Spoilers ahead…
I think Nelson wanted to do a very bloody and very violent movie, but was forced to make it warm and cuddly because… “family audiences”.
There’s a galaxy of major and minor stars in Nelson’s Jailer: Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar, Ramya Krishnan, Vasanth Ravi, Tamannaah, Marimuthu, Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh, Jaffer Sadiq, Redin Kingsley… None of them makes an impression. If your response to this observation is to throw back your head and laugh… If you say, “This is a Rajinkanth movie, so who cares about anyone else”… If it’s enough that we get callbacks to old films and old lines and old habits like smoking on screen… If all you seek is nostalgia, like Rajinikanth reuniting with his Uttar Dakshin costar Jackie Shroff… If all you want is a series of shots of Superstar looking stylish and cool, including one super-stylish and super-cool shot where we glimpse his booted feet through a half open door… Then read or listen no further. You don’t need this review.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/jailer/
And you can watch the trailer / video review here:
Copyright ©2023 GALATTA.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Sri Prabhuram
August 4, 2023
Despite Beast, I do have some hope for this movie, although Anirudh’s songs are very underwhelming. However, given that there is a huge cast (with the likes of Mohanlal, Shiva Rajkumar, Jackie Shroff), I am skeptical about how they will be utilized in this movie.
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hari
August 4, 2023
We tried to Identify all the movies that was showcased in the trailer – we could come up with Beast, Doctor, Annatha, Baasha, Vikram, petta, darbar. This is going to be a kadambam of all Rajni movies looks like.
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Macaulay Perapulla
August 4, 2023
I saw the trailer and it felt utterly boring. How long will you make this thatha do such nonsense? Tickets are open for booking in my part of the world and I have no interest at all. I can happily wait until it shows up in OTT platform.
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Hari
August 4, 2023
When did ‘mass’ take on this definition of violent protagonist engaging in bloody (and barely believable) combats? It’s so boring. Pretty sure Leo would also be on similar lines.
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vijay
August 4, 2023
Failer, not for me.
Rajni’s escape from politics citing health(but apparently that same health doesnt prevent him from shooting in different cities with extras or heroines half his age I guess) would have taken a toll on his films at the BO I would’ve imagined..But I guess I underestimated the idiocy of his fans
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Caesium
August 4, 2023
Yeah, it seemed definitively in the Baasha template. I’m interested in seeing how Nelson has weaved in his dark humor touch (like that scene with dead bodies on Ramya Krishnan’s lap). Also, I wanna see this alternate universe timeline where Padayappa & Nilambari end up together.
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Prat
August 4, 2023
Is tamanna the heroine, btw? Couldn’t spot her in the trailer lol.
Funny enough, I like the album, especially the bizarre Kaavaalaa, for which anirudh’s brief must’ve been “make it sound like porn without making it sound like porn”. The video is gonna be so cringe with Rajni walking alongside Tamanna.
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hari prasad
August 4, 2023
She’s only there for the Kaavalaa song , I guess.
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tamil thanos
August 4, 2023
Sivaji was the last movie that had utilized Rajini well (underwhelming plot and all that aside, it had a good masala moments). While Petta was better than some of his outings, it was mostly a tribute film. I hope Jailer gets to be more Nelson and less Rajini. I cannot take heroes walking in slow motion after beating up someone as mass/masala anymore.
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Sundar
August 4, 2023
It will be interesting if that Puli can turn back into Poonai for an Action-Comedy but i am sure disease will only work one way for this movie, under complete control of Puli
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Rajesh
August 4, 2023
Somehow, I feel like it is a story for Sivakarthikeyan kind of star and not for a SUPER STAR. May be they believe that all those rocket launchers and guns will make it a super start movie. Also, having too many stars might actually backfire. I only hope I am proved wrong.
SK’s Doctor did really well because of the less star appeal casting.
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Aman Basha
August 10, 2023
If BR gives Jailer a thumbs-up, every box office record of Tamil films is under threat. Thalaivar is still king, Vijay and Ajith fans will see what true superstardom is.
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hari prasad
August 10, 2023
Even a meh or a not bad response from him is enough…
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lovedaycabal
August 10, 2023
another one bites the dust…
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Vazhipokkan
August 10, 2023
Just watched this movie in an Atlanta suburb. Total fun except a couple of stretches near climax. It’s a mix of Baasha and Indian template but with a healthy dose of Nelson style dark comedy. All the cameos were great! Of all the new age directors (Ranjith, Karthik Subburaj, Siva), Nelson seems to understand Rajni better. He showcases Rajni’s screen presence without diluting reality (age, range of emotions) too much. It was amazing to see even small characters scoring so much. I won’t reveal names, but the best dialog in the movie belonged to a lesser known guy. Total treat for Rajni fans – unlike Linga or Petta, both of which were middling at best. After a long time, a satisfying Rajni movie. And he does prove that he is still the King!!!!!
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Shankar
August 10, 2023
Spoilers:
I liked a lot of what was in the film especially with regards to Rajni, the choices the director makes keeping his age in mind yet providing several whistle worthy moments through the film. Lots of “mass” in this film, and we nostalgic types will enjoy it, including enjoying all the Easter eggs in the dialogues! The film has a great first half but unravels post interval. The story and screenplay go haywire…characters pop in and out without depth (you could have taken Mohanlal out and not missed anything)…all masala elements but not enough of a wholesome knot. This was attempted as Rajni’s Vikram (last year’s film) but falls way short! Director Nelson squanders yet another opportunity to show he is the same guy that made KK and Doctor though this is a different kind of film! I’m sure this film will still be a huge hit…but I came out with mixed feelings. I loved all the masala bits but wished more attention was paid to the second half…
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Satya
August 10, 2023
This maybe Rajinikanth’s VIKRAM. I loved it, though I am not sure how the ending will be received.
PS. Vinayakan is the best thing that happened to this film.
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tamil thanos
August 10, 2023
It feels like another squandered opportunity after what looked like a promising first half from Nelson. I wished the movie had more gutsy subversions like having Rajini as a background dancer (I laughed so much for that scene). I still believe Petta has been the best Rajini movie in a decade. It set out to achieve what it intended and it boggles me as to why Karthik Subburaj is not given another chance. Yet another year and the wait continues for a masala/mass Rajini movie where the whistles fly for more than slow motion walks after beating the bad guys.
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Bala
August 10, 2023
My guess is BR is going to be negative. There will be passing references to the good parts but headline and bottomline will be negative.
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hari prasad
August 10, 2023
I don’t think so , he’s gonna tell a ok not bad or a meh review but I think he would refer Petta a lot and compare it with Jailer on what the movie has done with Rajinikanth.
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Srinivas R
August 10, 2023
The link points to review of Kolai.
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therag
August 10, 2023
“there’s a sword attack on a child and bodies being dissolved in acid” -> at least there’s no decapitated corpses and gory stabbings. Rajni 1. Kamal 0.
Thanks BR. Hard pass.
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Satya
August 10, 2023
Hari Prasad: That was genius, and exactly how this review turned out to be. I am sure BR will NEVER give a positive review for a Rajinikanth film. I would rather have a Mani Ratnam-esque romance in real life as a dream that can come true and hope for it. The stakes are that impossible now.
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shaviswa
August 10, 2023
OK. So along expected lines only. Why do newage directors even venture to make movies with Rajinikanth or Vijay or Ajith? It should be clear to them that they are never going to make a movie that they want to make. It will always pander to the star’s fan base, family base, etc.
Let us hope Nelson gets to make a movie with a different cast next and gets back to form.
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Sundar
August 10, 2023
New age directors == Meghan Markle. Stay out of the Royal family
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vijay
August 10, 2023
“Why do newage directors even venture to make movies with Rajinikanth or Vijay or Ajith?”
Money and optics, what else?
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abishekspeare
August 10, 2023
I do think Jailer is one of the better Rajini movies post the demigod-ization of Baasha. Petta stands undefeated but compared to the unbearable Annaathe , Linga, Kochadaiyan, Baba and Kabali this one is miles ahead and does have a distinctive director’s flavor which mostly works
And I don’t think it is entirely fair to evaluate a rajini movie along the lines of other movies. They are made for a certain kind of experience, they have their set of unique points to tick
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brangan
August 10, 2023
“And I don’t think it is entirely fair to evaluate a rajini movie along the lines of other movies. They are made for a certain kind of experience, they have their set of unique points to tick”
Can be extrapolated as:
“And I don’t think it is entirely fair to evaluate a VIJAY movie along the lines of other movies. They are made for a certain kind of experience, they have their set of unique points to tick”
“And I don’t think it is entirely fair to evaluate a AJITH movie along the lines of other movies. They are made for a certain kind of experience, they have their set of unique points to tick”
PETTA managed to meld Rajini-ism and a director’s vision quite well. So why cut other films slack?
Otherwise, by this logic, why blame ANNAATHE, DARBAR etc.
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sravishanker1401gmailcom
August 10, 2023
This thread is an FDFS for BR’s review :):)
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Ganesan Kandasamy
August 10, 2023
Watched this FDFS at Shaw Seletar Mall and I thought it was decent. I personally liked it more than Annaatthe and Darbar. It is better than Beast. The star of the show remains Rajini’s make-up artist and costume designer.
I think Rajini remains an inspiration to every Indian senior citizen across the globe in terms of aging gracefully on-screen, beating up bad guys and barking orders at timid women.
The main antagonist, while impressive, was pretty much the usual sadistic and unhinged villain. The last time Rajini went head-to-head with a cool bad guy was Raghuvaran and they just don’t make bad guys like that anymore. Maybe Fahadh Faasil can be the bad guy in Rajini’s next movie.
The cameos by the 3 other stars felt redundant to me. Not sure what exactly they brought to the table – was their presence meant to be a show of diversity and inclusion?
I hope that Rajini makes a film with Lokesh Kanagaraj next or maybe Karthik Subbaraj could make another tribute/ love letter just to show the others how it is done.
Having said that, I will watch it again when it debuts on Netflix or Prime.
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hari prasad
August 10, 2023
It’s bewildering that Rajini is not considering Karthik Subbaraj despite Petta’s success.
I wish his farewell movie be directed by him because I think he’s the only new gen guy that clearly got how to direct a Rajini movie and the essence of the mass of Rajini.
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abishekspeare
August 10, 2023
Yes indeed it can be extrapolated to “a big star’s movie is made for a certain kind of experience” – at least that’s how the system has been, right? What these movies mostly lack in terms of coherence or filmmaking, they are supposed to compensate with giving us(the general audience at least) a ball of a time, right?
The issue with an Annaathe/Darbar is within the points to be ticked for a rajini movie, it does a very bad job. Within the points to be ticked for a rajini movie , Petta does a good job – great rajini-customization, good enough in other departments
The rajini/vijay/ajith-customization dimension is non existent for other movies…I’m not saying this is how it should be – but this is how it has been
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PK Rao
August 10, 2023
BR’s review sounded like: Nelson maybe had a DC version (more like TDK or Joker) of the script but it ended up being Marvellized due to Rajini.
Anyway Rajini’s movies are worth the OTT watch when multitasking with work. Will wait. Yaaaawn. Meanwhile the stories and presence he has on stage is amazing – that 1 hour stage performance (ok, speech) – how cool and inspiring was that to see an aged man have that kind of ability to hold an audience!
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Chanakya
August 10, 2023
The problem with most of these modern star movies is that the heroes are way too powerful. Essentially, all these star vehicles create superheroes without equally powerful supervillains. Rajamouli is probably the only one who still understands that the villain needs to be more powerful than the hero. It’s only interesting when the odds are stacked against the hero.
This movie too suffers from the same problem. I never felt Rajni or his family were ever in danger after the first attack on his house. Towards the end, I almost started rooting for Vinayakan. He seemed like the underdog.
Only a few jokes landed, but a most unexpected moment made me laugh out loud. When a fruit seller throws a bomb inside a car, he uses the lit cigarette/match of the guy sitting in the car to light the fuse. It made me spit my drink.
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hari prasad
August 10, 2023
But then , Rajamouli created a generic British villain who was presented too weak that Tarak and Ramcharan could have easily beaten him up at the 1st half itself in RRR and still no one would have complained.
If even the “master” is struggling to write a supervillain for these mega macho heroes , then something is wrong.
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Chanakya
August 10, 2023
Hari Prasad: Yes, RRR had the weakest villain in his filmography. But even in that film, the conflict was such that the heroes were fighting each other for the most part. And that was the most entertaining portion of the movie because they were equally matched in their strength. When they do eventually team up, we got a very underwhelming climax.
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Chanakya
August 10, 2023
On a related note, third acts have always been Rajamouli’s achilles’ heel. His films feel like two thirds was directed by him and the rest handed over to someone else to finish.
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Prat
August 10, 2023
Surprised to see the love for Petta here. It was a yawnfest. I’m not a rajni fan, but that film was barely engaging. I don’t understand why anyone directing rajni has to immediately make a love letter or tribute or whatever. Our directors are so in awe of their own awe of Rajni that they keep embarassing themselves repeatedly. It’s time Rajni starts acting in real films and abandon these cringey tributes. Kaala avoided this cliche. As did Kuselan.
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gnanaozhi
August 10, 2023
First half done and I think this is the first Rajni movie I am truly enjoying after Shivaji the Boss. He really owns comedy as most of us would agree and dark(ish) comedy really agrees with him.
I agree with BR on one thing, I think Nelson dreamt this up as a buddy road mass murder comedy, Rajni and Yogibabu on the road butchering their way through 100’s. But I guess “family sentiments” won in the end.
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Bala
August 10, 2023
From the reivew, it seems like all BR wanted to convey was “I hate that this movie is going to be liked by many”.
I agree with Prat, can’t understand why Petta is highly rated. I am a Rajni fan, and i feel Kaala is his best post padayappa, including shivaji and endhiran. I felt even Kabali was good too, but Petta’s one moment of brilliance (flashback murder scene) saved it from being a terrible.
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Madan
August 10, 2023
” I don’t understand why anyone directing rajni has to immediately make a love letter or tribute or whatever. ” – Because it is what the hardcore fans understand. I have said this a few times before – more or less every time there is a new Rajni film – but hardcore fans were meh about the biggest crossover hit Rajni has had post-Padayappa – Endhiran. I remember somebody who was an AD at Ernst & Young complaining about the lack of Rajni-isms in Endhiran, that’s how entrenched the fans’ need is. The problem is it seems even the hardcore fans can no longer agree on what is the ideal Rajni fan service film is.
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Madan
August 10, 2023
it is what the hardcore fans want.
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Rajesh
August 11, 2023
I am quite surprised, how they showed a popular/top heroine as someone without much brains and as a typical loosu ponnu. While on other hand, they teach lessons about respecting women.
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Rajesh A
August 11, 2023
The following movies came to my mind
Post interval – Baasha, Paandian
Crown looting – Guru
Fake Crown – Rajathi Raja
Vinayakan’s Undergound setup – Guru shishyan
Climax – Father emotional blackmail – Indian movie
And anyone watching the movie will easily guess within 1 minute that Rajini will send a fake crown. Then, why prolong that phase so long?
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Rajesh A
August 11, 2023
If Rajini is saying that we should be sincere to those 96 subscribers of an youtube channel, then isn’t it reasonable to expect him to give a genuine movie for 10-13 crore Tamil Nadu audience?
Rajini’s first 25 yrs till 1999 Padayappa were glorious. But, In last 25 years, only 5 genuine hits – Chandramuki, Sivaji, Enthiran, 2.0, Petta (even for 2.0 Akshay should be given 50% credit) . Rest are all just those rides in an amusement park.
Despite 100s of movies every year, we still watch and accept some mindless movies (For e.g, Don, Love today, Paris Jeyaraj, Jai Bhim etc) and when our friends enquire about, we say it as a One time watch, time pass. So sad, JAILER falls into that category.
I wished Jailer would come out well mainly for Nelson. Because, at this age, Nelson should not go through this. But, as BR said, his hands are tied.
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Rajesh Arumugam
August 11, 2023
oru top heroine, enakku fame money irukku ..Enakku ippa enna badrama paathukkura unmaiya love panra orthavan venum…. .. அப்ப, heroine/women enna naai kuttiyaa ?? Women kku intellectually equal or fame and money la equal aana aal vendaamaa ?? How backward?? Edho 80s la mazhaila nanaiyura naaikuttiya kaapthura maadiri oru scene o. . Mazhai la nanaiyura heroine ukku raincoat kudukura oru scene o thaan illa. Other wise a very regressive thought
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Rajesh Arumugam
August 11, 2023
Mohanlal, Shiva rajkumar, sunil, jackie shroff were just called to elevate the image of Rajini to show how big the guy is. Or else, just imagine some XYZ in their characters. It wouldn’t have elevated Rajini character. It just shows the writing was very poor. On the other hand , in place of Fahad Fazil or Vijay sethupathi in Vikram had we had some other good performing actors.also, it would have still been a good movie
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Rajesh Arumugam
August 11, 2023
To new gen directors and writers, i agree that Rajini, Vijay, Ajith are your idols and you grew up watching their films. So, it is fine if you make 2 or 3 big stars commercial films (for fans service). But remember, K.balachandar, Mani Ratnam did only 1 or 2 big movies with Rajini or Kamal (and those weren’t fan service movies), yet they stayed relevant in the art and market for 40 years. On the other hand KS.Ravikumar, P.Vasu, AR Murugadoss, Suresh Krishna became stale in 10-15yrs itself. The path is yours
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Thupparivaalan
August 11, 2023
The wait continues. Another kid bites the dust trying to give us the long awaited satisfying on all levels rajni movie.
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brangan
August 11, 2023
Rajesh Arumugam: Or else, just imagine some XYZ in their characters. It wouldn’t have elevated Rajini character. It just shows the writing was very poor.
The writing — such as it is — is all-round poor, and not just in this portion.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Just look at how INDIAN — some 30 years ago — built up the son character and made us root for him to die. Here, the son barely registers before we are asked to care about his “twist”. So at the end, I’m like, “Oh you’re dead? Cool. Whatever.”
And even the “twist”? How lazy have you got to be if you can’t even explain it with more than a “I want a comfortable life”! Jeez!
And I really wish people would stop labelling Nelson’s films as dark comedy — at least BEAST and this one. Just because comedy happens and there’s “darkness” elsewhere, it is not black humour. The blackness has to be IN THE humour itself. Otherwise, it’s just… comedy.
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brangan
August 11, 2023
PS: Am happy for Vinayakan. He’s got a glorious face for the camera, and the cinematographer shot the fuck out his close-ups. Man, what a presence.
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Rajesh A
August 11, 2023
I think, they thought (assumed that)a Rathamaarey song is sufficient to register the son character.
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hari prasad
August 11, 2023
Even in Vikram , the son and the grandson angle didn’t impact me that much.
And Kamal’s samalippu that this ain’t a revenge saga made matters worse.
If revenge isn’t the motive , then why should Lokesh kill the Kalidas character?
He could have made him barely survive Sethupathi’s attack and help Kamal at the climax like how it was revealed in the same movie that Arjun Das’ character from Kaithi is still alive.
Judging from what you have said , I think Jailer too has a similar less impactful dad – son relationship that is brushed off in just a single song.
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Shankar
August 11, 2023
Baddy, I agree Vinayakan was amazing…superb character in the film. That said, I kept expecting that he will have a boss or someone directing all his activities, given that he seemed like an underling. I was hoping Mohanlal might be that boss, especially since Vinayakan spoke in Mal/Tam mix…alas, that was not to be!! 😦 Did you feel that Rajni needed a stronger villain against him in this film (like VS in Petta) or was this ok?
