system(actor-distributor-DMK nexus) is exploting to the hilt. It will get worse over the next few years with the family taking over the movie business.
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Aman Basha
April 14, 2022
Now that a Kannada movie will beat the biggest Tamil film of the year black and blue, wonder people who make fun of “Goltland” are going to do.
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Prakash Alagarsamy
April 14, 2022
In my opinion people were expecting something like RRR lite it seems. Our big hero movies are usually not worth the money. But to doompost on our movie industry is not correct. We have movies with both Telugu and Malayalam sensibilities and movies with kichdi of all flavours too. The biggest problem is poor screenplay which spoils even decent movies.
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KayKay
April 14, 2022
Ah crap! While you’ll never catch me dead in a theater screening a Vijay flick, the trailer at least had me considering catching it once it’s on streaming. A Die Hard style actioner with Raid-levels of brutal action? As an action junkie, I thought, sign me up!(Although Thala Vali in a fighter jet, with no flight suit, no oxygen and no helmet in the same year we’re getting TOP GUN MAVERICK had me rethinking all of the above)
So apparently, it’s a damp squib. Sigh
One would think Vijay is at a level of comfortable A List stardom to take a chance at a genre flick like a pure adrenaline-spiking action movie.
And even if the writing is mediocre, why can’t the action be good? Hell, those Vidyut Jamwal and Tiger Shroff movies provided stellar fights even if everything else in it sucked balls.
Oh…what the hell am I saying? For the average Vijay fan, the slo-mo walks and punch dialogues ARE the action I guess.
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kaizokukeshav
April 14, 2022
@vijay: “The average telugu movie or music is not any better than Tamil films.”
Totally disagree with the music. True that MDs like Devi Sri Prasad and Thaman are not giving their best (DSP was a real gem in early days). But Tamil stars are relying only on Anirudh is an issue, and he is becoming monotonous over time. Infact it’s Keeravani who was once considered as a competitor worthy to Ilayaraja is still doing fine and Mani Sharma the juggernaut of 2000s is back into business. Telugu films are giving chartbusters from time to time but Tamil MDs like YSR, Imman, Ghibran, Santosh Narayanan are not totally consistent.
It’s about time for AR Rahman and Harris Jayraj to come back from oblivion and revive Tamil commercial cinema music.
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Shankar
April 14, 2022
Baddy, I didn’t add a smiley to the end of my first line, my bad! This film was so ripe for an “Aap ka Surroor” style review from you, missed reading those types of reviews from you lately! 😂 So I didn’t expect any trolling nor would wish for anyone to troll a film or anyone. I have a lot of respect for the institution of film making and the effort behind it, so I try to see the positives in any film.
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vijay
April 14, 2022
“True that MDs like Devi Sri Prasad and Thaman are not giving their best”
Huh..even their “best” is nothing memorable or noteworthy to write home about..
Golt music is dominated by tamil film music rejects like DSP, Thaman and 90s leftovers like Keeravani. They have never managed to produce even a Yuvan or Santhosh narayan forget a Raja or Rahman.
” Infact it’s Keeravani who was once considered as a competitor worthy to Ilayaraja is still doing fine and Mani Sharma the juggernaut of 2000s is back into business”
that tells you the story..dearth of new talent, when old fossils from the 80s/90s are still recruited to make music. Tamil film music itself is going through a low in my opinion, but the story in Goltland is nothing better. It has NEVER been, in the last 40-50 years.
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Thupparivaalan
April 14, 2022
Vijay: Thaman is in the form of his life and has been making bangers 24/7. Ala Vaikintapuramlo, Vakeel Saab, Bhimla Nayak, etc.
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Anuja Chandramouli
April 14, 2022
Beast was lots of fun guys! Vijay was in fine form. He looks amazing and he has really ramped up the charisma and style quotient. Seriously think he just owns all those action set pieces. Brings so much flair to the stunts… The fans were going crazy and the atmosphere was electric!