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Sri Prabhuram
August 11, 2023
I found this movie to be more watchable than Beast. I don’t know if it’s due to the fact that I had lower expectations or that there were actually some moments that I enjoyed. However, I wished they had given more screen time to Vinayakan (instead of unnecessarily hiring actors like Shiva Rajkumar and Mohanlal) because he seemed capable of facing off against the Superstar. I really hope he can take on villainous roles (like SJ Suryah) because he has a wonderful presence. More importantly, that twist in the end was incredibly forced, and that dramatic high in the end felt very undeserved.
I keep wondering how Nelson made Kolamaavu Kokila and Doctor in the first place.
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Yajiv
August 11, 2023
“And I really wish people would stop labelling Nelson’s films as dark comedy”
BR, I think we still have some ways to go in terms of understanding jaanar…I mean, genre 🙂 The number of Indian films that are wrongly labelled as ‘neo-noir’ makes my blood boil.
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Rajesh Arumugam
August 11, 2023
How come Rajini planned to fake the gun fight when two henchmen are along with them ? Is it like it they go only for morning stand up meetings and relay updates to Vinayakan?
How come Vinayakan who is 40yrs in the biz not verify The crown before releasing the son given that he is aware that some duplicate stuff is made for shooting purposes ?
How come Vinayakan think that RajiNi would be able to steel this crown when he himself couldn’t do in last 40 yrs and others have also got caught ?
How come daughter in law is still in their house after son’s death ? Nowadays, generally , it doesn’t happen like that
I think we can go long and long and find mistakes in this movie
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vijay
August 11, 2023
‘Dark comedy’ is when you buy tickets FDFS to yet another Rajni trainwreck and then come back home to watch it getting ripped apart by Blue maaran.
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karthik299
August 11, 2023
As much as the gags which you mentioned didn’t work for me, there were enough comedy scenes to laugh out loud. The humour worked better than Kolamavu Kokila rather.
Jailer >> Petta
This seemed to have more originality than Petta which mostly felt like a fan service. Jailer seems to have a better repeat value than Petta, and special ups to Anirudh for taking the movie to a way higher level!
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Madan
August 11, 2023
“Even in Vikram , the son and the grandson angle didn’t impact me that much.
And Kamal’s samalippu that this ain’t a revenge saga made matters worse.” – Saare, fandom element comes into this inevitably plus the sugar rush of a big Kamal film which, if nothing else, was at least coherent (similar to the reception for Pathaan). My argument would be even Uyarndha Ullam was coherent (and blade-o-blade) but at least it had a much younger and more handsome Kamal who wasn’t mumbling like Brando and it also had Vanthal Mahalaxmiye and Engey En Jeevane to while the time. But I guess if you are clued into the ecosystem day in day out, you evaluate in that moment (and not based on what we know Kamal can do as myself and my dad were doing after Vikram got over, saying it’s ok, saath khoon maaf because he has done so much for Tamil cinema).
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Madan
August 11, 2023
“We need a drug free society, sir” – If I had a penny for every time Kamal, the Kamal of Sigappu Rojakkal and “marriage is just an institution”, said that in the film, I wouldn’t dream of playing KBC one day!
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theeversriram
August 11, 2023
Saw the movie yesterday in Bangalore. Terrific response from audience, much better than Darbar, Petta, Annathe, Kaala. And casting Shivanna seems to have helped, audiences were cheering whenever he came on screen.
Also think it is time to accept that this is Anirudh’s era. Without bgm movie would have been unwatchable.
Like Ilayaraja has 80’s, ARR 90’s, in current Tamil cinema world Anirudh is the most bankable commercially.
I thought Rajni was out of his mind when he said Ani is combo of IR+ARR during audio launch, but after seeing the movie can definitely vouch for it. IR or ARR music for this movie would have been laughable.
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shaviswa
August 11, 2023
Such is the state of Tamil films that Anirudh is being equated with Raja and ARR.
Anyway I have given up on getting decent music from Tamil films. I listen to Telugu now for that. At least they come up with some good hummable numbers and some really good ones once in a while.
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ara108vind
August 11, 2023
Waiting for qnA with BR on jailer
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Madan
August 11, 2023
“Such is the state of Tamil films that Anirudh is being equated with Raja and ARR.”- Indeed. We’re saying the man who’s used guitar more extensively than any other composer in IFM, who did things like the intro to Priyathamma (more hard rocking guitar than even Indus Creed for crying out loud) and who just did Thee Inbamae and Sooriyan Thondrudhu for Modern Love can’t compose a so called ‘grunge’ score? Not even getting into how ridiculous this ‘grunge’ terminology is, given the genre died by the end of the 90s and what they call grunge w.r.t Anirudh’s work doesn’t sound like any of the Seattle Four at all, just random, generic modern metcha riffs.
Fine, I never pre-judge so if and when I get to watch Jailer on OTT and if I do make it to the end, I will give an opinion. But based on what I’ve heard of Anirudh in Vedhalam, Petta and Vikram, it’s a bit like saying RD Burman could have never composed the score and BGM for Baazigar the way Annu Paaji did. Which I would agree with. Now does that really reflect badly on RDB tho?
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Reghu
August 11, 2023
In the climax scene, who was thinking that Nelson will pull a “Apoorva Sagotharargal” reverse gun trick when Vasanth Ravi was pointing the gun 🤣😂 Nelson brand “black humour” justice 😉 ?
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Hari
August 11, 2023
I found this a harmless popcorn entertainer, just like Vikram. And like Vikram, this movie also rides too much on the hero’s wattage, has an entertaining first half and a lesser second half, relies on Anirudh’s BGM to elevate its ‘massy’ scenes, has a ‘family sentiment’ angle that doesn’t work, and can only be enjoyed in the frenzied atmosphere of a cinema hall.
Another similarity with Vikram is that it is far from the lead actor’s best. But I suppose it’s cool that Rajini and Kamal are finding huge commercial success even after the emergence of the next generation of superstars.
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theeversriram
August 11, 2023
Can understand IR and ARR fans reactions on Anirudh being the most commercially sought after MD today.
This is not based on musical talents or body of work but based on saleablity & current market conditions. Today nobody (say majority of young FDFS audience) has patience to listen to 5-6 songs and I can’t even recall any recent movie having 5 standalone songs; either it is in montage/background or broken into bits.
Current big hero movies need a viral youtube song to create expectations (vibe), 2 background songs and a MASS BGM that elevates theater experience. Anirudh is the perfect fit here, without Ani’s BGM Vikram wouldn’t have such a hit & same goes for Jailer.
ARR in Vijay’s movies like Sarkar, Bigil, etc wasn’t able to deliver the CURRENT audience needs. And IR is nowhere in consideration.
Not for nothing is Anirudh the composer of Rajni, Kamal, Vijay, Ajith, SK, etc. movies at same time. Even ARR wasn’t doing that in his peak.
Note that Shankar has chosen Anirudh instead of ARR for Indian 2.
Maybe now ARR is in IR’s 90 stage.
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Hari
August 11, 2023
“Saleability” has no correlation with the quality of art. Harry Potter is the best selling fictional book of all time, but no one ever has called it the pinnacle of world literature.
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theeversriram
August 11, 2023
@Hari, absolutely yes. I’m not saying Anirudh is the pinnacle of Tamil film music.
My point is if a big star/director/producer wants to make a movie today, then the default choice is Anirudh.
Maybe this trend will change or continue for next 10 years, nobody can say. But Ani is at top in the youtube, digital, big star movie space with nobody even close to him.
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Madan
August 11, 2023
“This is not based on musical talents or body of work but based on saleablity & current market conditions. Today nobody (say majority of young FDFS audience) has patience to listen to 5-6 songs and I can’t even recall any recent movie having 5 standalone songs; either it is in montage/background or broken into bits.” –
1) That’s fine except for the fact that IR too has been doing BGM-only movies for a long time. That no big name film hires him to do so doesn’t mean he needs the crutches of a song album. If anything, one of the first instances of highly publicizing a BGM (with it even being released on CD) was Onaayum Aatukuttiyum. As for Rahman, he has been working in Hollywood too for years and is also extremely comfortable with a BGM only format.
2) It is one thing to talk about what is saleable and another to say “IR or ARR music for this movie would have been laughable.”. That’s an artistic judgment and sounds like an enormous reach.
“Current big hero movies need a viral youtube song to create expectations (vibe), 2 background songs and a MASS BGM that elevates theater experience” – This I agree with. But this is again different from “I thought Rajni was out of his mind when he said Ani is combo of IR+ARR during audio launch, but after seeing the movie can definitely vouch for it. IR or ARR music for this movie would have been laughable.”
You will surely agree that IR/ARR’s talents run much deeper than composing a viral youtube song and a mass BGM. Rajni has a movie to hype, so I can give him a pass for calling Ani a combo of IRR+ARR. If you say it, I am going to challenge you as to what exactly makes him a combo of IR+ARR.
Your second comment is more qualified and subjective and I would have had no argument with that had that been what you said from the get-go. I get that Ani’s work is more saleable today and he has a tone that works for mass films. But from that to “combo of IR+ARR” is a heck of a stretch.
I am sure there were people who thought IR was being his cranky worst when he challenged Vijay/Ajith to do a Sindhu Bhairavi today (as if that’s how they ought to be judged!). By the same token, saying composing for mass movies makes Ani a IR+ARR combo is ridiculous too. I readily give he does this one thing in a way that’s apt for these films, for whatever that’s worth, but you made it out like the be all-end all of composing.
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hari prasad
August 11, 2023
No , Yuvan Shankar Raja had released the background scores of Kadhal Konden , 7G and Manmadhan in CDs and Cassettes way back in 2004 , which was the first time in India that movie OSTs got an official release.
BTW , it is someone from the Raja household that did this first.
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theeversriram
August 11, 2023
“1) That’s fine except for the fact that IR too has been doing BGM-only movies for a long time. That no big name film hires him to do so doesn’t mean he needs the crutches of a song album”
Yes IR is a master in BGM no question at all and it is a given that he can do “mass” music or any other kind. But my personal opinion (and market’s) is Anirudh is much better today and this is the reason why big stars are moving toward him. Kamal including, maybe the last one to stick with IR for long.
As a layman, I can’t think of any recent IR music that were chartbusters or BGM that worked big time in TFM.
Same goes for ARR also, his mass BGM is simply reusing bits of songs, like in Sarkar/Bigil.
Combo of IR+ARR doesn’t mean that Ani is a combo of EVERYTHING
that IR/ARR do or he is better than both.
Like IR (in his peak), Ani is able to understand movie requirements & theater audience reactions and like ARR he is able to come up with chartbusters & use latest technology. This is my personal opinion after seeing the movie and based on this I agree with what Rajni said.
An example would be Kohli is a run machine like Sachin and is a good finisher like Dhoni. So a combo of Sachin+MSD; doesn’t mean that Kohli is better than either of them.
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theeversriram
August 11, 2023
“No , Yuvan Shankar Raja had released the background scores of Kadhal Konden , 7G and Manmadhan in CDs and Cassettes way back in 2004 , which was the first time in India that movie OSTs got an official release.
BTW , it is someone from the Raja household that did this first.”
So what??
Today Anirudh is commercially the most sought after MD in TFM. And Yuvan is not even close.
Again this is not about which MD is better in BGM, it is just that Anirudh is the most sought after MD for big hero theater experience movies.
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hari prasad
August 11, 2023
Boss , Im not into this #1 , #2 vilayattu.
Oru decade ku oruthan irupaan , innoru decade ku innoruthan.
I just corrected Madan on the first ever Tamil OST that got an official release.
That’s it.
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Anand Raghavan
August 11, 2023
True, Can’t expect a soulful theme as Bombay or blistering numbers in wider genres like Thiruda Thiruda , Duet, Rangeela, Alaipayuthe , Lagaan, Jodha Akbar, PS etc…from Ani and can’t get anywhere near Raja on tunes or soulful bgms…but yes he seem to be perfect fit for these mass moment movies , to elevate the hero…
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Madan
August 11, 2023
“An example would be Kohli is a run machine like Sachin and is a good finisher like Dhoni. So a combo of Sachin+MSD; doesn’t mean that Kohli is better than either of them.” – OK when you put it that way and leave out Kohli’s woes ‘lately’ (as in at least last three years) in remembering where his off stump is, I can agree.
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Madan
August 11, 2023
hari prasad: Thanks, didn’t know that about Yuvan.
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Rajesh Arumugam
August 11, 2023
I am.glad shasviswa brought this discussion on Anirudh. I like many of anirudh songs. But many times I don’t feel the music are rooted in Indian. It need not necessarily have indian roots..But I don’t see much variations even in that non indian space. For eg Yuvan did show variety in Aaranya Kandam back ground score. Yuvan did show variety. He didn’t do something too classical like Sindhu Bhairavi Unnal Mudiyum Thambi ..But he did had classical flavours in Satham Podadhe.
But Anirudh in last 10-12 years since 3 in 2013, hasn’t done one single song or movie with folk or classical flavor..The only thing I could think of was the Parai isai BGM to which Rajini dances before killing Malavika’s and Nawazuddin siddique’s elder brother.
Until another Anirudh or a new sound scape comes, he might survive.
Also i think anirudh once said that ARR told him that it is not easy for audience to recognize a music director by the sound tone etc. Keep it up…..I think anirudh took it too seriously and didn’t break it to discover himself
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Madan
August 11, 2023
“But Anirudh in last 10-12 years since 3 in 2013, hasn’t done one single song or movie with folk or classical flavor” – At a stretch, there was that Yaaro Yaaro sad song at the end of Katthi. Which was rather like something IR would have done. So maybe he is unable to sound distinctive in an Indian space. Someone like Sean Roldan can make music equally as Westernized and yet retain a very distinct and Indian flavour in the melody.
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therag
August 11, 2023
Like someone above said, ellarukkum oru time varum, and there is no denying Anirudh is the most popular composer today. But he is still not in ARR or IR’s position, even popularity wise. K. S Ravikumar at some point of time in the late 90s must have directed Rajni, Kamal, Vijay, Ajith – does not mean he is Balachander + Mani Ratnam.
IR and ARR’s achievements, even from a prism of popularity and saleability, is pretty staggering. Even with his current dominance, Anirudh can only dream of ARR’s pan-India recognition, or IR’s decade-long monopoly in TFM in the 80s.
Coming to their ability to score for mass/masala films, Anirudh excels in very specific “mass” BGM situations – tailor made for the fans of the stars to go crazy in theatres. But ARR is no slouch in “masala”/mainstream films, even today. I wouldn’t take his record in those VJ films as proof that he can’t do it.
I was not very pleased with his work in Maamannan. I thought the songs were ok, but the background score for Maamannan was actually really good, and I will claim after having followed Ani’s entire career that even a Maamannan (which wouldn’t make anyone’s list of top/favourite ARR albums) is outside his abilities. It has some excellent mass moments that were scored very well by ARR.
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vijay
August 11, 2023
““I thought Rajni was out of his mind when he said Ani is combo of IR+ARR during audio launch’
That is just Rajni the businessman. He said the same about GV Prakash around Kuselan time 🙂 (But this time he had to take veiled shots at Vijay in his audio launch speech as well to create that extra buzz around the film.)
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Aman Basha
August 11, 2023
You people are so much lucky, look at your complaints about Rajini and Jailer.
Chiru and Bhola , vammo. Rajini is so much more sensible than Lal or Megastar.
I liked Rajini’s phase post Lingaa, just like I liked SRK post Dilwale much more than before. The efforts may not have been successful, but they both tried to step out of their comfort zone and work with different directors. Kaala and Petta are the best of the few, but Jailer is finally giving Thalaivar the much delayed commercial success and with a long weekend, this movie can go berserk, the Telugu audience are fully behind it.
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therag
August 11, 2023
I will say that my favorite Rajni mass-score of the last decade is actually by SaNa – Kabali. Kaala was also pretty good. Too bad Ranjith had other ideas, but if those films had worked maybe we might be seeing SaNa occupying Anirudh’s position now, which I would have readily welcomed.
Even for VJ, “Varlaam Varlaam Vaa” from Bairavaa is pretty kick-ass.
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Prat
August 11, 2023
@therag – yes, neruppu da was literally everywhere that year. That song and the wacky posters hyped up the movie like nothing else.
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hari prasad
August 11, 2023
Fuck Kalaipuli Thanu for actually making us think Kabali as some sort of a cool , slick don movie like Billa , Baasha with that teaser and the over usage of Neruppu Da.
That misleading hype completely ruined the movie for a lot of people.
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Jay Krishnan
August 11, 2023
Have I gone insane or the world is insane ? What’s with the public reviews and reviews from many sensible critics being in favor of this movie ? Only Baddy and Blue sattai have trashed the movie while the rest are pussyfooting around this turd of a movie. I went to the movie thinking Baddy was going too hard on standard masala fare
How wrong I was ! I think Baddy was way too respectful with his observations. There are very few redeeming factors in this movie. The script is straight from a 10 year old’s imagination. I am done with Rajni at this point. All his FDFS movies have been colossal disappointments for me – Shivaji, 2.0 and now this.
@BR – Do you really think Nelson might have had a better script before it was watered down ? It almost looked like his bag of jokes are empty after Doctor. I am beginning to think Nelson is a one trick Pony and Doctor likely was his peak.
BTW what was with that crown that looked like a prop in a drama? Couldn’t they at least have a crown worth stealing . And I have no idea what happened in that stretch involving Kishor and that fake attack or whatever nor am I bothered to know about it. Horrible , horrible movie after all the hype.
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brangan
August 11, 2023
therag: Maamannan (which wouldn’t make anyone’s list of top/favourite ARR albums)
Well, don’t speak on my account. I think it is a fabulous album, both as a standalone and as a fit within the film. There is a huge amount of really inventive stuff going on here, both melodically and instrumentally.
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therag
August 11, 2023
@BR, fair enough. I wouldn’t personally call the album fabulous as a standalone. I much prefer VTK and PS.
I guess some of it could be disappointment that the Mari-SaNa combo was broken up so soon. They produced incredible stuff, and Maamannan failed to match my imagined lofty standard for the album SaNa might have produced. Not fair to ARR I know, but it is what it is. After all, he did give us VTV after the GVM-Harris break-up, that too after the insane Vaaranam Aayiram.
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Satya
August 11, 2023
Aman Basha: Tamil cinema is happy for Jailer, our fellow commentators here aren’t. Even BR isn’t (which was expected, though). But for Bhola Shankar, the dissent was unanimous even before the theatrical release. That is not something normal. Chiranjeevi gave duds before, but nothing felt this questionable.
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hari prasad
August 11, 2023
But Santhosh Narayanan is about to compose music for Mari Selvaraj’s next Vaazhai. Maamannan was an one-off , it was Udhayanidhi who wanted Rahman to compose music for Maamannan as this movie is his “swan song” and he had a wish.
I don’t know why people are reacting as if they’re not gonna collaborate again.
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tamil thanos
August 11, 2023
I don’t see why Ani shouldn’t be considered this generations IR or AR. Do his songs lack innovation? Yes. Less variety in the palette? Yes. But you also have to consider the fact that the movie and music scene is a lot different compared to pre 2010. Anirudh has been able to single handedly market the movies through his songs and he is doing this regularly. The music of AR and IR in their peak were pretty much the selling points of his films and it’s no different in Anirudh’s case. His concert tickets were selling at 100$ a ticket in USA and that’s how much I paid for a Post Malone concert. He is close to AR Rahman in Spotify streams with much lesser footprint. So yes, there can never be another IR or AR just like how there can never be another Rajini or Kamal in our lifetimes. What Anirudh has achieved is no small feat however and I don’t have any qualms in Rajini holding him next in line to IR and AR.
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Jay Krishnan
August 11, 2023
Is there some mass psychosis going on? Can’t believe the majority is lapping this up.
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V
August 11, 2023
How is a film being declared Hit, Blockbuster, Comeback etc within a day if its release? I could see that bookings were sluggish in B&C centers plus other states. Ofcourse Overseas collections would be mind-boggling, yet has the business model reduced to a single day turn-over?
From what I hear, the film is being propped by the Producers, Youtube channels & Rajini fans whereas the real reviews are muted. BR & Maaran are the only ones mincing no words. There’s this hype that everyone is a Rajini fan (duh ..not me, Im more excited about Dhilluku Dhudu, OTT Porthozhil), Rajini’s screen presence is enough (how?!) and what not?!
I saw shorts from his speech in the AL & his intonation sounded strange. Why was everyone lauding this one? Snippets were good but I had to swipe up when he was about to narrate something about Ramya Krishnan
At this point, Im done with Sun Pictures brand of aggressive marketing. Anyday Lyca was better, RKFI – more sincere & Madras Talkies more intriguing.
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Jay Krishnan
August 11, 2023
@V It will be good to look at actual data for this movie.(Is there a site that tracks this ?) It looks like Sun has paid off a lot of reviewers after the Beast debacle. It is unbelievable that this movie has a majority approval.
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Aman Basha
August 11, 2023
Again, after Vikram, why are people going ballistic when a movie you don’t like becomes a big hit? Has it never happened before?
Sun Pictures made reporting a joke during Annatthe and they got called out for it too. But both cinetrak and Jatinder Singh of Pinkvilla (who I can personally vouch for) are giving similar figures, unlike Annathe where the difference was nearly 100 crore to the sun pictures figures.
Jailer will easily make 400 crores plus in its lifetime. Lots of theatres and people living off theatres are going to be very happy. $2 million opening day in US and good trend after, did the Marans pay American theatres too?
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Madan
August 11, 2023
“I don’t see why Ani shouldn’t be considered this generations IR or AR.” – OK, here’s a counter question. Would you consider Vijay this generation’s Rajni? Fair enough if you would but not many on this thread nor in rest of TN (barring the Vijay fanbase) would agree. It’s the same difference. Yes, there is always a successful juggernaut in a particular period, doesn’t mean they are all comparable. Nobody, at least nobody that I know of, calls Drake this generation’s Beatles. Now people would authoritatively regard MJ as comparable to Beatles because he did make that kind of impact.
And as far as dominating no. of views on youtube, I don’t see overwhelming evidence that breaks this in favour of Anirudh. Rahman’s Verithanam for Bigil has 147mn views on Youtube while Anirudh’s Pathala Pathala has 111mn views. Even IR’s Kaatumali, which is not even a ‘mass’ song and is for a smaller film than Bigil or Vikram, has 51mn views. He had a big one a few years back with Unna Nenachu Nenachu as well – 80mn views. And here’s the kicker: Rahman’s Bigil songs have more views than his remembered-to-this-day classics like Arabi Kadaloram and likewise with IR! I mean who actually believes Unna Nenachu Nenachu is more popular than Ae Aatha or Rakkamma?
Honestly, no. of views on YT depends much more on how much the handle/media house is prepared to spend to push the video. The days of videos organically becoming viral are long gone (ironically, Anirudh’s own Kolaveri was a splendid example of a song organically becoming a sensation).
The true test will be how many Anirudh songs remain in circulation 20 years from now. I bet Kolaveri would be at the very top of the list, compared to his work on Petta. Harris has a bunch of earworms that remain in circulation today and I say this as avowedly not a fan of his. I grant that the ecosystem today makes it inherently more difficult for songs to attain that kind of shelf life. But that is also why YT views don’t say much about how dominant Anirudh’s popularity is.
I would say a song like Megam Karukutha from Thiruchitrambalam is a much better example of an ‘organic’ hit by him than his work for overpromoted mass films. I actually got recommended the song by a Telugu friend who doesn’t even watch Tamil films that much. I am not surprised to see it is at 123mn views, ahead of Pathala (even though Thiru…was a much smaller film than Vikram). I agree in essence with a comment above that he is maybe spreading himself too thin working in this narrow marana mass space and ought to explore more films like Thiru to better showcase his range. But hey, if it’s only about the money and the no. of hits, there is nothing more to be said (and no better demonstration of why comparing him with IR or ARR would not be apt).
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vijay
August 12, 2023
Jay, Jailer could be enjoying some of the same factors that worked for Vikram..first real Rajni theater film with absolutely no restrictions after Covid..AND after a 2-year gap AND with stars from other states pulled in cameos AND with some good pre-release promos, so it had all the makings of a bounce-back.. seems like they have tried to make Vikram a sort of a template for selling this and it may have worked. (Of course a lot of media outlets are paid off by DMK and sons..but that should’nt be surpising by now)
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Madan
August 12, 2023
“Again, after Vikram, why are people going ballistic when a movie you don’t like becomes a big hit? Has it never happened before?” – Or Pathaan. Or KGF2. If you wanna go back a really long way, Dhoom3. More of a surprise, if I may, when an amazing and rooted film like Kantara also becomes a mega grosser.
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Shankar
August 12, 2023
@Hari Prasad, Just to correct your correction, the late Manobala has said this in innumerable interviews…his Pillai Nila was the first instance where the BGM was released as a standalone cassette/disc. So, it’s much earlier than when Yuvan decided to do it…IMO, that was the first time it was done, but probably the only one. That said, Raja had the habit of including instrumental pieces (sometimes unrelated to the film) to his regular song cassettes…
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Jay Krishnan
August 12, 2023
@Vijay – Vikram at least had 5-6 very good scenes with all the main actors in top form. As a story,Vikram was vague and had a lot of logical loopholes but you still got a high watching Kamal,VJS, Suriya and Fahad in explosive form in those mass scenes. I was expecting around that much, I wasn’t looking for cinematic purity when I stepped in for Jailer but I didn’t expect this utter incompetence either . Are people afraid to say that the movie is shit ?
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hari prasad
August 12, 2023
But all I can find is a YouTube video which has the background scores of Pillai Nila that has been ripped by an Ilayaraja fan.
I can’t find the photo of the ” official ” vinyl or cassette.
Maybe it’s an unofficial release , I guess.
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hari prasad
August 12, 2023
Rajini himself had such WTF mega success in the past with Chandramukhi which came 2.5 years after the Baba debacle and followed it up with another WTF success in Sivaji whose box office collections came closer to Om Shanti Om that shook the North Indian and the Karan Johar NRI audience.
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theeversriram
August 12, 2023
“Would you consider Vijay this generation’s Rajni?”
No because Rajni is still making movies and beating Vijay in BO.
Whereas IR & ARR are not competing with Ani numbers wise.
Ani is today’s 90’s ARR. Big movies & heroes (eg. Indian, Muthu, Muthalvan, etc.) go to Ani whereas smaller movies like Maamanan, Ayalan, etc go to ARR.
One problem of ARR is his fee doesn’t match the budget or output. So not sure how his career will go from here.
And let us not forget that most people in this blog are born in 60/70/80/90s, so difficult to connect with Ani’s music. Generation gap.
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theeversriram
August 12, 2023
“@V It will be good to look at actual data for this movie.(Is there a site that tracks this ?) It looks like Sun has paid off a lot of reviewers after the Beast debacle. It is unbelievable that this movie has a majority approval.”
Nope there is no site that gives actual numbers. Most of trackers are influenced or give based on certain approximations or data from somebody else.
All BO data are managed to give a hit impression and gain more footfalls. This is with regard to Tamil, not sure about other languages.
Simple test to see if movie is hit is to go to nearby theater. I live in Blore and check the ticket availablity online, Varisu & Thunivu were almost empty after first 4 days. Jailer currently is going strong with shows booked for 3 days. Monday might give better picture.
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Jay Krishnan
August 12, 2023
@theeversriram But getting in Shivrajkumar and Mohanlal is a masterstroke. They are hardly there for 5 minutes each but Karnataka and Kerala are going bonkers over the movie . I will give them that. I expect this to go strong just for the curiosity factor in the other states.
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Nappinai
August 12, 2023
“I thought Rajni was out of his mind when he said Ani is combo of IR+ARR during audio launch”
Maybe someone already pointed this out, but Anirudh is Rajni’s nephew. Lata Rajnikanth and Anirudh’s father are siblings, so I don’t think one should read too much into Rajni’s comment. It’s natural that Rajni would be proud and be superlative in his praise.
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brangan
August 12, 2023
theeversriram: And let us not forget that most people in this blog are born in 60/70/80/90s, so difficult to connect with Ani’s music. Generation gap.
That’s the real point. Everything else — statistics, musical taste (such a subjective criterion), fondness for an older composer — is secondary. I distinctly remember how ARR was dismissed as a “jingle maker” when he appeared and all the big banners flocked to him. Now, we have passed the ARR generation, passed the Yuvan generation, passed the GVP generation, and the real “consumers” of cinema and music are in the “Ani generation.”
And by consumers, I mean the audiences that REALLY matter when it comes to the industry — the youngsters who go watch a film in a THEATRE as opposed to sitting at home and watching it later on OTT. That’s where the money is.
tamil thanos: But you also have to consider the fact that the movie and music scene is a lot different compared to pre 2010. Anirudh has been able to single handedly market the movies through his songs and he is doing this regularly. The music of AR and IR in their peak were pretty much the selling points of his films and it’s no different in Anirudh’s case.
Abso-fucking-lutely. No one else comes close to pumping energy into a movie. And we also have to understand that BGMs and songs no longer are what they used to be. Earlier, it might have been about underscoring or elevating a scene. Now, it may be about jolting you with a score that makes you look up from your smartphone.
And the industry will ALWAYS flock to the guy who delivers the biggest hits — in terms of whistles in theatres, in terms of ring-tone sales, in terms of social media craze, in terms of so many other factors that bring in ACTUAL revenue.
So yes, whether we personally like Ani’s music or not, his music is as much as selling point today as Raja’s or Rahman’s or Yuvan’s were.
PS: On a personal note, all my co-workers — the cinematographers, the sound guys — are all in their late teens to early 20s. So I get a real schooling when I talk to them about music 😀
Of course, my taste is mine and no amount of their (affectionate) mocking is going to make me change it — I mean, it’s impossible change change one’s essential taste, what kind of music one gravitates towards.
But it IS possible to be in touch with what the kids are into — without judgement, and with just curiosity — and that has helped me a lot in terms of listening to new music.
For example, I really like Bharath Shankar’s work in MAAVEERAN, and this album has my favourite ‘mass song’ of the year. It has two different sets of ‘pallavi’ tunes till you get to the chorus (‘annanda annanda vanga karai’), and the melody lines keep alternating between short/long lyric lines. And I love that siren like punctuation 🙂
Will I be listening to this next year, next week, tomorrow? No fucking clue. But right now, it gives me joy and that’s enough — I may never be a “youth” again, but this song makes me feel “young” again 😀 And guess who’s been called to sing it. Wait for it… Ani 😀
PPS: Talking to this generation/sharing notes about MSV, Raja, Rahman is a REAL revelation. What they don’t like about the music, what their attitude towards melody/beats is, their insistence on a “hook lyric”… It’s all fascinating stuff.
And I personally have no issue with this being “The Age of Ani” because those of us who want to live in “The Age of Rahman” or “The Age of Yuvan” or whatever can always go back to that music on the web or wherever.
But yeah, as far as money speaks (and it’s the only thing that speaks in this industry), it’s Ani’s world and we just live in it 🙂
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Madan
August 12, 2023
“No because Rajni is still making movies and beating Vijay in BO.
Whereas IR & ARR are not competing with Ani numbers wise.” – Come now, making hit movies today is hardly what makes Rajni today today. You mean, if he’d hung up his boots after Padayappa, you’d still agree with the notion of Vijay being today’s Rajni? Rajni’s superstardom was already sealed beyond doubt by Padayappa and so it is with IR and ARR. As of today, Anirudh is just yet another music director who successfully delivers hits like Deva in the 90s. And if I may, Deva did that competing head on with peak ARR and an IR who still had more sway over the market compared to today. T R Pappa also delivered hits back in the day working in MSV’s era. Nobody considered him an equal to MSV for that reason alone.
We will see how many of Ani’s songs remain in circulation 20 years from now. If he does achieve that kind of longevity, then I am happy to accept I was wrong about him. I don’t see it as of today. One clue is there are hardly any other videos (other than official handles) for Selfie Pulla which was a big hit from Katthi. Or for Aaluma Doluma. I can understand zealous media handles cleaning up unofficial uploads but there’s nobody rendering covers of these songs, no or at most one or two react videos. It seems his songs disappear from memory after delivering a high to go with the commercial run of the film. You can say that’s what mass films need but we still remember songs like Oruvan Oruvan or En Peyar Padayappa (or the original Rajni mass song, Pothuvaga En Manasu Thangam) today. Now if you are going to say the Rajni films of today are not as memorable either, QED and ergo, you can’t use IR or ARR’s relative lack of relevance (highly dubious in case of ARR who’s been doing plenty of Tamil films post covid) today to hype up Anirudh. They were working for a different market where shelf life of songs was valued and Ani has yet to prove he can do THAT, which is imo much more difficult.
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Rahini David
August 12, 2023
And BR is going to record this long comment as a video for his channel.
And it is going to go viral thanks to Anirudh fans.
😊
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KayKay
August 12, 2023
“We will see how many of Ani’s songs remain in circulation 20 years from now.”
Abso-fucking-lutely.
And another litmus test for the longevity of Anirudh’s music would be how many absolute flop movies he gave banger soundtracks to which will stand the test of time long after the movies are forgotten. I ask this out of genuine curiosity, not having listened to a lot of his stuff…is there an Ani album that was a super hit in spite of being in a super bomb of a film?
It’s actually quite amazing how many terrific songs Raja and ARR gave to absolute cinematic turkeys. NO ONE would remember movies like Nizhalgal or Ninaivellam Nithya if weren’t for Raja’s songs. Likewise it’s easy to forget 3 stellar ARR soundtracks, En Swaasa Katre, Kadhalar Dhinam and Sangamam were for back to back flops. And are still listened to today
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Satya
August 12, 2023
“I ask this out of genuine curiosity, not having listened to a lot of his stuff…is there an Ani album that was a super hit in spite of being in a super bomb of a film?”
AGNYAATHAVAASI (Telugu)
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KayKay
August 12, 2023
“Fuck Kalaipuli Thanu for actually making us think Kabali as some sort of a cool , slick don movie like Billa , Baasha with that teaser and the over usage of Neruppu Da”
Ugh! Agree. I have always found the aggressive marketing especially for South Indian Star Vehicles to be a turn off, but they reach positively noxious levels for Rajini films.
And after having been colossally disappointed by the dishwater dull, meandering Kabali, sitting in a Coimbatore movie theatre for the 1st week’s show of Darbar and wishing after the 1st hour that I was somewhere else, capped off with the even more tedious Annathe which I caught on NF and still needed 2 sittings to get through, I think I’ll wait for Jailer to land on OTT.
After all, if I can wait for a 3 hour Magnum Opus from Nolan to hit streaming, I think I can contain my excitement for what I think will be yet another average Rajini Stroke Fest.
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brangan
August 12, 2023
KayKay: But who is listening to ‘Pon maalai pozhudhu’ and ‘Thirakkadha kaattukulle’? People like us. People our age. People who don’t matter a bit in the commerce of films today 🙂
We live in an age where there is so much nee content that shelf life is a dated concept. Only true-blue music fans care about longevity. For the rest (which is most of the world), music is something you hear in a car and tap your feet to and move on to the next song when it appears.
I don’t doubt for a minute YOUR interest in old music. I am just saying the generation Ani caters to is completely different. And as a composer, his directors ARE going to ask for very specific beat-heavy music to fill theatres for the 2-3 weeks of the film’s run. Posterity can go fuck itself, for all they care.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
KayKay: I am willing to discard the “flop banger”criteria because in social media world, a pure flop is a movie that failed to even get a decent opening in spite of big stars (sure, Amit Trivedi passed that test with Bombay Velvet and Pritam with LSC). So the songs too go out of circulation even after being initially well received. Look at Rahman’s Dil Bechara album, it’s already fading into the background though it was one of the best things he had done in a long time.
But can Ani at least deliver hits – and I come back to longevity – that stand the test of time? And I disagree with attributing all of this completely to nostalgia. Nostalgia is one part of it but I am not, say, nostalgic about T Rajender’s work on Oru Thalai Ragam or what Chandrabose or SG were doing in the 80s. And as far as Deva, I like what he did on Kadhal Kottai far more than his work on Rajni films in that decade (esp Arunachalam songs were just crass noise).
There is another element we don’t seem to discuss at all in the movies (and by extension, film music and popular music). The recency effect is so strong we attribute liking any old works to nostalgia alone. But how can there be nostalgia, in my case, for songs made well before I was born? And I am very comfortable with modern, clean sounding recordings so it can’t be nostalgia for a ‘sound’.
There’s another layer – fascination. Friedkin died earlier this week and many of his scenes in French Connection but esp the subway scene evoke fascination. Likewise with so much of Scorsese’s Casino or Fincher’s Zodiac. Or Chazelle’s Whiplash. Films years apart which achieve the same ‘quality’ of being fascinating, in their own distinct ways. It’s the same with music. What draws us to songs made even 50 years ago (basically, before our birth and formative years, so adjust that timeline as you will) is fascination, not nostalgia. It is wrong to say it’s only nostalgia that makes people (a niche audience but an audience nevertheless) still listen to Four Seasons or Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Or Summertime. Or Brubeck’s Take Five. That just doesn’t make any sense. You can’t be nostalgic for a time and place hundreds of years before yours.
The most depressing thing about using Ani’s hit making to equate him to IR or ARR to me is it shows fascination has dropped out of the conversation about Tamil music. And that is what set it apart all these years from the 80s onwards when Hindi music slipped into steep decline. It is what Sean Roldan talked about in his interview to BR – of making something that MAY be remembered and not just what works in the here and now. If that yearning is gone, then we are talking about 2 min Maggi noodles music. And it’s not like I have something against Ani in general. I do love Megam Karukatha and wrote about it for my blog. I would want Ani to be remembered for producing THAT rather than disposable and dispensable mass hero songs that, like the films, go viral for a few songs and are thereafter junked.
And by the way, I get that casual listeners may not be able to penetrate past the differences and find even some of ARR, let alone IR, dated. But that is not the level at which the conversation is determined. Or is it? Because if so, we could say Rohit Shetty is a better director than Scorsese because he has a much better hit rate for sure. I have found this consistently with the convo about film music in India – the box office imperative of FILMS is so pervasive it seeps into the film music convo and polarizes it. Either ALL new songs are bad or the new guy is today’s Mozart. There is no in-between.
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hari prasad
August 12, 2023
Saar , naanum ketpen saar.
I listen to Raja from the usual Johnny , Vaidehi Kaathirundhal , Gunaa to the rare ones like Muthu Engal Sothu , Neram Nalla Neram which had a Vennira Aadai Murthy – Silk Smitha gilma song.
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hari prasad
August 12, 2023
I listen to Raja as much I listen to the songs of Rahman , Yuvan , Harris and Anirudh.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
hari prasad: I was going to give your example. Or Anonymousviolin and bunch of others who I know of are into IR’s music. Sure, I get the point, it’s a minority of 20 somethings today that would be interested in Raja’s music. But that’s the same in Hindi, majority of youth wouldn’t be interested in RDB’s music. But the numbers that are are significant too. Some music survives past its time while the rest gets discarded. Same as with the movies.