Best to check your brains at the door cos the script is not exactly Academy award worthy or anything. But I was never bored. The wow factor was through the roof thanks to Vijay, movie is good for a few laughs and Ani’s foot – thumping bgm works well too. Selvaraghavan was surprisingly decent although his voice has a grating quality (no wonder that chap from 7G was so hard on the nerves!) to it.
Honestly, I preferred Beast to Doctor where I really couldn’t laugh because of the human trafficking/flesh trade thing. Not bad overall! May not have liked it as much if I had watched KGF first though…
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KayKay
April 14, 2022
vijay, I respect your opinion, but that’s some pretty harsh judgement you delivered on a bunch of fine composers, IMHO.
To label Thaman and DSP as “Tamil Movie rejects” is extremely unfair. These guys do produce good work, could just be the sheer competition in Tamil with so many composers flooding the scene (in addition to Anirudh and SaNa, there’s Ghibran, Imman, Govind Vasantha, Sam CS, Dharan, Leon James, Sean Roldan, GVP etc etc etc with vets like ARR, Harris and Yuvan still popping up now and then) that they can’t really make a mark.
TFM still produces great music, but thanks to Karthik’s Milliblog, I’ve had a chance to listen to more Telugu music these past 2 years and I must say am surprised at the number of luscious melodies coming out of their soundtracks and they’ve even surpassed Malayalam film songs in their usage of a strong classical base to underpin many of their ballads. The latter of which explains why Sid is the current reigning superstar there.
And while Keeravani (who will always be Maragathamani to me) I agree could never reach the heights of a Rahman or Raja as I feel his music is better suited to smaller more intimate movies, the man is a gifted composer. By calling him a “90s leftover” and “old fossil” you make it sound like the man should be scouting for retirement homes already! He’s 60. So I wonder what you make of John Williams who scored Rise Of Skywalker at the age of 87!
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vijay
April 14, 2022
KayKay, I dont think highly of TFM itself, i.e current day TFM. But that aside, I am merely disputing the notion peddled above that everything is hunkydory with Telugu music and films while everything associated with Tamil films and music is suddenly very mediocre.That is a pretty blunt if not harsh assessment too and in my opinion an incorrect one. One that suffers from maybe recency bias(RRR) and selective amnesia.
If somebody like Thaman couldnt survive in TFM because of intense competiton as you say but is flourishing in Telugu, then that actually sums up the story, what I have been saying earlier.
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shaviswa
April 14, 2022
I must agree that Telugu film music these days is sounding much better than TFM. TFM is utter crap and noise.
Telugu films are churning out hummable melodies, some really funky music and some foot tapping numbers too.
Sorry to bust your bubble Vijay – but Thaman and DSP are actually doing a pretty good job in Telugu.
When we go on long drives, my son these days plays only Telugu songs. He gets to know the latest hit from his friends and plays them to us in the car. And boy they are really good especially when you compare them to the crap that is coming out in TFM these days.
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TamilThanos
April 14, 2022
Relax guys, the movie is not that terrible to agonize over Tamil Nadu losing its economical status and Sun Pictures taking over the big start production. Jeez!
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KS
April 15, 2022
How did this recent trend of promising young directors, with hardly a couple of interesting films in their resume, landing big budget bonanzas with superstar-thala-thalapathy come about?
All of these directors seem to make an impact in their debut and sophomore projects. They all seem to have good ideas and exposure to quality cinema. But also seem to jump at the first chance at a superstar movie, and end up diluting their essence and coming out with shoddy half-baked products. I get that its everyone’s dream to have superstar as hero, and nobody would spurn when such an opportunity comes knocking. But is that the be-all-end-all of their entire cinematic ambitions?
Why not hone their craft further with a few more projects with more approachable actors? There is a large pool of mid-level, very competent, dependable actors who can straddle the zone between mass stardom and decent quality. Like Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Arya, Jiiva, Simbhu etc. Working with such actors too would qualify as “adutha level”, but in a more stable sustainable way. It would give the directors more experience and opportunities to explore and learn how to balance stardom with their own vision. They could then graduate to the next level- collaborate with Dhanush, VijaySethupathi, Surya, Sivakarthikeyan, Vikram. And finally reach the summits with Thala-Thalapathy-Superstar. Assuming they still care to.