And speaking of fascination, the IR song I find most ‘fascinating’ is Endrendrum Anandhame which came out five years before I was born. Some of his most mindfuck experiments in general came before 1985. And birth year is not highly relevant anyway, because the first exposure to IR I can recollect was to Dhalapathi songs in 1990.
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vijay
August 12, 2023
BR’s argument is about how the business model of today fits Ani’s style like a glove(or vice-versa) and that has never been a point of debate. But that current commercial salebaility is pretty much the ONLY stick Ani’s fans have to beat every argument with, that is thrown at them. He may be the Justin Bieber of current day TFM and that’s fine. That’s pretty good enough for the industry and business, but that’s about it. And for those who said “Rahman was just a jingle maker’ in the 90s, well, if they were serious music listeners, they have had a lot of time to revisit and revise their opinions since then. (Especially after they saw what Harris Jayaraj could do 🙂 ) But even back then in the mid-90s I have seen serious music listeners/musicians online breaking down Rahman’s songs with interest in an attempt to understand why it sounds fresh. So that distinction will always be there.
Actually, even with just the commercial saleability angle, has Ani brought in something fresh to the table that has moved the needle beyond TFM and made say Bollywood or Tollywood sit up and take notice, like Rahman did in 90s? Nope. Telugu makers are content with their Thamans or DSPs or even with Keeravani(for no less than a blockbuster like Baahubali or RRR). Heck, Thaman even scored for Vaarisu. Whereas Ani’s music did’nt exactly change the fortunes of Darbaar or Beast. In the 80s you could point several examples of average masala or stereotypical Mike Mohan/Ramarajan whose commercial fortunes got altered just because of the music. Ani is nowhere near that level, as it stands today. He is enjoying the kind of streak which Deva did in the mid-to-late 90s. THere was even talk back then that Deva was a better fit for Rajni films than Rahman(after Baasha, Annamalai and Arunachalam). And like Ani, Deva was’nt sought after by the Hindi/Telugu industries to score music for their biggies.
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Macaulay Perapulla
August 12, 2023
“Ani is nowhere near that level, as it stands today. He is enjoying the kind of streak which Deva did in the mid-to-late 90s.” I hope the folks in this conversation thread is aware of the fact that Anirudh is related to Rajnikanth. Disclosure: I come from AR Rahman generation.
Nostalgic Aside: In my school days, there was a lot of hype whenever Ashram school hosted culturals and participated in inter-school music culturals competitions. Flautist-turned-music composer-Navin Chander, Vicky and I were from Santhome Higher Secondary School and we sang in the famous Lepark culturals organized by Leo Club, Park Town. Those were the times when Sangamam was the rage. We performed Varaha Nadikarai. From Ashram school, soundarya and Ani (if I remember correctly) performed ‘Mazhai thuli Mannil Sangamam’. I won the best singer. Ashram school won the first prize. Naan paathu valantha pullai saar antha podi paiyan:)
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theeversriram
August 12, 2023
“You mean, if he’d hung up his boots after Padayappa, you’d still agree with the notion of Vijay being today’s Rajni? Rajni’s superstardom was already sealed beyond doubt by Padayappa and so it is with IR and ARR”
Yes I would accept that Vijay is today’s biggest superstar. And if he manages to become CM after entering politics (zero chance but just theoretically) then I will accept that Vijay is a combo of Rajni +MGR.
This in no way means that Vijay is better than Rajni or MGR just that he has taken few of their strong points and incorporated into his style of working.
Also I never said Ani is the new IR or new ARR. I said that Ani is LIKE ARR of 90’s – getting all big projects/stars.
Coming back to Rajni vs Vijay – the competition is there. Seems Rajni has currently won with Jailer, but in case of Ani there is no real competition. All others are much behind.
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theeversriram
August 12, 2023
“Actually, even with just the commercial saleability angle, has Ani brought in something fresh to the table that has moved the needle beyond TFM and made say Bollywood or Tollywood sit up and take notice, like Rahman did in 90s?”
Ani did compose for a Pawan Kalyan movie that bombed. Music was well received though.
And talks seem to be going on for Chiru’s next movie after the disastrous Bola Shankar.
Ani is doing music for Jawan with director Atlee. Point to note: Atlee’s previous was with ARR and for in Hindi ARR is better known. But still makers chose to go with Ani tells something.
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Hari
August 12, 2023
@BR – About Rahman being dismissed as a jingle maker, it didn’t last too long did it? He proved his mettle in a variety of genres in the 90s and he was generally (if not universally) accepted as a musical genius, as an ‘isai Payal’.
With Anirudh, I know he’s good, and he gets the eyeballs, but is he really considered a genius, even by gen Z?
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Hari
August 12, 2023
*Isai Puyal
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vijay
August 12, 2023
Point is Ani hardly has the kind of impact beyond TFM which Rahman did in the 90s. If he is being signed up for a film here or there maybe it is because of reasons other than his musical uniqueness(like non-availability of a MD, or a director’s personal equation etc). If he is not around, life will still go on with Dhaman or Keeravani or Pritam or SEL or numerous others. Producers used to line up before IR’s studio from the night before to get his dates in the 80s, like the queue for the elusive US visa outside the consulate near Gemini. THAT is saleability 🙂
Of course with Ani the nepo angle is always in question. His first viral hit itself was with his ‘relative’ Dhanush directed by another relative of his. Deva worked his way up to commercial saleability. THat way, even the comparison with Deva may not be all that fair(to Deva).
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theeversriram
August 12, 2023
@Hari even in my family ARR is not considered equal to IR or MSV coz of perception that he uses computers to create music which is not real.
@Vijay, yes Ani is product of nepotism no question on that. But atleast he is good at his job (unlike say Rahul G). If we extend nepotism debate further even ARR is a product of nepotism coz his father was in film industry and gave him exposure/contracts that others might not have. Again this is a different discussion.
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KS
August 12, 2023
@MacaulayPerapulla:
Are you claiming Ani played for Ashram? Okay thats impossible, you probably remember someone else.
Ani was a junior in my school (PSBB KKN). He never moved schools ever, and was even the SPL (student leader) in 12th standard. He did have a band and play in culturals, but definitely not for Ashram.
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Rajesh Arumugam
August 12, 2023
Until 10yrs ago, i used to download at least 20 to 30 albums an year. But after that I just stopped it. There is so much that i don listen to them eve once. There is so much in youtube to listen in music itself … So I just wait for hit play list or occasionally come across good songs in super singer shows and go back to the singers playlist (for eg Aval in Manithan). I am in no hurry to listen to best songs. Because of many of Ilayaraja best songs of 90s, i listener only in 2005s (for eg Maalai en vedhanai) ..
So i can understand why Ani is famous now for his musica instant selling to this reels gen
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Madan
August 12, 2023
“Also I never said Ani is the new IR or new ARR. I said that Ani is LIKE ARR of 90’s – getting all big projects/stars.” – As vijay also said, that makes him more like Deva. Deva scored some of Rajni’s biggest hits in the 90s – Annamalai, Baasha and Arunachalam. Apart from many other films with all the top heroes (including Kamal for Avvai Shanmughi and later, Pammal K).
The point is this: there is more to Rahman or Ilayaraja than simply delivering the biggest hits in a particular decade (and it’s never been true anyway that even they or MSV for that matter monopolized the hit making during their reign). For eg, Shankar Ganesh scored big with Idhaya Thamarai right in the middle of IR’s reign. And one of the most iconic Rajni songs from the 80s was Chandrabose’s Superstar Yaaru from Raja Chinna Roja. The difference has always been that peak IR/ARR could satisfy themselves as well as musicophiles while also delivering the hits that directors needed (MSV also did this over and over in his prime). I am not even saying Ani is completely incapable of doing that (though the ship may have already sailed as far as doing that at THEIR level goes). But that would be songs like Megam Karukaddha, not the stuff he churns out for mass films. And that is why reducing the comparison to hit making alone is not something I agree with. Even Harris tried to extend himself with songs like Iyengar Veetu Azhage but that has so far been a lack in Ani’s resume.
It’s somewhat the same thing with Rajni v/s Vijay. Unfortunately, Rajni’s choice of pursuing commercial success single mindedly from Annamalai onwards in particular narrows the gap between him and Vijay more than it should. But it is his charisma that distinguishes him, not delivering hits. And sure, you can say Vijay has his charisma too but it doesn’t seem to have crossover appeal – only his fans in TN accept him as charismatic, while Rajni is much more. When Endhiran came out, even North audiences turned up for the Hindi version. Vijay has simply never had that kind of transcending pull nor Ajith. In fact, Dhanush has actually delivered a pure Hindi hit with Ranjhanaa which is pretty much impossible for Vijay or Ajith.
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MSR
August 12, 2023
Long time lurker, first time commenter here. I thought I could provide a late 90s kid’s perspective. I have seen a lot of discussion about Anirudh vs ARR here and it’s something we discuss a lot in our friends group too. I feel there is a bit of confirmation and recency bias in the argument against Anirudh here. When my parents play IR music, or when I play ARR music from the 90s, we pick and choose the albums and songs we like. With Anirudh you are listening to all his songs in the theatre or on Spotify when a new album releases. So obviously, it’s not a favourable comparison. I see all the people talking here about his “mass” music, but everyone seems to ignore his albums with Vignesh Shivan, or Jersey. I think the way people listen to music these days has changed. Almost all of us have different playlists for our activities and moods. Surviva and Thalai viduthalai is in every Spotify Tamil gym playlist. Meghan karukatha and Kathuvakala songs are in every recent romantic playlist. Dippam Dappam is in every party playlist. When it comes to background music, his OSTs (like master, Vikram) have been included by me and my friends in our lineup along with Hans Zimmer and other Hollywood OSTs when we are working or studying. When it comes to variety, this is where I feel people are unfair on Anirudh. He has been collaborating with every music director in Tamil cinema right now. Why would he harm some else’s work and hurt those relationships? Surely it would be considered as eating into D. Imman’s business if say he made a folk album. Also, he has not yet gotten the chance to work on a big film. He has worked with big stars, but most of the budget goes to the stars itself, so he has not had an opportunity to make a grand album like Mudhalvan. And he is just 32, he has long time to before he gets bored and re-invents himself (like ARR did with Kadal and Maryan).
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Madan
August 12, 2023
“even in my family ARR is not considered equal to IR or MSV coz of perception that he uses computers to create music which is not real.” – Which is just a myth people cling onto maybe because they were upset the boyish wunderkind usurped Raja’s throne. Maybe I sound very Rahmaniac when I say that but I don’t need to write a word more on these threads to establish how much of a Raja fanboy I am here. But Rahman did July Madham Vandhaal with a pure guitar driven arrangement (played by Prasanna no less) even back in the day. And Sangamam was done on traditional instruments with a heavy classical base. More recently, Taare Ginn was a thoroughly orchestrated composition. And by the way, IR was using drum machines from the mid 80s or so and even he mentions this in his interview to Bhaskar Chandravarkar. Though some Rahman fans may not want to concede this, IR songs like the Vikram title track paved the way for a more synth/computer led musical era.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
“When my parents play IR music, or when I play ARR music from the 90s, we pick and choose the albums and songs we like.” – You may but I was already in high school for most of Rahman’s reign and listened to the albums as they came. The quality control argument doesn’t work with Rahman because he took up fewer films and gave the best. To all of them, even smaller ones like May Madham or Puthiya Mannargal. I would nevertheless be open to finding out what would a carefully curated best of Ani playlist looks like. I have heard enough of his work to say it wouldn’t change my mind and make me consider him on par with those two giants nor do I see what is so unfair about saying that (I mean, nobody says it’s unfair to say Roddick was not as great as Federer though he too won a grand slam title and made a bunch of finals). BUT at least if it helps me discover songs of his that I may have missed, I will always be grateful for that.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
Hari: “About Rahman being dismissed as a jingle maker, it didn’t last too long did it? He proved his mettle in a variety of genres in the 90s and he was generally (if not universally) accepted as a musical genius, as an ‘isai Payal’.” – Yes, post Duet/Bombay, that debate was put to rest. There’s no satisfying some people but haters gonna hate. For the rest, Rahman was already accepted as a genius and a worthy successor to past greats in Tamil as well as Hindi even by 95 or so.
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MSR
August 12, 2023
ARR was able to prove himself with a variety of albums because a variety of films were being made. Anirudh can only work with what films are being made now right? Is it his fault no one is making a Rhythm, Minsara Kanavu or a Kandukondein Kandukondein? My initial comment wasn’t to prove that Anirudh has overtaken ARR or reached his level (even I don’t believe that). It was just to point out what I felt was an unfair evaluation of Anirudh’s work.
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KS
August 12, 2023
@MSR:
As Madan says, with ARR at least, your claims of recency/selectivity bias do not hold. I have myself argued about this selectivity bias wrt IR many times here, facing a lot of disagreements (ask Madan). But as far as ARR goes, I too was a kid during his peak in the 90s just like you, and was a witness to the real-time sensation that his music was among all kinds of audiences. I remember even the elders in my family (snobs who looked down on IR as crass, townbus music) absolutely floored by ARR’s soundtracks. He blew everyone away with his first few albums itself- Roja, Pudhiya Mugam, Gentleman. And with Duet, Thiruda Thiruda and Kadhalan, nobody had any doubts anymore. So it took hardly two-three years for pretty much everybody to be won over irrevocably. ARR truly was special, and both his sound and consistency were uniquely spectacular.
Anirudh has been around for more than 10 years now! And yet, his discography on the whole is subpar. You can count with your hand the truly special songs of his. The rest are all loud fillers that are designed just to add bombast to the marketing, rather than as music to be listened to. One can always come up with justifications for this, relating it to changing business dynamics, technology, consumption, etc. He does his job well, but maybe the job itself is different now. ARR too had a lot of empty masala/dud movies to score in the 90s, but he shined even in those, so that excuse doesn’t hold up. Maybe Ani, if given the opportunity, could be capable of timeless music, who knows? But based on the output in hand, Ani is nowehere in the league of ARR. Noone is. Such musicians don’t just turn up every decade. We were just lucky to have ARR.
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Prat
August 12, 2023
The gist seems to be that while IR and ARR elevated the movies by being great artists, Anirudh does so by being a great technician. Manufacturing music as opposed to creating. What’s frustrating that he could be a great artist (composing great music like Osakka in Vanakkam Chennai, or many songs from the 3 album) but he keeps picking up Vijay Ajith crap films. I’m surprised that he hasn’t done much independent music (which even IR and ARR have done regularly) to experiment.
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Prat
August 12, 2023
Also surprised to find that not many Yuvan fans are here. That’s probably one of the other biases here – the audience being just a tad more highbrow lol? If YouTube or sun music are anything to go by. Because they (used to) make up the majority of the population. He comes up with a banger once in a while but a vast majority of his output is meh.
Did anyone like the new single by Harris, btw? (My name is john). It’s so addictive lol. He’s written off so frequently but most of the songs he composed at his peak are just so immensely satisfying to listen to, even more so than Rahman’s, and I say this as a true blue Rahmaniac. Of course nostalgia could be a factor, but I was recently listening to Yaaro Manadhile from Dhaam Dhoom while walking to work, and I was so stunned by just what a beautiful song it was. Sad that our films are going music-less without anything else to really fill the void.
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theeversriram
August 12, 2023
@Madan, cool to each his own. Like BR mentioned all of us are free to live in IR/ARR/Yuvan, etc. universe
“Maybe I sound very Rahmaniac when I say that but I don’t need to write a word more on these threads to establish how much of a Raja fanboy I am here.”
I’m a long time reader in this blog and I can vouch that you are a real true blue IR fan. Have read your musical posts & blog with admiration. Haven’t read your book though, I’m not much of a music person maybe the person who just needs music to help me run
As a fellow CA (and junior to you) kudos on following your musical passions.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
“ARR was able to prove himself with a variety of albums because a variety of films were being made. Anirudh can only work with what films are being made now right? ” – But there is a variety of films even today. From my vantage point of growing up in the 90s, films like Soodhu Kavvum or Pisaasu simply wouldn’t have been made in the 90s. The question is will Anirudh take a ‘pay cut’ once in a while to work on interesting films? IR worked or less or reportedly even no fees for smaller films many times. I am sure at least initially Rahman did ‘loss leading’ as well before he set a price and became choosy with assignments. And in any case, what the composer is paid is a fraction of star fees today, more so than even in the 90s. So it’s not that difficult for Ani to work on middle or small budget films if he wants to.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
Thanks, theversriram, nice to meet another from the tribe.
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vijay
August 12, 2023
The other thing that holds up against Anirudh is that the more serious auteur kind of mainstream filmmakers like Ranjith, Vetrimaaran, Mysskin, Maari , Manikandan are all not working with Anirudh or maybe even avoiding him(?). Vetrimaaran even went to a 2-gen old IR first in Viduthalai before he can think of Anirudh as an alternative. Has that ever happened when IR was at his peak? or ARR? Even the initially reluctant KB had to come around to IR eventually. They were considered composers for all seasons and occasions, not just for mass masala films. Rahman could do a 1947-Earth in between Indian and Padayappa or Parthiban’s experimental film alongside a Bigil/Mersal.
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MSR
August 12, 2023
There was a 7 year gap between Kaththi and Master, Vivegam (2017) was his last Ajith film. Vikram was his first Kamal album. Rajni is his family (how can he say no?) Saying he did only big hero films is just factually untrue. Yes his upcoming lineup looks like its all big hero movies, but I feel thats a result of Yuvan, Gibran, SaNa, ARR not delivering and everyone knocking on Anirudh’s door.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
“Saying he did only big hero films is just factually untrue. ” – Then maybe the problem is not what you say – a lack of variety of films – but that his music lacks range as of yet.
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vijay
August 12, 2023
“Is it his fault no one is making a Rhythm, Minsara Kanavu or a Kandukondein Kandukondein?”
well what about Natchathiram nagargiradhu, Sarpatta parambarai, Kadaisi Vivasaayi, Viduthalai, Asuran, Gargi and the likes.. Not to mention OTT films and efforts like Modern Love-Chennai and so on, which were’nt made in the 90s? I would argue that there is more variety of films now than in 90s.. you talk about lack of musicals or classical music-based films, then you have some defense. But variety, no. We have a bigger range of films now.
An avant-garde filmmaker like Thiagarajan should have gone to Anirudh for Modern Love-Chennai, a film for ‘gen Z ‘ audience. Instead he goes to IR of all people and is happy that he got what he wanted.
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hari prasad
August 12, 2023
Anirudh should pick movies in different genres and balance them with the big budget mega super star movies, that’s the solution.
He made his debut with a psycho romantic thriller that was 3 , then followed it up with a single song for David , did music for a coming of age story in Ethir Neechal and for a rom-com like Vanakkam Chennai and then arrived VIP , his first big mass masala movie.
That variety that he had during his initial years is missing nowadays with the exception of maybe Jersey , Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kadhal and Thiruchitrambalam which were the “softer” movies that had music from him.
Ilayaraja didn’t make a name for himself by only composing songs for the Rajini , Kamal and Chiranjeevi movies.
And Rahman didn’t produce good music only for Mani Ratnam and Shankar.
Anirudh should understand this.
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V
August 12, 2023
@Aman : US has always been Rajini’s fort as I had mentioned. My question is more about the performance of the film here. Even Beast was booked for week when it released, yet it was declared a flop until Rajini mentioned it did well during the audio launch of Jailer. As Jay had mentioned I just checked booking status for Hyderabad/Bengaluru and it shows Green everywhere on Book My Show.
Even in Chennai, I clearly remember Ponniyin Selvan being sold out for the entire week & getting a ticket in the 2nd week was very tough. I can get best tickets for Wednesday for Jailer in Chennai’s best multiplexes & good tickets in single screens for Monday.
I dont have any doubt about Rajini’s box office pull, but the hype here seems to be cooked up and it seems to be working as Monday is booked in Multiplexes out of FOMO
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Monnish
August 12, 2023
I mean Anirudh did do Rum, CoCo, Jersey, one short film in Paava Kadhaigal, and looks like he is doing Kavin’s next movie. I agree with the lack of range part, but I think that would apply to SaNa and others as well. Maybe it is a common problem. Everyone seems to comfortable in their own space. And about working with Vetri Maaran, Ranjith and Maari, who knows how much of that is due to caste politics?
One last thing and I am out of here, Vikram wasn’t different from the usual massy stuff? really? Porkanda Singam EDM version? Wasted? Maybe it really is a generation gap thing like BR said
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Madan
August 12, 2023
Monnish: Other than Pathala which was a standard kuthu song, yes, the soundtrack/OST portion of Vikram was different. Is it a generation gap? idk, might be for older listeners. I am the wrong guy to ask. I consume Western music ‘direct from the source’, as in through independent bands and artists and not through movie soundtracks. So I didn’t find any of the OST stuff in Vikram particularly thrilling. It was done well for what it was worth but very generic.
To the extent it’s a generation gap, it’s more a difference then in the manner of consuming music. It seems to be a late millennial/zoomer thing to get hooked onto OSTs. From a Western perspective, maybe the band/independent artist obsession that began with the boomers has peaked with zoomers/older millennials (of which I am one). It’s very difficult to get excited about OSTs if you’re already into bands, particularly lesser known ones that attempt more daring things than idk Def Leppard or Bryan Adams.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
V: I read of a 45% drop on Day 2 for Jailer. I don’t know if numbers have picked up for the weekend but otherwise, a 45% drop that early is usually not great news at the very least.
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Madan
August 12, 2023
“aybe the band/independent artist obsession that began with the boomers has peaked with zoomers/older millennials” – Meant Gen Xers/older millennials
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theeversriram
August 12, 2023
Nobody has to advice Ani on what kind of films he must do. Purely his choice.
But like someone mentioned there is almost nobody else who is able to deliver the big hero BGMs and mass songs.
SaNa tried but wasn’t successful & now seems to be stuck in personal issues. Yuvan, Harris, GV have all declined big time.
Ani also did quite a few small/soft films but he really took off when VIP released. It was evident then that his BGM made quite a big difference. His next big film was Katthi, AR Murugadass also said that boys in his apartment were humming Ethir Neechal songs & he picked Ani after that.
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hari prasad
August 12, 2023
Maybe we have to wait till Monday or the next day which is a national holiday to check out
the real verdict.
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Prasad
August 12, 2023
Good points put forth by all. Obviously we’re in different era now we can’t compare Anirudh’s music to
ARR and IR. But how about we compare him with Amit Trivedi as mostly their timeline matches. Just look at his body of work
with albums like Queen, Dev Das, Lootera, Manmarziyan, Kai Po che, Aamir, Udaan, Andhadhun .etc
Yes. Amit can’t match Anirudh’s pumping energy , loud BGM’s. But want to emphasize that melody and range is what
makes a song timeless IMO.
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madhusudhan194
August 12, 2023
Quite liked the film while it lasted. I am a hardcore Rajini fan. I found the fan service in the quite satisfying. Rajini himself looked interested in the scheme of things unlike Darbar or Annaathe where he looked quite tired and uninterested. The film delivers what the fans want – the glorious high moments. Does it hold up as a fairly good film minus the fan service – only the first half does. It’s here Nelson displays the flair he so confidently put forward in Doctor. The second half goes haywire and if not for Rajini and the surprisingly explosive cameos, this stretch is amongst the worst we’ve seen in a Tamil film since Beast. I got a feeling that Nelson’s unique signature will continue to produce polarising results. There are going to be parts that are bloody good and parts that are unbelievably terrible. He seems to operate in the extremes. If Jailer works, it’s primarily due to the raw star power. Still happy for what I think is a 50% return to form for Nelson.
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madhusudhan194
August 13, 2023
Also I don’t think we’re going to get progressively better films starring Rajini. His image is too big for a film to be anything except entirely about him and him alone. I for one don’t want any less fan service than what I got in Jailer. Just writing those moments and building up to those moments would take up the entire film and there’s going to be very little else. That’s exactly what’s happening now and will continue until we get tired of it. Rajini may have hit the gold this time but as long as he wants to be the hero charging 100 crore salary, he’s stuck. The problem is we don’t want to see him any other way. But as long as the fan service is done well like here and in Petta, we don’t mind.
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Anand Raghavan
August 13, 2023
Reasonably entertaining 1st half…last 10 mins was ok…but the entire sequence involving Sunil, Tamannah didn’t work at all ..almost 45 mins on 2nd half was movie was meandering….
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SorenKierky
August 13, 2023
I think re: the Ani debate, having followed his career from early years, personally, I find his music to be hugely addictive and very disposable. I used to love almost all songs from him – melodies, upbeat etc. – but only a few songs from his earlier days are in my playlist now. Can’t say that for IR/Rahman. And I still play the latest Ani songs on loop while driving/working, they’re full of energy, but I also know that I’m gonna grow tired of these (and by that time he’d have churned out another hit, ofc).
To be honest, this kind of “reel music” with “hooks” is what is needed today, filmmakers today seem to have mostly move on from the usual musical format, and for the marketing aspect, his music works magic IMO. Doesn’t make it apples to apples comparison as the need and times are different, but again, if longevity is the yardstick, then Anis works are not gonna rank really high.
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Madan
August 13, 2023
The Ani v/s IR-ARR topic prompted me to do a video on the larger topic of liking old songs (or ‘old’ art per se) and how much of it is really attributable to nostalgia. Being that it is a general topic, back to English for this one:
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SorenKierky
August 13, 2023
Re: Jailer, I agree totally with what BR is saying, and I’m sure Nelson’s hands were tied, because a lot of decisions in the films look forced choices (the crown shootout, god that dragged on and fizzled out) rather than what we saw in Doctor or KoKo (not a huge fan but it’s a unique voice for sure). Despite all that, the “massy” sequences were well shot, the Nelson bits like the drunk goons scene worked well, and I’ve not seen Superstar in such glory in any of his recent films, not even Petta (which is one of the reasons why it didn’t work, writing issues aside), and that’s coming from someone who enjoyed Kaala thoroughly. Not just him, people went C-R-A-Z-Y when Mohanlal came on screen, and even Shivrajkumar had his moment. Sure, it’s very much a cameo, but the casting choices and giving them these sequences is the major reason why people are going berserk. And I totally get that, I too liked it very much.
But as a whole, this is not even close to a satisfying watch as individual bits stick out like crazy – but is very much watchable. Only Lokesh has cracked directing big stars, and Master is still the only “50/50” star movie that came anywhere close to achieving the balance. Nelson IMO should go ahead and do what he want with either non-star films or stars like SK who can clearly be flexible as the market allows him to (Maaveeran was quite fun!)
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Voldemort
August 13, 2023
Sundar : New age directors = Meghan Markle. Stay out of the Royal family.
LMAO. This was really funny.
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Voldemort
August 13, 2023
Agree with Prat on Petta being mostly middling. I will die on the hill that the flashback portions of Linga were better than Petta (though, full disclosure I have seen both films only once – when they released). The Linga flashback had everything the successful KSR – Rajni collaborations had in the past – magnanimous world’s greatest human Rajni, how he fights all odds to achieve glory, how he bears all the avamaanam just for the good of the people, how he is loved by everyone for his innocence, how women love him for always rescuing them from distress, etc.
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brangan
August 13, 2023
SorenKierky: I find his music to be hugely addictive and very disposable.
Perfectly summed up. Only, these days, even the “addictive” factor has gone down. (“naa ready’ and ‘Kavala’ did nothing for me.) But I still listen to songs like ‘Yennai maatrum kaadhale’, ‘Thangame’, and ‘Naana thaana’ continues to be a fun favourite. 🙂
Doctor or KoKo (not a huge fan but it’s a unique voice for sure).
I think he is like Vignesh Shivan — best left “untamed” by big stars. What Vignesh did with his PAAVA KATHAIGAL episode blew my mind, and though KRK was a lesser work, there was still enough to suggest a very unique voice.
What bugged me most about JAILER was that so many ideas were just… ideas. They stayed at the concept level, and were not pushed through.
Imagine that interval sniper scene: Rajini is totally cocky that the snipers will take of things. But the snipers mistake another house for Rajini’s house, and randomly start firing at people moving there. Rajini hears shots but is unable to figure out why none of the goons in his house are dying. His cocky grin falls and mild panic sets in. So he is forced to fight a bit. And to his surprise, Ramya Krishnan and Mirnaa join in, too.
Just a very random thought… but just explaining how things were not “pushed” enough. The narrative was just a bunch of half-developed concepts.
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Voldemort
August 13, 2023
Really enjoyed all the comments on Anirudh’s music here. Generation gap is most certainly not the reason why some people do not relate to his music. I have said this before in other threads, and will continue to say it again, there are some of us from “this generation” who have never really liked many of his songs too. Like others have pointed out, the attitude towards music has changed a lot – there is a need for the “hook line” so that it can be incessantly used in YT shorts and instagram stories/reels until the next hook comes up. And there is just so much content out there that people don’t really care for the repeat value, it just has to be serviceable until the next one comes along. People are not interested/don’t have the time for deep breakdowns of the songs/arrangements or how layered or complex the music is. It has to be instantly catchy with Tanglish lyrics that one can easily sing along to. And Anirudh has made best use of the situation and hence he is in every other film. To compare him with a Bollywood counterpart, I would even go so far to say that (with my very menial musical understanding) Pritam who composes for every other film like Anirudh does in Tamil, probably has had much better variety and range.
P.S. Surprised to find Megham Karukatha have so many takers in this blog. I kind of liked the song but I found the lyrics and Dhanush’s sort of lazy sleepy drunken voice too off-putting. The lyrics were a khichdi of so many old songs but in a very bad way and the Tanglish was so forced that I could just not bear it at all. Everyone agrees that Dhanush is a very talented actor, why does he have to prove his versatility by writing such painfully drab lyrics.
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Prat
August 13, 2023
@voldemort – same feeling about megam karukaadha. Any song sung by dhanush is immediately expelled from my playlists lol. Vaa vaathi the original version is such a fun listen, as compared against his version which is so grating. Surprised he has sung even for Ilayaraja now. The only song he sung recently that I liked was Little Little from the Hindi film.
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vijay
August 13, 2023
Dhanush can write and sing because he can. Anirudh can compose music because he can. Thats what being related to a superstar family does to your careers. It opens up hitherto unexpected avenues for you, which, under other circumstances could have gone to more talented folks or specialists of that craft. As Aishwarya Rajnikanth proclamed back then , “Anirudh ENGA veettu payyan..”
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Madan
August 13, 2023
” To compare him with a Bollywood counterpart, I would even go so far to say that (with my very menial musical understanding) Pritam who composes for every other film like Anirudh does in Tamil, probably has had much better variety and range.” – Absolutely. Just take Laal Singh Chaddha alone. Kahaani, Main Ki Karaan, Tere Hawale, Phir Na Aisi Raat and Tur Kaleyan, that’s amazing variety. Sure, part of it is the kaleidoscopic scope of the film but Pritam also has the range to execute it. And this is all just one film. Take songs like Yeh Ishq Haaye or Aaoge Jab Tum (again from one film), Raabta, Channa Mere Aa and ADHM (again, same film), that’s fantastic range.
“Surprised to find Megham Karukatha have so many takers in this blog.” – Speaking for myself, I didn’t evaluate the lyrics. I just love that Ani executed a jazz arrangement so well with unexpectedly intricate touches. And being that it’s jazz, I wouldn’t want a Karthik super smooth-but-bland rendition. Dhanush’s lazy swag works a treat for me in this song. I’ve said a version of this before but among the males, I would only trust SPB (RIP) to exude raunch and energy while remaining melodic in a conventional Indian sense. Today’s playback singers struggle with that balance and err too much on the side of sounding melodic.
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theeversriram
August 13, 2023
@Vijay agree that being related to Superstar definitely has advantages and Aishwarya/Soundarya/Shruthi Hassan/Ani are all products of nepotism.
BUT Aish/Soundarya without talent fizzled out but Ani is thriving and currently number one in BO. So shouldn’t we give credit where due? Ani has found a niche, exploited it well and has a connect with younger audiences.
PS: Rajni is not the type who will give priority to family over business. Ani’s first movie with Rajni was Petta after Ani had proved that he can deliver.
Kochadaiyaan was the only mistake that Rajni did, for which he is still paying the price.
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neabs
August 13, 2023
I completely agree here. The moments were mass but scenes were not that impressive. I still remember mass movements in baasha favouring the character as well as the story.
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neabs
August 13, 2023
I still couldn’t believe how the whole family accepted the death of the ACP without any solid evidence in front of them.
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vijay
August 13, 2023
“Rajni is not the type who will give priority to family over business. Ani’s first movie with Rajni was Petta after Ani had proved that he can deliver.’
and who gave him the chance to work with Dhanush in 3 in the first place? Lets not kid ourselves here…He is’nt the only one who benefits from this factor and he won’t be the last one either..it’s the support system these kids get to keep failing and still getting a chance to come back after getting an easy entrance without sweating it. Much like Mr ilayathalapathi
(The fact that Rajni is still doing films with a 100cr salary has got something a lot to do with his family business)
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vijay
August 13, 2023
..and Aishwarya’s next Lal Salaam has Rajni playing a crucial cameo..
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therag
August 13, 2023
Ani’s contemporaries have much better records and greater bodies of work, even for the so-called mass films which apparently do not afford music directors much freedom.
SaNa – Kabali, Kaala for Rajni, Mahaan for Vikram, Bairavaa for Vijay, Karnan for Dhanush
Imaan – Viswasam
Ghibran – Uttama Villan, Papanasam
GVP – Asuran, Soorarai Pottru
Ajith is not going to refuse a Kannana Kanne is he? There’s always opportunities to make good music. Anirudh simply does not make the cut.
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Heisenberg
August 13, 2023
Jailer – below average.
Cop son gets involved a huge case and gets murdered. Ex cop father gets in to get revenge and finishes off the whole business empire.
This is overall arc of Vikram & Jailer. Vikram gets help of agents and Jailer gets help of gangsters.
Probably to avoid this obvious similarities, they came with a ridiculous twist that son is corrupt and dad kills son like Indian.
One of the dumbest twist that makes no sense. We hardly know the guy and he is motivated enough to kill his dad to make more money?
Even if we accept hes bad, technically he wants to begin when varma releases him. He says hes been seeking him to directly deal with him. So what exactly does his father want him to surrender for? He hasnt done anything yet.
P.S. Vinayakan was extraordinary
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Bala
August 13, 2023
Saw the movie in bangalore today. We were totally 19 tickets, apartment neighbour families, age group ranging from 3.5 to 65. Mostly every one liked it , except for slightly higher violence. The theatre experience was great. So glad that nelson was held back because of “family audience”. The response for shivrajkumar and mohanlal was fantastic. My only gripe was, a jailer could not have so much influence on dons. They could have chosen a different proffession for Rajni, say a former don.
I was thinking why so much discussion over anirudh vs arr and ir. But this movie is nothing without anirudh, and all the praise he is receiving are well deserved. Maniratnam once said that he sees his movies as him and arr are narrating the story together. Here, anirudh’s contribution did not just lift the narration, Anirudh’s contribution was kept in mind even during conception (saying because of the entry scenes of different super stars and villains).
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Voldemort
August 13, 2023
Madan : And being that it’s jazz, I wouldn’t want a Karthik super smooth-but-bland rendition. Dhanush’s lazy swag works a treat for me in this song. I’ve said a version of this before but among the males, I would only trust SPB (RIP) to exude raunch and energy while remaining melodic in a conventional Indian sense.
Ah right, now that you mention it, yes, someone like a Karthik would have been super bland. I have felt this with some of Karthik’s songs – that he’s a very good singer but somehow feels very bland. Speaking of SPB, yes, what a versatile man. He really did make you feel the emotions that the song conveys.
As an aside, how do you think it would have been if someone like a Pradeep Kumar had sung it?
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Madan
August 13, 2023
Voldemort: I haven’t really heard enough of Pradeep Kumar’s singing to make an educated comment. Has he done jazz singing before? I could judge based off samples.
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Anuja Chandramouli
August 13, 2023
I am a Rajni fangirl and a rabid one at that which means I don’t handle disappointment well when it comes to his films. Admittedly in a minority here but I absolutely loathed the films he made with Shankar – Shivaji (ugh! That scene with him pouring fairness creams on his face or stuffing his face with red chillies actually scarred me), Enthiran (excuse me while I go throw up), 2.0 (could not bring myself to watch it). We will not even discuss turkeys like Baba, Kochadaiyaan. I thought he was superlative in Kaala and Kabali but he did more for those films than they did for him. As for Darbar, that’s when I gave up on him and gave Annathe a pass. But after Petta (which I thoroughly enjoyed despite its flaws) I thought Jailer looked very promising, despite the item number and Sunil’s awful wig.
Glad I caught this in the theatre and went in with moderate to low expectations. It was just loads and loads of fun. Somehow Rajni is a perfect fit in Nelson’s world. And Vinayakan was just too brilliant for words! It was such a menacing turn and those eyes were magnificent. Finally a worthy antagonist for Rajni after Raghuvaran. I thought their scenes together worked very well.
Of course, I could have done without the entire Sunil/Tammu/random wig thread but the rest of the movie was totally Paisa vasool. Loved the cameos by Mohan lal (he was pretty lethal with that burglar basher and seemed to be having the time of his life ) Shiva Rajkumar (that scene with the fan and Jaffer Sadiq was hilarious, someone should give JS a leading role already) and Jackie Shroff. Nelson used them pretty well and it had good masala value. And that interval block was pure gold!! Like somehow commented here, Nelson knows how to use Rajni in his world, showing him as the brain rather than brawn factor (given his age) in that dark, coldly amoral world he conjured up and which the great man so comfortably inhabits. His still flawless comic timing which had the entire theatre erupting in fits of mirth, his ability to imbue the tiniest of gestures or facial tics with raw power, the unrivalled capacity to own the fuck out of any scene he is in even when he is up against some of the best and finest talent in the business, those beautiful eyes that can convey a galaxy of feeling, that penchant for kicking butt with panache even when simply sitting on his butt, that electrifying screen presence … I could go on and on but suffice to say that my inner Rajni fangirl is happy as can be!!
I don’t know why there is so much grousing about that twist. In most Rajni films, you know exactly how shit is gonna go down but you still wait for the man to do the Superstar stuff he alone can do with that glorious chutzpah. So I had no issues with that unlike in Vikram where Loki annoyed me with that unnecessary build up to the interval block. Seriously, even the newborns in the theatre knew that KH didn’t kick the bucket and figured the man in the mask with the distinctive voice and eyes was KH himself!