Ellathlayum avasaram.
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Madan
April 15, 2022
KS: Could be insecurity. Middle budget films are getting squeezed out post pandemic and the OTT boom. If a director becomes a go-to for superstar projects, they have broken into the big league and can make more of that thing that starts with M that we all need. Same reason why really good directors associate with Marvel even though the final cut belongs to Disney and they are going to be censored every step of the way so that they make the film Disney wants. It keeps them in the biz whereas if a few mid budget films don’t do well they would have vanished and people will simply assume they have ‘lost it’.
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Madan
April 15, 2022
I agree with vijay that the talent isn’t the problem and there is a recency bias in declaring Tamil as a doomed industry and Telugu as far superior.
The problem instead is Tamil films speak too much to Tamilians and Tamil Nadu and lack the ability to reach a large audience outside it. You CAN watch Arjun Reddy, let alone Baahubali, without having too much contextual information about the mileu. That’s become kind of impossible with at least the big budget vehicles coming from TN.
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sachita
April 15, 2022
I havent watched the movie. But just last month ( well exaggerating a bit) everyone loved Nelson’s Doctor and said he was awesome. One day after of beast, he is on the other end of spectrum already?
Also, I am thinking I am the last remaining Vijay hater. Cant stand his movie(theri and sarkar did this to me) or the guy. But now people like him better than Rajni.
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sachita
April 15, 2022
@KS Nelson did very well with SK. He meets the technicality there. Interesting SK is there along with vijay sethupathi, Dhanush and Vikram. If it is based on mass hero, VJ cant be there or if it is based on acting, then SK cant be there.
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H. Prasanna
April 15, 2022
A fantastic review of Beast from Rogerebert.com:
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beast-movie-review-2022
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vijay
April 15, 2022
from Ebert’s site review, reviewer name is some Simon Abrams, assuming he is an American..
“The key to enjoying “Beast” is accepting its inelegant, inconsistent, and often insane terms and conditions. There’s so much of everything—and in such haphazard portions!—that the main thing holding this thing together often seems to be the movie’s centralized location and Vijay’s abundant and well-advertised swagger.”
Nothing quite like them telling us how we need to enjoy our thala/thalapathi masalas 🙂
Ebert is probably restless in his grave right about now wondering about how he is missing out on all the fun.
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ram1976
April 15, 2022
@Sachita : Ive never watched a Vijay or Ajith movie in theatre..Cant stand any of their films.
Rajini’s biggest mistake over the last few years have been 2 movies with Ranjith and his political misadventures.. both have dented is popularity by a large margin..
On the other hand Vijay has been consistently helped by BJP opposing him, calling him Joesph Vijay and his statements/punch dialogues against centre etc..
Till as recently as Kabali, Vijay and Ajith were no match for Rajini.
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rsylviana
April 15, 2022
Just watched the movie … it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be after reading all the reviews and comments but it was still a very disappointing watch. The only positives I found in the movie were the music and Vijay looking so damn good ! That man is aging like fine wine but dear God can he have just the teensiest bit of integrity and just drop the practice of asking a promising director at gunpoint to make film for him and then not trust the director to make his own script. It’s not like he has a shortage of writers or directors ready to make a film for him . So why do this kind of disservice to someone who is at the beginning of their career? Just the picturisation and segue to ArabicKuthu had me throwing my hands up in the air. They go to a wedding because of one of the most illogical reasons ever seen in Tamil cinema (a pretty high bar to reach actually) and then just dance to a Wannabe Arabic song … why ?! North Indians like Arabic music ?! The heroine is into Arabic songs ?! Not even the segue to the dream sequence within the song is done properly. One minute the hero is barely getting introduced to the heroine , next minute the said heroine is dancing to the Arabic Kuthu in the wedding and the minute after that the hero and heroine enter a dream sequence where they are dancing dressed as “Arabs” calling each other sweetie cutie and whatnot. The film has such a lagging middle that I was about to doze off as I had already had quite a busy day until then. Poor Nelson , even when watching this film I felt this is exactly the kind of film he must have grown up making fun of and determined to not emulate but now has himself made ‘this’ after having succumbed to the star and his demands.