The glorification of police brutality in the Muthuvel Pandian flashback was disturbing. The grandson has to be the most annoying brat of all time, Ramya Krishnan was criminally underused, and this is far from being a good film in and of itself but I had such a great time it doesn’t really matter!! Thalaivar Nirantharam 😭🤩❤️
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Ashwin Kumar
August 13, 2023
Couldn’t agree more with BRs review. Didn’t work for me at all. If petta was a 9 out if 10, this was like a 4. Empty mass moments, unfunny humour,loud bgm and a silly twist.
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Movie Goer
August 14, 2023
Yes, this scene would have been very believable. “Imagine that interval sniper scene: Rajini is totally cocky that the snipers will take of things. But the snipers mistake another house for Rajini’s house, and randomly start firing at people moving there. Rajini hears shots but is unable to figure out why none of the goons in his house are dying. His cocky grin falls and mild panic sets in. So he is forced to fight a bit. And to his surprise, Ramya Krishnan and Mirnaa join in, too.”
This would have been as random as making the son a bad guy. If the heist was written better as well as not had the twist for twist sake son as the bad guy. This would have been as good as Baasha (which itself had several flaws). With 20/20 hindsight, it is easy to suggest changes. But other than the two big issues, I did not have any huge heartburns with the movie.
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brangan
August 14, 2023
Movie Goer: With 20/20 hindsight, it is easy to suggest changes.
Actually, no. When you write a screenplay, you show it around and get changes/suggestions — because you are SO INTO that world that you miss out on some obvious things. But very few Tamil directors do that.
The other thing they don’t do — because they are given a ridiculous two months or something to write before the star’s dates are available — is keep the script in cold storage for a few weeks and then take it out and look at it with a fresh eye. That is itself a great way to get 20/20 sight on what is working and what is not.
These two are the main reasons we almost end up with films that have a bunch of scenes that work individually, but don’t have the total coherence of a screenplay.
But it doesn’t matter, because today, people are watching reels and shorts and don’t expect/want this coherence: a prime (and great) example being LOVE TODAY. I think years from now, this film will be seen as THE defining model for films made henceforth. Just write something that entertains people FOR THE MOMENT, and forget the “boring bits” like narrative/character arcs.
I don’t mean this in a bad/judgmental way. To each their own. But I am really curious about what the “traditional” screenplay guys like Mani, GVM, Karthik Subbaraj, Kamal, Ranjith etc. are going to make — say — five years hence. (Yes, PS-1/2 was kinda-sorta this model, but it did have big arcs for all characters.)
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tamil thanos
August 14, 2023
Looks like the movie is doing crazy business and there are talks about it surpassing Vikram’s gross which is frankly quite surprising. On the other hand, I am happy for Rajini’s much needed success after being heavily discounted for the last 5 years. With the success of Master, Vikram and Jailer, let’s hope actors and producers are willing to let the new generation directors have a longer leash.
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Prat
August 14, 2023
I’m afraid to say this here, but Kochadaiyaan wasn’t so bad people..
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ara108vind
August 14, 2023
Kartik subbaraj on jailer
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theeversriram
August 14, 2023
“Imagine that interval sniper scene: Rajini is totally cocky that the snipers will take of things. But the snipers mistake another house for Rajini’s house, and randomly start firing at people moving there. Rajini hears shots but is unable to figure out why none of the goons in his house are dying. His cocky grin falls and mild panic sets in. So he is forced to fight a bit. And to his surprise, Ramya Krishnan and Mirnaa join in, too.”
BUT won’t this have taken the MASS out of that scene completely??
All the fans unanimously (& many common movie goers) agree that interval scene is the most theatre whistle worthy. Maybe Nelson understood audience better?
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Hari
August 14, 2023
“ I’m afraid to say this here, but Kochadaiyaan wasn’t so bad people..”
I remember when I saw Baahubali part 1, a lot of the plot points reminded me of Kochadaiyaan. It wasn’t a bad plot at all, but the animation was subpar. It might have worked if it had been shot as a normal movie, instead of as an animated feature.
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Raghu Narayanan
August 14, 2023
Watched this over the week-end. It would be an understatement to say that the movie did not work for me. It pretty much riled me altogether! What a waste!
Some spoilers ahead…
There was a RWI written some days back about mindless violence depicted on movies. Well, this one should take the cake! Absolutely Gross! That it was excessive and over the top was not the most criminal part of it, but that it was totally unnecessary. It was distasteful. It erased out whatever element of art that the other aspects of the movie, such as the cinematography or the background score, brought in.
None of the characters – neither the protagonist nor the antagonist, landed for me.
Rajini’s character as the ultra-fearless, ultra-ruthless, Jailer never had a build-up at all. He is introduced as a dinosaur, but it is nearly not enough if we are just told that and asked to take them on their words. We need to see that in terms of a back-story. But whatever is shown, as a flashback, was so weak that it made a mockery of the ‘dinosaur’ that he was supposed to be. We are told that some of the most dangerous criminals and underworld men across the country are ready to do his bidding, at just a phone call. But why? What had he done to earn their respect and loyalty? Just asking us to accept this without showing why, makes the person seem very weak and featherweight. A strong backstory was required to establish that the person was a dinosaur, but the makers thought otherwise, apparently.
The antagonist, on the other hand, has been give way, too, too much build up! It was as if a boy was given his favorite toy and asked to play as much as he wanted with it. This guy favorite toy is a sledge-hammer and he goes berserk. And we get to see ALL of it! Yeah, okay, we get it! He likes to bash people’s faces in with his toy and drop them head down into a container of acid (yuk!). We do not want to see it every time, please!
The protagonist’s son and wife were handed ant-sized roles in comparison to the main duo, and even there, whatever opportunity could have been leveraged to give it a punch, was not utilized. Like, how are we asked to believe that such a notorious jailer’s wife does not know anything about him at all? Isn’t that so immature of the makers? And the son’s going astray in the end, and wanting to finish off his ‘dinosaur’ father was even weaker…it was pathetic!
The only part that I felt was above average, was the BGM.
All-in-all, the movie did not seem what the notorious bad guy often repeats that he is in the movie – ‘professional’!
The only thing about this movie that I fully agree with is BR’s review here!
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Bala
August 14, 2023
I agree with BR’s review mostly, the movie if not watched by a fan, or if watched in a quiet theatre, would be bad. I didn’t like vikram at all and was wondering why BR gave it a thumbs up. As much as BR would hate to admit it, BR’s subconscious bias always shows up in his reviews. Again, BR is right in this movie, but he has been wrong in different movies, and his inconsistencies are consistent with bias.
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Madan
August 14, 2023
“I agree with BR’s review mostly, the movie if not watched by a fan, or if watched in a quiet theatre, would be bad. I didn’t like vikram at all and was wondering why BR gave it a thumbs up” – You know, that depends too. I personally find loud cheers for moments I find very flat or just meh very irritating because it immediately tells me I am not the target audience for this film. Looking back, I was reacting to the crowd when I kept calling Vikram an attempt at ‘mass’ and this here blog disagreed. Because people were issuing excited whistles for Kamal’s throwaway ‘Raghavan samurthyam’ reference and I was like, what’s so exciting about a VV reference completely bereft of any context and done as seemingly nothing more than fan service (only, Kamal ‘fan service’ consists of such ‘meta’ moments rather than swashbuckling stunts and gestures as is the case for Rajni).
Anyhow, that movie convinced me to stay away from Tamil star vehicles at least on the big screen so I will wait for Jailer on OTT. IMO if a movie doesn’t work in a quiet, focused watch, it is simply not very good at all and maybe what it is trying to achieve is not very different from a WWE-like communal experience of action and violence. I only watched Baasha on TV and it didn’t lack anything for epicness on account of ‘lacking’ a big screen loud audience. Likewise Padayappa. The beats should come organically from the film but that is apparently too much to ask these days.
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Raghu Narayanan
August 14, 2023
Just so that I just don’t only diss the movie without coming up with an alternative suggestion, here are some of the things that I feel could have made this better:
Major spoilers ahead…
A stronger role for the wife to begin with. She always knows about her husband’s past and his capabilities. They don’t for a moment believe that their son is dead. But suspect some larger mystery around his disappearance. And together they take the decision that Rajini, the Jailer, should step out of the house and start making some moves. This I feel could have delivered a more powerful set up than the weak scene where the cop-son is telling the con man Seenu that his dad is a dinosaur, etc. That whole sequence from the whistle exchange to the phone call could have been avoided.
The Seenu killing must be retained along with the entire Yogi Babu sequence – because it would look like Jailer’s way of sending a message up the network, but the other two guys were unnecessary. Did not add to the plot. So was the cringe-worthy sequence with VTV Ganesh. It was mindless, brainless and did not do anything to move the story along. Instead, Seenu’s killing should elicit the expected response from Varma by way of the phone call threat to annihilate Jailer’s entire family. And after that the Jailer should have travelled to Mandya straight away. And while travelling in the car with Yogi Babu, a cut back to the past where he had ‘straightened-out’ the Shivarajkumar character to whom he was going to ask for help. That would have established a back-story to that relationship. The sequences in Mandya could be retained as it is, and post that too where they intercept the truck with the stolen idols. And instead of Varma trying to threaten the Jailer that he is going to kill his family while telecasting it live on videocall, the Jailer must now take the fight to the criminal and threaten him about the captured idol truck.
The whole sequence about Jackie sending his men to hit Rajini was crappy (the interval block). Wouldn’t Jackie even know on whom he was doing a hit job? So it shouldn’t have been Jackie but someone else in that place, one who did not know about the Jailer. OR, Jackie could have been the next guy on the ladder above Varma who schools him about what a fool he was to try these tricks on Jailer. And when Singh’s men turn the tables on Varma, he is truly defeated. He is done for from that moment onwards. Then the whole sequence about the crown theft was laughable. Should be dumped in entirety. It was insincere and an insult to the audience. Instead, after accounting for Varma, who is the first step of the network, and saving his son (we needed someone like Ashok Selvan doing this role!), the Jailer must go the way of ‘The Equalizer’. He must start moving up the chain of the network and start accounting for people, one by one. This means that there must be more than one antagonist, and that would be fair too. Does the Jailer need to pull so many strings to swat a fly? Isn’t he, after all, a man who had single-handedly tamed many notorious criminals? So, the Jailer starts moving up the network where the complexion of the bad guys should change and become more and more sophisticated and subtle (think of Arvind Swami in Thani Oruvan). And this is where Mohan Lal would step in with this help, and a back-story to set that up as well. We did not need to see Mohan Lal bash people’s heads with a baseball bat. But we wanted to know why he, the hardened criminal that he is, calls Jailer as ‘Sir!’.
The rescued son will lead an op from the police side and will tackle those on the side of power who are corrupt, while the retired father will take the more direct route along with his acquaintances and finish off the underworld network around this business, once and for all and in true Jailer style.
End of story.
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Bala
August 14, 2023
“Anyhow, that movie convinced me to stay away from Tamil star vehicles at least on the big screen so I will wait for Jailer on OTT”
Jailer on OTT will be a sure shot let-down. Jailer in theatre in the first week will be fine. This movie should not be released in OTT at all.
Also, Rajni movies are the only ones which people can be confident about watching with family, OTT or theatre. So, i don’t mind if nelson was held back from doing the bloody movie that he wanted.
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brangan
August 14, 2023
Bala: You must be new in these parts? So let me break down your comment and answer each point
I didn’t like vikram at all and was wondering why BR gave it a thumbs up.
I cannot give a review based on what you or anyone else thinks. I am wholly against the concept of groupthink when it comes to art, and I can only write a review from my POV — i.e., whether the film worked for ME or not.
As much as BR would hate to admit it, BR’s subconscious bias always shows up in his reviews.</>
What a strange thing to say. OF COURSE, My unconscious biases (i.e. taste, tolerance, the kind of person I am, the kind of art I have been exposed to, the decade I was born and what the movie scene was like then, etc.) ARE going to show up in my reviews 🙂 How would they not?
This is the case with everyone, whether a reviewer or a commenter like you. There is no such thing as an “objective” consumer of art. This is not science.
Again, BR is right in this movie, but he has been wrong in different movies
No i was not “right” with this movie, nor was I “wrong” with other films. Everyone’s opinion is right according to their POV and their unconscious biases.
What you are saying is “Bala did not like a film and BR liked it, so BR is wrong” or “Bala and BR agreed on this film, so BR is right”.
As long as I do not display a CONSCIOUS bias in my reviews (and as long as I explain the reasons why I liked or disliked a film), I am good (in my eyes).
If you are the kind of review reader who wants a critic who is ALWAYS on your wavelength, you are probably better off looking somewhere else — but I doubt you will find one. 🙂
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astro
August 14, 2023
i dint catch this – as most of the star vehicles are high on mktg and low on all else, in the past – experienced let down with petta and darbar. Some how super star vehicles end up as one man shows with little else to back them. Even while as a fan we are ok to suspend disbelief, i do think this gets pretty stretched with the recent Rajni and Ajit (and salman etc.) movies.
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Bala
August 14, 2023
@BR, i am not new here 😀 i have had similar discussions on subconscious bias. I should not have used “right” and “wrong”. And i don’t expect your reviews to align with my wavelength. And of course i am not accusing you of taking money or whatever conscious bias is.
In one of the comments in some thread, you yourself mentioned something like “I don’t like people calling things ‘first ever, best in history, etc'”, but in your vikram review, you call the movie historic , first in indian cinema, something like that. in fact, i remember, very soon after you making that comment (about not liking first-ever, greatest-ever etc), you called devar magan as some greatest ever remake of god father, or something like that.
sorry for multiple ‘something like that’s. I can go and dig in to the exact comments, but i think you won’t deny these.
My point is, when in comes to some of your favourites, the bad becomes ok, and good becomes great, while when it comes to some others, good becomes ok and ok becomes bad. And as a seasoned reviewer, we expect you to be beyond these. Your response of ‘can’t do anything about subconsious bias’ is understandable, but i am sure there must be ways to keep them at bay.
Anyway, big fan, and not going anywhere 😀 😀
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Ashwin Kumar
August 14, 2023
I wouldn’t consider Jailer and Vikram to be the similar although there is massy hero workshop in both. The world building in Vikram was sincere, thoughtful , motivations believable and supporting characters etched out well unlike Jailer. Jailer was clearly not engaging for me, I couldn’t care less about the cameo roles. Take a massy fight in Vikram involving the baby inside the house and Kamal preparing milk, that was such a nice touch keeping one hooked and fight sequences choreographed well. Jailer was like a bunch of school kids making a movie with the best of technicians.
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Ashwin Kumar
August 14, 2023
And I hear BRs thought of the way that the pre interval sequence could have played out. There should be some at stake. True massy sequences need the hero to display vulnerabilities and find a way to overcome the odds and not mere slo mo shots and loud bgm
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Bala
August 14, 2023
” True massy sequences need the hero to display vulnerabilities and find a way to overcome the odds and not mere slo mo shots and loud bgm”
This doesn’t have to be true always. Many Rajni movies have one sequence where Rajni wins just by showing up, no fight nothing. And that will be the massest scene of the movie. For eg, in basha, it is the scene were he takes nagma from the marriage hall, and how her dad gestures him to just take her away. Similarly, in padayappa, the mansoor ali khan sequence. In jailer, i feel shivanna walked away with that rights in the pre-climax scene. i do agree that it is less believable in jailer that such dons will do anything for a jailer, but in the theatre, it played out well.
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loadproof
August 14, 2023
Full version of kaavala song could have been played in the end title card but they missed doing it, it was a bit unhappy kinds for masala lovers like us!
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Madan
August 14, 2023
“but in your vikram review, you call the movie historic , first in indian cinema, something like that” – First genre-specific action movie in Tamil cinema, so that’s a heavily qualified first anyway. I was more intrigued by the Scorsese reference but then I am unabashedly a Scorsese fanboy. I hear what you’re saying and I wrote at the time that this was the review that made me realize that maybe BR is a bigger fan of Kamal than even of Mani and Ilayaraja. But on the other hand, if you’re talking about objectivity (within a subjective universe), BR simply aligned with many other professional critics who did hail Vikram in the highest terms. Sudhir Srinivasan was one of the few who said it’s more of a meh while still positive. And with Jailer again, the reviews are less overwhelming than for Vikram. Saibal Chatterjee has rated it 2.5.
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Vignesh
August 14, 2023
Some comments here pondered if there were any reliable websites where box office of Jailer (and other tamil films can be tracked).
Yes, the best that is available today for day to day and region wise tracking of movie collections of Indian films is Sacnilk. It seems they do a fantastic job in providing reliable figures as opposed to fan/payment based unreliable/biased tracking by most other tamil industry trackers.
Here is Jailer day to day comprehensive collections so far.
https://www.sacnilk.com/news/Thalaivar_169_2023_Box_Office_Collection_Day_Wise_Worldwide
And regarding the Ani vs IR/ARR & others debate, I think the question is not about who is the greatest or if Ani can be compared to those legends in terms of greatness of music. That is obvious and its not even a fair question. The thing is only this. Anirudh is currently the NO.1 commercial music director in tamil and just like IR &ARR were the No.1 most dominant music director in cinema during their primes respectively, Ani is the one now. And that is not a qualitative analysis (which ofcourse is also subjective), but based on the market. His is the brand of music that most youngsters love and follow the most in these times. I know many youngsters (teens,20s,30s) wait and go to movies just to experience and be exhilarated by his bgm/music. He can make average movies turn into big blockbusters (ofcourse some movies can’t be saved, whatever one does) and some of his latest movies might be an example of that i guess.
To sum up, Ani has been easily the NO.1 MOST DOMINANT tamil music director by a long distance (in terms of MARKET) for about atleast 5 years now. His nearest competitors in the industry are comparatively much below (that is in terms of trends & influence among youth). This may change anytime, which only time can tell. But for now it is his era.
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Ashwin Kumar
August 14, 2023
Post 2010 Rajini movie scale for me ( in terms of holistic quality of movie- purely subjective opinion)
Kaala>Petta>Kabali>2.0>Jailer>Linga>Darbar>Anathe
Overall, Jailer reminded me of Rajini’s Pandian. Superflat lifeless massy movie..
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ara108vind
August 14, 2023
Bad ass rajini…kartick subbaraj is the only director in recent times who extracted good work from rajini
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tamil thanos
August 14, 2023
“Many Rajni movies have one sequence where Rajni wins just by showing up, no fight nothing. And that will be the massest scene of the movie”. Allow me to disagree. Every Rajini movie that worked big time always had its lows where hero was vulnerable. Baasha would not have worked this much had there not been a scene where Rajini is hit after being tied to a pole all day long or his brother having a low opinion for him. Sivaji, Padaiyappa, Annamalai followed the template of Rajini hitting the lowest and working up from the bottom. Vulnerability is an important criteria for a masala film, something which the current director’s lot cannot get a hang of. Plainly walking in slow motion is unfortunately the bar nowadays. I still remember vividly how the audience went gaga over Rajini uttering (ini poga pora padhai singa paadha da” in Sivaji 15 years ago. Have we even got any other terrific non-action intermission sequence after that?
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vijay
August 14, 2023
“Vulnerability is an important criteria for a masala film, something which the current director’s lot cannot get a hang of. ”
…and that reflects in their choice of music as well..constantly bombastic.
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Madan
August 14, 2023
“. Vulnerability is an important criteria for a masala film, something which the current director’s lot cannot get a hang of.” – That’s because in Tamil, masala has morphed into mass, which is just a non stop orgy of fan service-combined-with-gratuitous violence. Which works fine for ahem leading stars of dubious acting talent but it reduces the range of a Rajni film. I am surprised to hear that about Jailer, tho. I thought Karthik Subbaraj did a decent job of bringing masala tropes to the current age in Petta.
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Movie Goer
August 14, 2023
Nelson is unique, Beast did not work as Nelson went for action instead of his strength “absurdities”. Jailer partly worked because of the elevation moments – but some of the “absurdities” did not work. Examples of what I mean by Nelson’s absurdities – Train fight scene (lol -for me on every repeat view), thumb removing logic (Yogi Babu was fantastic), killing gangsters one by one as they come to “rape” her, etc.
Nelson tried an absurd heist angle, that did not work like the thumb removal “logic” scene…but that is what Nelson tries and hope he continues trying as that makes him unique.
I prefer the turn “absurdities” rather than dark comedy. As BR said our audience is not used to how dark comedies are done typically. They try to introduce “comedy” artificially (like Shivanna giving the box of tissue) – I did like it (Shivanna fan here!), because it is “absurd” and not dark comedy. I am impressed with what Nelson is trying, that’s what makes him different and we are going to get some bad with the good. But if he changes, he will loose his biggest strength, his “absurdities”…
I think Nelson is going to make more unique films than Lokesh Kanagaraj when all is said and done.
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Rajesh A
August 15, 2023
@BR – are we going to get Wide angle or F2F with Nelson for Jailer? (after all we had a discussion with Mohan G for Rudra Thandavam and Draupati)
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Jay Krishnan
August 15, 2023
@Rajesh A What’s Baddy going to ask him ? What were thinking while making this incoherent mess ? I think Baddy is one of the few critics who have trashed this movie( like it should be) unlike many others who are pussyfooting around this amateurish attempt at mass cinema. Not sure Nelson would be magnanimous enough to explain away the deficiencies in the movie at this point in time.
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Rajesh A
August 16, 2023
@Jay Krishnan – I agree. More than magnanimous, I don’t think the production house would allow him and I don’t think it would be ethical at this point of time. It might be interpreted as betrayal. Probably 5-6yrs down the line he might open up about this episode just like A.R.Murugadoss opened up (though he framed it as his mistake rather than the short time given by Rajini and production house Lyca for Darbar debacle)
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brangan
August 16, 2023
Jay / Rajesh: Oh, come on. While it’s true that I would not have much to ask Nelson (in a deep-dive sense) about the film, why should he “defend” it?
Maybe he likes the film… Maybe he thinks he did a good job…
After all, no film in recent history has been so loved and “owned” by the public… There are repeat audiences… My friend who went yesterday said it felt like an FDFS show with the audience making so much noise and with so much festivity in the theatre…
I almost came to blows with a screenwriter (over the phone 🙂 ) when we discussed the film’s structure. A Kannada filmmaker said they are scared
So those of us who say this is not Nelson’s best are in a minority. He has done something HUGE: he has resurrected Rajini as the box-office tsunami he was. (PETTA, Rajini’s last success, was nowhere close to this magnitude.)
And more importantly, I like the guy and am really happy for him, so he should have/savour his moment instead of having to answer someone who is poking holes at his film 🙂
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Madan
August 16, 2023
“I almost came to blows with a screenwriter (over the phone 🙂 ) when we discussed the film’s structure.” – Man, this is nuts! Bad enough that the movie-going ‘aam junta’ fans of his behave this way. A hit Rajni film might be a thiruvizha in TN but it’s hardly the first one at this point.
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Vinoth
August 16, 2023
Baddy, With all due respect, There are certain films that need not be looked at a “Film Angle”. This is one such. Let say you go to Chinese Restaurant in Beijing, You cannot expect Indian food on Menu, and then criticize right? You probably went in expecting a Vikram ( Brilliant movie, btw ) like game changer and you feel Nelson lost it. The moment you expect something and see something different the “gap” between you and the directors movie happens.
Anyway, You say “Rajini deserves a better movie”? Thats harsh and You touched a nerve in me. Allow me to explain –
Karan Johan on your interview said Shah Rukh Khan grew around the time of India going Globalised. For me, Rajini grew with Upper Lower Class people who were ambitious to grow up (Monetarily) the ladder in society. I wished go up the strata just as simple as – Ade nanba song was from Annamalai. Vetri Kodi Kattu was my Hukum. I sang my heart out with Oora Therinjikitaen (Padikaathavan ).
But baddy, Rajini’s film rarely are for Plot Twist or Character Arc or other Cinematic Brilliance or Whatever ( For all those combined we have Aandavar ). I grew up watching his films so that I forget my problems and to root for the good guy against baddies. I put myself on Thalaivar’s place – to feel his anger, to ensure bad guy meets his moment of truth.
To give you an example, take Thalabathy – For all the cinematic brilliance the movie is, as Fans, “Thodra Paakalam” is enough!
I did not grow up seeing his films for his “Vulnerability” or “Fight against Odds” – I have my own life for that!! If he becomes Vulnerable, my whole life is a lie. I never invested emotionally in his films and never want to. Which is why Kabali or Kaala did not work for me as much as Petta or Jailer or Sivaji.
So, to see Rajini “Experimenting” would be disaster for me. I feel, Rajini knows this and which is why he wants to make movies for us (Refer : Audio Lauch where he ignored critics and went with BO Collections). Rajini was (And should be in future ) representing me and I want it to be that way till his last film.
While I should have stopped reading at your first para on your review, The baddy fanboy in me made me read the entire review. You seemed to expect “Director’s Voice” just like KS did with Petta and you were more disappointed with Nelson. But baddy, this is his Voice. I feel you were probably disappointed that he could not do a “Vikram” or “Master” which Lokesh did. I feel, Nelson knew his target audience (me and going by BO figures others as well) and worked for it and succeed. Other part of me also wishes he does something like COCO or Doctor. But he better not do it with Rajini.
Final thought on “I did not see that payoff coming” sarcasm. With a Rajini film, You and I know subconsciously that he’s going to kill him at that moment. But, That moment is and has to special. What elevates these moments are that the Director must adds his “voice” along with Rajini’s Razzmatazz to the screen persona. Enough! Thats it. Thats all we want. Give us that! That would suffice. Nelson adds his signature of stone cold face reaction and Rajini adds his line “…Pechu illa veechu dhan” and refers to all their filthy talks about his family and takes revenge. Case closed. What else I want more than this? – Give a 5 minute speech ( which LK did in that brilliant piece in Vikram )? Thats for Aandavar. This is Superstar.
For Godsake, Let Rajini be Rajini. Directors, Please work with other actors for your experimentation and taking tamil cinema to next level. Do not expect Rajini to do a Kamal and vice versa. And, Please do not try to bring out the actor in Rajini, because He is the one and only Rajinikanth we will have.
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Srinivas R
August 16, 2023
@Vinoth
U say, U never wanted to see Rajini as vulnerable, but ur fav films & songs u refer to are abt Rajini being vulnerable.
What is Annamalai without the betrayal and loss faced by Annamalai? “Adey nanbaa, unnai velven ” is rousing bcos, Annamalai is really raising against the odds.
“Vetri kodi kattu” is abt raise of a man against odds. Even later in the movie, Neelambari snatches control from Padayappa thru his daughter. Thats what makes the scene later with crowds supporting him even more of a celebration.
Isn’t “oorai therinijikiyten” a lament of a gold hearted naive brother abt the betrayal he faced.
All of Rajini’s iconic movies had an arc of the hero falling and raising again. That’s not too much to ask really.
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brangan
August 16, 2023
Vinoth: Final thought on “I did not see that payoff coming” sarcasm.
What sarcasm? I seriously did not expect a beheading at that moment. I was not being sarcastic at all!!!!
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theeversriram
August 16, 2023
@Vinoth, agree word for word !!
Rajni phenomenon has always baffled critics and happy to note that is the case with Jailer also.
Not sure on actual numbers, but Jailer seems to have been Vikram within 6 days and seems poised to beat PS-1 box office collections also?
Saw the movie 2nd time yesterday and the theatre atmosphere was terrific, maybe Padayappa was last when the last felt this vibe for Rajni movie.
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mvky
August 16, 2023
What is a movie review without some sarcasm?
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Ashwin Kumar
August 16, 2023
What truly confounds me is if the phenomenon is alone is sufficient for people, why did Darbar or Annathe meet with poor response. They had similar slow shots, bearing the crap out of the bad guys, punch lines and mass low angle scenes. Should one celebrate mediocrity because it’s Rajini (coming from a Rajini fan myself since the 80s).
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Ashwin Kumar
August 16, 2023
One of my favourite scenes from Kaala. Brilliant staging and top notch performance from Rajini . Massy even when on the receiving end.
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Madan
August 16, 2023
“What is Annamalai without the betrayal and loss faced by Annamalai? “Adey nanbaa, unnai velven ” is rousing bcos, Annamalai is really raising against the odds.” – The problem is Vinoth like some of the other diehard fans is not reading the critique so much as he is reacting to it, defensively, like a devotee rushing to protect his messiah. I agree completely with what you said and which another poster said earlier too – the against the odds David v/s Goliath arc is pivotal to masala films AND the most successful and beloved Rajni films did indeed have this arc. For fans like Vinoth, this arc is not essential because they will love a Rajni film as long as it’s not Baba bad. But otoh, why would someone who is a self professed BR fanboy expect BR to review a Rajni film from the prism of a diehard Rajni fan? Speaking of…
“What truly confounds me is if the phenomenon is alone is sufficient for people, why did Darbar or Annathe meet with poor response.” – For some diehard fans, Darbar level is good enough (you can see theversriram’s positive comment on the film in the Darbar thread, again ending with a sorta screw the critics note). The problem is it is indeed not good enough for everyone else.
Now without having seen Jailer, I will have to allow for the possibility that maybe it is good ENOUGH to draw in less tolerant fans.
Suppose it is as bad as Darbar/Annathe and still worked? Then, possibly two reasons (combination of):
Darbar flopped because it came too soon after Petta and stood out badly in contrast while Annathe was too soon after the removal of covid restrictions.
Last year was when some bid budget films began to get a pre-covid like response and even in fact a revenge viewing spree. Vikram benefited from this as well as the long hiatus since the previous Kamal outing. Maybe Rajni fans decided to ‘avenge’ Kamal and all they needed was a not-bad-ish Rajni film to enable them to extract this revenge. idk, just a little theory. Like I said, I have no idea what goes into a screenwriter coming to virtual blows with BR, that’s ‘vera level’. That’s not fandom, that’s mass hysteria, that’s cult-like behaviour.
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Hari
August 16, 2023
“Maybe Rajni fans decided to ‘avenge’ Kamal and all they needed was a not-bad-ish Rajni film to enable them to extract this revenge.”
I don’t think this theory can account for the scale of success that Jailer is enjoying.
I haven’t seen Annathe, but Jailer is an improvement on Darbar in the sense that some scenes worked (even BR’s review acknowledges one.) Maybe that’s the minimum it takes for star vehicles to succeed.
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Madan
August 16, 2023
Hari: Fair enough, these are only theories. The simplest explanation could be, as I said, that it’s good enough. And as we’ve seen with Pathaan, it simply doesn’t have to be really good to be a blockbuster.
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KS
August 16, 2023
@Madan: I have a different theory. Firstly, I haven’t seen Jailer yet (only because I’m not in India currently, and its not showing anywhere close).
But from what I heard from those who watched it, it was described as a hodgepodge of hits and misses. The story is wobbly, the characters are weird, and as an organic whole, its not a satisfying movie in hindsight.
But the moments that work, they work like magic!
This set of highs seems sufficient to guarantee success. And this is an example we see all the time. Even in romance movies for instance, some like NeedhaneEnPonvasantham or OKK are often described as superior scripts and stories. But the glory is always in the hands of VTV or Alaipayuthey. Even with flimsier storylines, these movies hit the high notes impeccably. And thats what makes an impact and stays in memory. Not the drone of the story. Take Kantara for instance. The movie, for most part, is a snooze. But it wakes up in the climax, and how! The story, script, and how they all fit together is best left to critics and their analysis. The high moments are what most people care about, especially in the festive atmosphere of a theatre.
Annathe or Durbar were subpar both in terms of story, and in terms of those magic moments. Of course, movies like Annamalai or Baasha hit all the right notes in all aspects, which is why they are classics of masala even today. Jailer is more of a collage. It hits the high notes, guaranteeing its stupendous success, but its unlikely to be in the masala hall of fame.
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theeversriram
August 16, 2023
@Madan, couple of reasons why Jailer worked with lot of people is that:
1. The mass scenes really worked, in Darbar or even Petta it worked only for fans, in Jailer for most people in theatre
2. Rajni seems to have enjoyed this; in Annathe/Darbar/Petta/Kaala/ Kabali, I got the feeling that he was not really invested
3. Comedy seems to be working, I personally thought the entire Telugu Sunil stretch was a waste, but in theatre people were enjoying it
But there was a Rajni vs Vijay superstar title war started online and Rajni fans seem to have come in good numbers to show their strength.
Last point on this, I (as a huge Rajni fan & lot of my similar friends) feel this is a good theatrical experience in a long long time (more than PS1/2, Vikram, Thunivu, Varisu, etc.), hence repeated viewings.
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theeversriram
August 16, 2023
@Ashwin, Kaala should rank as one of the the most hated Rajni movie among fans.
The reason was not that writing/staging/screenplay, etc. was bad, but that Rajni was not needed in the movie. Maybe even Nana Patekar could have played the role.
During & after watching Kaala, I felt no thrill or joy associated with Rajni movie, instead a dull & tiresome experience.
Ranjith is not suited for mass movies (doesn’t mean he is not a good director).
Many heroes who wanted to work with Ranjith after Kaala, backed out after seeing the output.
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Ashwin Kumar
August 16, 2023
@theeversriram, I understand and agree with you on why Kaala is hated so much. However , personally I prefer to enjoy and be entertained by a movie as a whole than by a specific actor’s massy elements.
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Srinivas R
August 16, 2023
I am wodering if a movie like Annamalai is possible at all. Even after all his success, Annamlai has a crisis. He is wondering if he was better off as a milkman and his wife is yearning for Annamalai cycle. That level of human character in a masala movie seems to be unacceptable now.
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theeversriram
August 16, 2023
@Srinivas, movie like Annamalai is possible but not with Rajni/Vijay/Ajith, maybe with Tier 2 actors.
Not only in Tamil, but in other languages as well. Theatrical high wins over emotional beats.
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Rambo
August 16, 2023
I mentioned this in a review thread for an earlier rajni film as well. I think there are great Rajni movies lurking just out of touch in many of Rajini’s recent films including darbar, kabali, jailer and even petta. But they never rose to a great Rajni film because the directors were subservient to some “perceived” star image. Take the example of Darbar. Rajni excels in shades of grey or even villainous roles. If the director had embraced that idea and made the first half Rajni entirely a black sheep (“baaa!” to quote the man himself) as a rogue police officer i think it would have made a much better film. Reveal his tragedy in due course and set up a good showdown with a better villain than whatever the hell Sunil shetty was. But no – they didnt want to leave him carrying a negative shade for too long and had to make him a tragic hero right away. Waste. This is I think one reason why Jailer – which is flawed in many ways that brangan has already highlighted – works for fans is that at least in the first half the director let Rajni loose a bit. Negative, violent, unpredictable and against a formidable opposition. If Nelson had stuck to that pattern in the second half we could have had a great movie. As it is, Rajni had nothing to Rajni in the second half. It was wasted on some Telugu comedian and a heist that had absolutely nothing in common with the rest of the film and there was zero challenge to anything he did till the end. Even so – the first half got people loving the old Rajni and that momentum carries a bit in the second half and it works way better than Darbar or Annathe. As others have said – Rajni is at his best when he is down against a good villain. He should be ok to take a beating before fighting back. I disagree with Vinoth that this isnt required. Happened in Petta, Sivaji, Annamalai, Baasha etc. Not some marvel teflon hero who can never have mannu in his meesai. That’s not the Rajni I grew up on.
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Rambo
August 16, 2023
@Srinivas and @theeversriram – I think Annamalai is very much possible with a Vijay or Rajni now! Will be just as big a hit. I think directors assume it wont and they cant show the mass hero being vulnerable but they are entirely wrong. Master was proof of that. (spoiler) Imagine showing Vijay as a irresponsible drunk that ends up being responsible for the death of some kids. And that was pretty much for half the movie. His redemption arc was what made that movie the hit it was. Directors assume otherwise and we dont get anything beyond slow-mo shots and a ever-victorious image maintenance exercise.
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karzzexped
August 16, 2023
@theeversriram – For me, viewing the movie twice really helped put things in perspective. Now I’m not an ardent fan of Rajini, but everyone, including my parents and my 22 y/o brother, are huge fans of him. I decided to watch the film without the three of them first – like how Santhanam would eat the food of the Rowdies to check if it’s poisoned or not.
I did enjoy the first half of the first half, but the movie went downhill for me once the psychiatrist angle was brought in. I did savour the mass moments, because, hell, Rajinikanth nonchalantly shooting snipers from a small gun hole like Mike from the BrBa universe was such a peak-mass moment for me.
However, my viewing experience changed completely when we went as a family.
My father basically trashed the first half and said only the second half worked for him. Why? – Thalaivar. That’s all.
Maybe a Vikram effect, but my mother kept asking if there’s another villain going to be introduced in the second half.
Blast Shankar’s portions were appreciated with a question of – Is that the Pushpa guy?
Unanimous praise for Anirudh’s BGM even if I felt he rehashed Pettai Parak to make Hukum and rehashed Hukkum to make 10 BGM tracks in Jailer.
My 22 y/o brother promptly started scrolling Reels after the interval portion and took videos of all Mass Moments for his own Reels.
Looking at my experience, I really couldn’t help but think that this was just another formula movie aimed at catering to all kinds of general audiences and fans with a good amount of bias towards fans. Looking at the box office, it does seem to be working.
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tamil thanos
August 16, 2023
To give you an example, take Thalabathy – For all the cinematic brilliance the movie is, as Fans, “Thodra Paakalam” is enough!
You tell this now but for you to have remembered that scene after so many years or the adei nanba song after so many years, there had to be something in the way both were setup. IMO, adei nanba worked because Annamalai took time setting up friendship, then the betrayal. No one like seeing Rajini vulnerable all the time. Instead, the audience wants to see him come out of his vulnerable state. Adei nanbda worked because he came out of a hole that his friend dug for him against all odds. Thodra pakkalaam worked because we knew well of the friendship between Surya and Deva. Rajini simply uttering these words without setup would get whistles in theaters but you would not talk about it after 2o+ years in a movie blog. The scene where Rajini chops the head off in first half of Jailer worked (to some extent) because he was vulnerable after his son’s death and that scene was him taking the first step to come out of it. And these are the kind of lasting moments that we all yearn for.
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Madan
August 16, 2023
“Rajini simply uttering these words without setup would get whistles in theaters but you would not talk about it after 2o+ years in a movie blog.” – Well, this kind of circles back to the earlier discussion about Anirudh. In that regard, maybe even comparing him with Deva in terms of delivering hits is unfair to Deva because the songs of at least Annamalai and to a lesser extent Baasha are well remembered. Annamalai was very much a melodrama hypercharged by Rajni-isms. The last third or so where both him and Sarath Babu soften their positions and eventually get together would be unthinkable in a star-driven entertainer today, because it would be seen as a somewhat anti-climactic turn of events and the makers wouldn’t trust the emotions to do the trick.
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hari prasad
August 16, 2023
But Annamalai Rajini’s intention is to earn as much money as Sarath Babu and to become richer than the latter and at the process he loses his mind and peace.