P.S – To be fair , Nelson did warn us in the FilmCompanion Directors Roundtable saying ‘Namaku pudicha maari padam panna hero othukamaataaru saar!’ 🙊
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The Man The Myth The Legend
April 15, 2022
You guys are over-reacting. Not every tamil film is a anti-caste left-wing poverty porn. Mainly Suriya and his films maybe… but others are pretty indifferent. Annaththe, Valimai, Beast, are all trying to entertain…except they miscalculated the meter of sentiment, hero worship and other small factors.
Films like RRR, KGF come once in a blue moon, and yet no-one is ready to talk about the remaining 99 other Telugu films which come out which are in a sorry state. Recent disastors include Khiladi, Ghaani, Bheemla Nayak, and another 50 odd rom-coms. I guess we are doing better in that aspect since Taanakaran, Sila Neangalil, Manmadha Leelai, KadaisiVivasayi, etc are somewhat watchable.
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sridharraman
April 16, 2022
A doubt on the cuts in the movie. Did everyone’s versions have all the killing scenes cut? Watched it on the UK, and it was jarring. Random cuts before you realise it was to avoid showing blood or something gory. No idea why Nelson agreed to these cuts.
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Thupparivaalan
April 16, 2022
KS: idhula pirachanai Ennaana pudhusu pazhasu ellarume thala thalapthy Rajni vachu padam pannun podhu sodhapuraanga 😂 ARM, H Vinoth, KS Ravikumar (lingaa), ellarumme sodhapi dhaan these stars have turned to these new gen guys.
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Thupparivaalan
April 16, 2022
Only when you watch a film like beast you realize how miles ahead of his time Kamal was in films like Vishwaroopam. There he marries the star and the story with great cohesion, while also directing himself. I sometimes wonder if we’ve lost a great director in Kamal because the man is an actor. The way he stages action in Vishwaroopam is just spectacular.
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rsylviana
April 16, 2022
I didn’t find the film to be as bad as the reviews and comments made me think but even then it was such a disappointing watch. The only positives I found in the film were the music and Vijay looking so damn good . That man is aging like fine wine but dear God can he have just the teensiest bit of integrity and drop this habit of calling up a promising director to make a film for him and then not trust the director and their talent. It’s not like there is shortage of writers and directors already lining up to do a film for him anyway. So why do this to these poor guys who are at the beginning of their careers? Even the picturisation and segue to Arabic Kuthu had me throwing my hands up in the air. After going to a wedding for one of the most illogical reasons found in Tamil cinema (a pretty high bar to touch actually), the hero is dancing with the heroine to a wannabe Arabic song in the wedding . Why ? Do North Indians like Arabic Music ?! The heroine is fond of Arabic songs ? Even the segue into the dream sequence within the song is not done properly. One minute the hero is barely getting introduced to the heroine , the next minute the heroine is dancing to a Arabic song in the wedding and in the minute after that the said hero and heroine enter a dream sequence dressed as ‘Arabs’ calling each other sweetie, cutie and whatnot. Poor Nelson , this is exactly the kind of film he must have grown up watching making fun of and determined to not emulate as a director but now has been forced to make this after having succumbed to the star and his demands. I feel the movie he must have written was just the hostage drama without the first part and the songs(except the theme music and background score maybe) but Vijay must have thrown a tantrum so he decided to bookend the film with the two songs .
P.S – To be fair , Nelson did warn us in the FilmCompanion Directors’ Roundtable saying “Namaku pudicha maari padam panna hero othukamaataaru saar!” 🙊
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Madan
April 16, 2022
“Also, I am thinking I am the last remaining Vijay hater” – You shall forever have my company in that regard. I dislike both him and beer belly race car driver. Apropos my echo chamber comments here and in the other thread, the fact that Vijay and Ajith are the biggest stars in TN is exhibit A or rather the epitome of the problem. At least when Rajni was the superstar, those outside didn’t question whether he possessed the charisma to be one though they may have mocked his dialogues and action gestures. Likewise, Kamal showing off his ulaganayagan ultra-versatility was looked upon with admiration outside. That ‘transferability’ is gone with Vijay/Ajith; I don’t think most people outside TN, myself included, can understand why they are supposed to be THE stars of Tamil cinema as if it has nothing better to offer and this generates tremendous negative perception that overshadows the other good mid or small budget films. Karthi as a star would probably be much more palatable outside even if he is kinda blase and a bit too ‘cool’ for that slot.
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shaviswa
April 16, 2022
@Madan
Agree. The two super stars today are horrible.
Somehow Dhanush has found better acceptance outside India and Surya has a good following in Andhra and Telengana
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shaviswa
April 16, 2022
I meant to say “outside TN”
My bad 🤦
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Madan
April 16, 2022
Yup and that’s because Dhanush is a legit good actor who can render his roles powerfully (as in Atrangi Re) apart from also nailing the typical star intro/mass moments. It’s been too long now to even ask Vijay/Ajith to ‘try acting for a change’. Most likely they have forgotten too much about it at this point. They do act in a manner of speaking, acting out the persona of Vijay/Ajith respectively that their fans want to see and that’s as far as it goes.
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sanjana
April 16, 2022
There are anti estabhishment films and pro government films with committed actors and directors. These films have become too loud in some cases.
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madhusudhan194
April 16, 2022
In Beast, Nelson tries to rework the formula that worked wonders for him in Doctor. The result though is an uneasy mix of absurdist humor, star worship and some very unimaginative action. The humour actually works at many places but frustrates when it doesn’t. Vijay is in form but he doesn’t get much to work with. There is one mass scene that genuinely works. This film needed at least ten. It ultimately falls on a no man’s land with no one to pick it up.
In Doctor too, the villain’s men acted like complete idiots in many scenes. But it felt right. Those scenes belonged in that film. Whereas in Beast, the ‘red box’ scene (similar in concept to the wrist slapping scene in Doctor) was anything but funny. This film was just tonally off from start to end. I don’t know if Vijay can be blamed here really. The writing just never gets going. The action sequences were off, choreography in the Arabic kuthu song was off, the villains were off, Selvaraghavan’s character (what a waste of talent!) was off, the climax was a huge off.
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chvs Chaitanya
April 16, 2022
I watched it in Telugu in Hyderabad in a small single theater, as it was a weekday there were only less than 50 people in theater for that show. Despite the flaws mentioned in above comments(like the intelligence of terrorists, no bullet touching vijay, the car scene interval).. i should say that i never got bored in the theater and i can say that rest of the viewers also enjoyed it, they were laughing for every joke and they sat through the whole jolly o gymkhana song cheering for every beat.
I feel that the swag and the style in the fight sequences made me overlook the logic and enjoy it. Especially the fight sequence where the two comedians cover vijay with two doors. It was a pure magic, the bgm, vijay’s swag and the lighting created such a WOW moment which made me to forget the logic.
I opted to watch it in single theater near by my house because of the negative reviews, i thought why spending 300-400 rs to watch it in INOX and PVR. But to my suprise the film worked really well for me with plenty of jokes, vijay’s dance and anirudh’s bgm.
I wish i had watched it on first day first show in Chennai
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ram1976
April 17, 2022
An Ajith or Vijay movie is not merely an affront to notions of art , but also entertainment in cinema. The very fact that they are the biggest stars in tamilnadu, says a lot about how much we have deteriorated over the years. Any comparison with Rajini is unfair. Rajini is a vastly superior and more charismatic actor. They are unfit to lace his boots. So long as they continue to act , it will be a downfall for Tamil cinema. As someone said, Karthi is more fit to take it forward.
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kaizokukeshav
April 18, 2022
@Vijay: “Tamil cinema rejects” is just a phrase that might have come out of mere frustration. The MDs here are Telugu born by native and Tamil is just their partime industry. Thaman might have acted in Boys but it doesn’t make him Tamilian (he himself is a descendant of Ghantasala).
Manisharma and Keeravani coming back doesn’t mean there is dearth but the opposite. They are actually doing overtime to groom their heirs in the industry (their children are already giving hit albums). No one is denying the merit of Tamil musicians and some of them are absolute legends, but the impact is definitely lacking
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shaviswa
April 18, 2022
DSP was born at Madras but he is of Telugu origin. I think same holds for Thaman too.
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vijay
April 18, 2022
“Thaman might have acted in Boys but it doesn’t make him Tamilian (he himself is a descendant of Ghantasala).’
But he did try his hand in TFM, before heading to his native state. DSP tried to make a run here as well. And I am sure they both are comfortably bilingual. So thats not the point. The point is, they tried, but they couldnt keep it going here. Whereas they found their comfort zone in Teluguland. Maybe if they did the same type of music here in TFM what they are doing now in Telugu, they would have just been also rans at best.
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shaviswa
April 19, 2022
@vijay
TFM today requires crappy music. There are many who are doing it today.
DSP and Thaman – though not Raja or Rahman level – are able to come up with catchy and hummable music. And they are doing very well in Telugu.
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RK
April 20, 2022
@Vijay
Anirudh, Harris Jayaraj, Yuvan etc tried to break into Telugu film industry but they are not as successful as in Tamil. Does it make them less talented? Music director’s success not only depends on their talent but also on various other factors. Music directors themselves may not be interested or don’t get time to expand into other market once they have found their success in an industry. Thaman used to get trolled severely in Telugu states during his initial 7-8 years career. He turned the tables in 2018 with Tholi prema and he is on a roll now.
From my POV, IR and ARR are the greatest film music directors India has produced. Telugu people love them as much as Tamilians, if not more. Barring these two, remaining picture is same to same 🙂
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shaviswa
April 20, 2022
Gopi Sundar from the Malayalam film industry also seems to have found his own niche in the Telugu film industry.
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vijay
April 20, 2022
“Barring these two, remaining picture is same to same ”
RK, thats exactly my point. Its a same-same picture, so dont sell me the story of Telugu music being somehow superior or anything earth shattering. If Thaman gives hits there, then Anirudh gives hits here and so on and on.. Rest of it is subjective.
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Madan
April 20, 2022
vijay: Very well argued. Yes, the difference is simply that older listeners are more amenable to MM Kreem composing more on the lines of what film music conventionally was like while Anirudh is more polarizing but clearly has a following with young listeners. It’s not what I’d like but that’s neither here nor there.
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Soumya
April 23, 2022
In reference to some comments on music above, I think Keeravani/Marathagamani is certainly someone that could be considered in the leagues of all time great musicians of India just like Maestro Ilayaraja, A R Rahman, etc. Some of his music produced in 90s are still priceless and timeless. Even today, he is able to produce absolute gems of compositions/BGMs as in the Bahubali series, RRR, etc. He is definitely not someone to be ignored lightly.
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Madan
April 24, 2022
Soumya: Your mileage may vary but at best, you could make a case to compare Raja and Rahman’s recent work with MM Kreem. This is not a slight on him. But subscribing to the tyranny of niceness demands that you first talk DOWN Raja and Rahman’s achievements so that you can relativize those as similar to MM Kreem’s. Just in Telugu alone, Raja probably had more hits in the 80s than MM Kreem in his entire career. Likewise, a few memorable soundtracks like Criminal or Jism cannot compare to the pan India impact of Roja, Bombay, Rangeela, Dil Se, Taal to name just the prominent 90s Hindi soundtracks of Rahman.
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Sai Ashwin
May 12, 2022
Why does every comment section under a mainstream film turn into a whine-fest especially if its a disappointing film?
There is barely any discussion on the actual film itself. One would expect a blog of a respected film critic to attract cinephiles discussing craft and not twitter/facebook level cringe discussions.
This is probably the cognitive dissonance BR also feels.
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