Remove that becoming a millionaire part and make Rajini bay for Sarath Babu’s blood , you’d get a masala variant of Sriram Raghavan’s Badlapur.
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hari prasad
August 16, 2023
I think Annamalai Rajini was more into beating Sarath Babu on his own game by becoming an multi millionaire entrepreneur
He wasn’t interested in brutally murdering Sarath Babu , so the climax made sense when a terrorist tries to kill Sarath Babu , Rajini saving him and the friends turned bitter enemies becoming friends again.
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Madan
August 16, 2023
“Remove that becoming a millionaire part and make Rajini bay for Sarath Babu’s blood , you’d get a masala variant of Sriram Raghavan’s Badlapur.” – Nah, it’s much more like an adopted son being sidelined and falling out with the family and coming back in. It’s very much a family drama, a very traditional type of Hindi/Tamil film (it was remade from Khudgarz which in turn was a ‘remake’ of Kane and Abel).
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Voldemort
August 16, 2023
Madan: I haven’t really heard enough of Pradeep Kumar’s singing to make an educated comment. Has he done jazz singing before? I could judge based off samples
No, he hasn’t afaik. Was just thinking out loud randomly.
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Voldemort
August 16, 2023
Saw the film today as everyone from work was going and I think BR has been very kind in the review lol.
When will Tamil cinema directors stop having scenes where the hero, knowing fully well that it will come back to bite his ass later on, humiliates the villain in a very very terrible way just for the sake of mass? Why would any sane person stir the hornet’s nest by asking Verma to beg from his family? What good does it serve other than usupethify the bad guy to do worse things? Why couldn’t the Jailer just negotiate after having captured the lorry? His son does manage to crack a deal with the guy anyway.
And not a single moment do we feel that the family’s lives are in danger or that he is even worried for them. And IDK how so many people liked the interval block. It was so meh. The BGM was so on-the-face the whole time, forcing you to react a certain way.
The whole blast Mohan angle was so painfully cringey and felt like a spoof making fun of Rajini. Blast Mohan’s director wears a wig and doesn’t know to dance and that’s played for laughs. But so does Rajini. Duh
Is this what passes off for mass masala these days? Petta seems much better in hindsight.
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Madan
August 16, 2023
“When will Tamil cinema directors stop having scenes where the hero, knowing fully well that it will come back to bite his ass later on, humiliates the villain in a very very terrible way just for the sake of mass?” – Can’t help riffing off Oppenheimer. When a genius like Oppenheimer couldn’t resist indulging in a jab at Strauss who would prove to be his nemesis, what chance our gangai pola ullam konda heroes who rush like bulls to the colour red. Another real life example is Obama mercilessly taking the micky out of Trump at the Correspondents’ Dinner. Trump has his revenge alright, though he might still be the one who goes to jail at the end of it all.
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Voldemort
August 16, 2023
Madan : Yes but there’s clearly a difference between taking potshots at someone and asking them to pretend to be a beggar and get alms. That too when this someone is a known psychotic murderer. What good does this do except establishing “mass”?
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vijay
August 17, 2023
“What good does this do except establishing “mass”?”
that is precisely the ‘good’ that Nelson is trying to accomplish..it’s one thing for Rajni fans to go gaga over this..that others including family audiences have given this movie legs through 6 days and more speaks of a kind of herd mentality and mass mania that is increasingly pervading TN audiences post-covid..the litmus test for both Kamal and Rajni would be their second film after the Covid gap, Indian-2 and Lal salaam or whatever Rajni is going to do next. Let’s see if this could be sustained.
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Rambo
August 17, 2023
The other problem and reason for mass is the desperate need to hype up a film for the opening. It used to be trailers and then movie. Then a teaser, a trailer and movie. Now its teaser before even being named, title reveal, sub-title reveal, teaser for a song release, first song release, audio release, teaser for BTS clips, then BTS clips, then “showcase” (whatever tf that is), then trailer and by the time you are done with all this you sort of dont care what the movie is about. And to fill all this out you need mass moments that can fill out 10s tik-tok clips, youtube shorts, insta rells and what not. If you do all this right, you are assured of a 100cr opening day – even for some recycled absolute pile of steaming garbage like vaarisu. Its all marketing now.
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Rajesh A
August 17, 2023
@Baddy – I totally agree with you . Nelson should enjoy this moment. As I said here before the movie released that I want the movie to succeed for Nelson as he should not face another debacle at this age for sure.
But, I am really skeptical whether the box office numbers that are projected are true. One more thing is the numbers are including Telugu numbers also. P.S-1, Vikram did 400-500 crores with tamil alone contributing almost 90% of it I believe. But w.r.t Jailer, I guess Jailer Telugu alone is contributing some 20%
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Sharath
August 17, 2023
Gosh, this movie was a damp squib for sure. The second half is easily the worst second half i have seen in any movie. I feel that Nelson is a very mediocre director just like Atlee. Made 2 half decent movies which became hits due to the music and hype. Can’t forgive him for introducing the atrocity called Redin Kingsley. It is a pity that they had to resort to gimmicks like the 3 cameos which added 0 value to the movie. Also felt that vasanth ravi isn’t a great actor. All his scenes felt inert. Box office collection aside, this movie is almost as bad as Darbar.
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loadproof
August 17, 2023
Apart from movie POV I also felt the marketing POV for Origami tissues..I felt the brand was deliberately shown. Don’t know how much Origami would have paid for this sleazy promotion
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vijay
August 17, 2023
“If you do all this right, you are assured of a 100cr opening day – even for some recycled absolute pile of steaming garbage like vaarisu. Its all marketing now.”
DMK and sons have almost gamed the system. This factor was’nt there in such scale before 2021. That is one ‘X factor’ that contributes towards films like Vikram and Jailer in no small measure, these non-stop promos and arm-twisting of theater owners into not releasing anything else big on the same day and so on..It’s a giant money laundering machine, the TN film industry, where Red Giant/SUN is designed to get the biggest slice of the pie. The movie has to really really suck for this to not go as per plans, like Annaththe.
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sravishanker1401gmailcom
August 17, 2023
Bang on target Vijay
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hari prasad
August 17, 2023
Remember during 2016 when Jazz Cinemas ( you know who ruled TN and who owned Jazz Cinemas at that time) bought the Tamilnadu distribution rights of that year’s biggies like Theri , Kabali , 24 and Remo.
Since Jazz Cinemas was the distributor , theatre owners sold tickets at a very high price , the police and the court didn’t take action against it because you know the reason and instead they gave protection.
Theri became a big hit despite not releasing in some parts of TN like Chengalpattu.
And y’all know the Kabali ticket heist story.
If DMK steal almost every big movie under the Red Giant / Sun Pictures banner , then ADMK earned our wrath by letting theatre owners sell tickets at astronomical prices for mediocre movies.
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sachita
August 17, 2023
I havent watched the movie yet. But my friends who arent regular movie goers but thalaivar fans, have really liked the movie. Theatres are booked out( not talking about first 2 rows) than even PS here in US. One friend even said after baasha this is the movie with strong story line for Thalaivar.
Vijay:Beast was also produced by Sun pictures, it didnt do well. Not denying rest of your theory.
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Prat
August 17, 2023
DMK was voted out for the exact same reasons in 2011 and it is sad that the history is repeating itself. I remember the news about them forcing theatre owners to not screen Kalavaani because it was doing better than some shitty Sun Pictures film.
If only jayalalitha-less ADMK weren’t dumb enough to align with the BJP, we could have finally had a proper functional government that wasn’t under the shadow of some leader. Now we’re back to nepotism and political dynasties and whatnot.
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Vaid
August 18, 2023
The Jailer and the Jailed !!
The latest release of Mr Rajnikanth directed by Mr Nelson ( who has chosen to give the name of Arjun to a man who goes astray in the movie when we know what Arjuna , the most beloved of Lord Krishna stood for and you may chose to not read too much into this but I do ) is reported to be a super duper hit and apparently has accumulated crores and crores , with we running out of “ zeroes “ eventually !!
What strikes me is the aura of the super star of Tamil industry who has won millions of hearts across the globe and although you might be able to count the number of zeroes here , this probably is most valuable as compared to one mentioned earlier !!
He is in ultimate and sublime form in this movie and one should really admire his talent and skill to literally usurp the screen and you in the process !!
Mr Nelson has proven his mettle as a director after all the trolling he had suffered in the past . He has engaged the audience well by way of mixing all the necessary ingredients needed for a movie to be a “ super hit “
The music by Mr Anirudh is captivating and enthralling . The background scores have been engrossing and in tune with mood of the movie ! Kudos Sir !
This movie is a SUPER HIT in a real sense . There are so many scenes where the villain and his accomplice use the fairly innocuous tool ( suthiyal as told in tamil and referred as hammer in English ) to display such level of depravity and violence which is appalling , malicious and Sadistic . You cringe at these scenes as an adult ! This movie is not for faint hearted . Even more painful and barbaric are the scenes with sulphuric acid . I am made to wonder how these scenes escaped censorship . But then , some are more equal than others !!
This degree of violence does not speak well of the director or the most senior actor / super star of tamil cinema ( of course second most senior to Mr Kamal who has got to do his own introspection too ) . This does not augur well for the tamil industry and this needs to be condemned in no uncertain terms .
But who has the guts to bell the “ giants “ !!
The most profound of all the pain is the one where Mr Rajni casually decapitates a villain as he misbehaved and tried to kill his grand son . I could hear one clap in audience . Have we got so numb and emotionless ! Ideally one should walk out of the theatre after such a scene never heard of in any cinema that mankind has known . I did not walk out . Sorry .
The production crew , director and Mr Rajnikanth should apologise to the public for the level of barbarism in the movie .
It is high time that Mr Rajnikanth reflects on this and give us a movie where “ no humans are harmed “ and is worthy of being watched by entire family ( as he himself offers advice to a director in the movie )
If this movie had been in 3D , we would all have had blood in our hands akin to Mr Yogi Babu in the movie .
I watched movie twice , once with family and once with a good friend ( also with hope they violence might be better in second time ) and now I will think twice before I walk in .
Mr Rajni Sir . please please ….. I wish to type 100 times but can just do it once as it it you !!
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Hari
August 18, 2023
“ Ideally one should walk out of the theatre after such a scene never heard of in any cinema that mankind has known”
There was a similar scene in Baahubali 2 which was received with whistles (at least in the theatre where I watched it.) So to say that it’s the first scene of its kind in the history of mankind is a stretch 🙂
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mvky
August 18, 2023
@Vaid:”This degree of violence does not speak well of the director or the most senior actor / super star of tamil cinema ( of course second most senior to Mr Kamal who has got to do his own introspection too ) . This does not augur well for the tamil industry and this needs to be condemned in no uncertain terms .
But who has the guts to bell the “ giants “ !!
The most profound of all the pain is the one where Mr Rajni casually decapitates a villain as he misbehaved and tried to kill his grand son . I could hear one clap in audience . Have we got so numb and emotionless ! Ideally one should walk out of the theatre after such a scene never heard of in any cinema that mankind has known . I did not walk out . Sorry .
The production crew , director and Mr Rajnikanth should apologise to the public for the level of barbarism in the movie .
It is high time that Mr Rajnikanth reflects on this and give us a movie where “ no humans are harmed “ and is worthy of being watched by entire family ( as he himself offers advice to a director in the movie )”.
Thought provoking words.
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karzzexped
August 18, 2023
@loadproof – Watched Shazam 2 yet 😜
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mvky
August 18, 2023
We have to differentiate between an actor and his screen persona. An actor can play a negative role and that proves his versatality. Rajini can also behead a person and can also harm a child on screen. That makes him less than god and more like a common vigilante or criminal, psychopath or Don who indiscriminately uses violence as a tool. Srk in Baazigar and Darr, Aamir in Earth 1947, AB in Don come to mind.
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anon
August 18, 2023
I’m utterly shocked there was a decapitation in the movie and it is done by Rajini himself! So much unthinking, idiotic glorification of violence. I’m really done with this male worshipping nonsense in Tamil films. Rajini was always a prime offender in misogyny and putting women in their place schtick. after 40 years ,the very same template continues with no end in sight. He’s gone back to smoking on screen as well. The guy has no morals other than making money really. What’s the point of all your spirituality if this is what you’re selling for 40 years. Bad times for TN with this sort of over the top glorification of violence. Ennallaam padanumo innum.
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Spandana
August 21, 2023
Rambo’s comment about marketing reminded me of this old AIB sketch. Gopal Dutt should be in more things.
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kaizokukeshav
August 30, 2023
Finally caught up with Jailer. Totally disagree with the review. This is not a Nelson movie with Rajinikanth as hero, this is Rajinikanth movie with Nelson as director. Thalaiva was bulldozing the movie for first 100 minutes and I don’t know how that was totally missed.
Vikram was kind of a tribute to “method actors”, Jailer was a tribute to “masala actors”. Absolutely loved it.
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kaizokukeshav
September 1, 2023
After reading the comments lot of readers are stumped about why Jailer is such a hit. For me, Jailer actually had some brilliantly written scenes which were missing from ALL the blockbusters since Bahubali to Vikram. The subtleness is bringing the audience to theatres repeatedly.
Take for eg.. Mohanlal intro. He NEEDS to be portrayed as a ruthless guy. So we see Mohanlal play mind game with three guys, and just to confirm the truth he kills one guy and then asks the other guy.
Nelson here gave us two things,
1. Mohanlal is very ruthless
2. the scene is quirky and nuanced.
If we take another scene in Chittoor, the goon needs to throw bombs on a jeep. That could be easily shown. But what we see is that the policeman casually asks for a lighter and the guy instead of lighting a cigarette, he freaking lights a bomb…. on the fly. Again Nelson gave an unexpected thing
1. The scene is powerful
2. The scene is quirky and nuanced
We all know there is nothing quirky or nuanced about the characterizations of Rajini or Vinayakan. So most of their scenes felt like forced comedies. But this is where things got interesting.
Nelson upped the writing by playing cat and mouse with the audience. For eg. Rajinikanth gets four snipers, but why ? Rajinikanth becomes a gangster to steal a crown, but isn’t it wrong ? Nelson cleverly implemented the nuances at a deeper level that Rajini just can’t see. This gave Rajinikanth total freedom to live in his straight forward role.
Audience are vexed up with zero subtleness in writing. Take any superhit, Bahubali, KGF, Vikram, PS … there wasn’t any payoff to the very tiny amount of subtlety in writing. But Nelson just cracked the code. Rajinikanth and co. just added fuel to the fire.
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hari prasad
September 2, 2023
Man’s a Denzel Washington fan I guess , but acts in action movies that aren’t even in par with the bad Hollywood action movies.
Anyway , hope Lokesh and Venkat Prabhu do a really good job in making genuinely entertaining Vijay movies after ages.
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Raghu Narayanan
September 2, 2023
“Take for eg.. Mohanlal intro. He NEEDS to be portrayed as a ruthless guy. So we see Mohanlal play mind game with three guys, and just to confirm the truth he kills one guy and then asks the other guy.
Nelson here gave us two things,
1. Mohanlal is very ruthless
2. the scene is quirky and nuanced.
If we take another scene in Chittoor, the goon needs to throw bombs on a jeep. That could be easily shown. But what we see is that the policeman casually asks for a lighter and the guy instead of lighting a cigarette, he freaking lights a bomb…. on the fly. Again Nelson gave an unexpected thing
1. The scene is powerful
2. The scene is quirky and nuanced”
But isn’t this just one side of the story?
Agreed Mohanlal gets a truly ‘badass’ intro. And what happens next? The next scene he is shown to be so subservient to Rajini. Such a ‘badass’ arms dealer (I presume this because he opens a container of the most sophisticated arms for Rajini to pick and choose…) gets so subservient towards one man. WHY? If this ‘why’ is not answered, doesn’t it leave a big, cavernous hole in the plot? It didn’t, and so it does.
Similarly, the Chittoor bomb incident gets Jackie, a.k.a Kamdev (I think!) his freedom from Tihar. And this very same Kamdev sends his hit men to finish off Rajini – that famous ‘interval block’ scene. And apparently, he did that without knowing that it was Rajini who was Varma’s target! Isn’t this so perplexingly dumb? What sort of a hitman worth his salt would send his henchmen to finish off a target without knowing who it is?
In my personal view, it is this paradox that is perplexing. The crowds throng the theaters despite such gaping holes in the plot. And the pity is that, even a little of bit effort and common sense could have plugged these holes seamlessly. Anyways…
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Jay Krishnan
September 2, 2023
I think you are giving too much credit to Nelson here. I went to watch the movie to see Mohanlal’s new avatar but I was thoroughly fatigued by the Sunil,Tamannah stretch and whatever insanity was going on by the time he came on screen.
To this day I do not know or do not care about that whole scene involving some fake army operation or something.
Like there is only so much quirk one can handle Why is Vinayakan menacing in one scene and a clown in the next ? The whole thing with dancing goons or whatever didn’t work at all. I kept thinking throughout the movie as to why the comedy isn’t working at all. The only stretch that worked for me was the Yogi Rajni combo. So no, I don’t think any code was cracked here. I do think Rajni fans flocked the theatres and found it relatively better than Darbar and Annathe . I genuinely think Sun TV stuffed reviewers with cash for this one. Of the reviews I watched, only BR,Blue Sattai and Sudhir Sreenivasan went into the negatives of the movie in any detail. To me, this movie esp the second half had a 10 year olds imagination .
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KayKay
September 2, 2023
Agree. I want to officially call a moratorium on “Nelson cracked the formula” statements.
Enna periya formula?
You could argue that 24 years ago, KSR cracked this big “formula” for Padayappa where every scene is maximum tweaked to have Rajini Fans creaming their shorts.
It’s like, if Raja today released an album that sounded almost exactly like Agni Natchathiram, there’d at least be some dissenting opinions like, one group would say “Wah! Wah! Raja has recovered his mojo” while others would say…”Man, this is kinda….dated”. However no such nuance exists in the world of Rajini Maniacs where, Thalaivaaa can reheat baby food for the 250th time, serve it to his fans and they’d swear it was fresh caviar.
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abishekspeare
September 2, 2023
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that has had its haters this baffled on its success and praises. Yes, I have seen a lot of movies which polarized people – but in this case, the people who didn’t like it are genuinely so mad , its funny to see them scream in disdain
I don’t mean this as an attack on anyone but just honestly curious what could this be because of. Usually when a movie is a hit and a lot of people don’t like it, they aren’t losing their shit this much
Any thoughts BReaders?
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KayKay
September 2, 2023
Well, I’m definitely not losing my shit over this movie’s stupendous success, but as someone for whom this movie did absolutely nothing, I will confess to being baffled.
I guess when Padayappa came out, there was similar bafflement among some quarters as to how a rehash of Mannan and Annamalai drove people wild. In fact I wager the preceding 2 Rajini movies, Muthu and Arunachalam had more cohesive storytelling, neither of which reached the level of mass adulation Padayappa achieved.
But I was younger then and probably a lot more tolerant of this style of “Montage”-style film-making which would become the norm.
Have nothing against those who love Jailer, good for you that this movie tickled all your sweet viewing spots, I just can’t jump on this bandwagon now.
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madhusudhan194
September 2, 2023
“but just honestly curious what could this be because of.” –
I think the readers of this blog, who aren’t die hard fans of Rajini, do like him and want to see him in a film worthy of his presence (verbatim BR’s review) think that Jailer isn’t that film. I can understand why because that’s honestly how I felt about Vikram. I was glad Kamal finally got that blockbuster but I wished it had come for a better film. It was honestly funny watching BR and many Kamal fanboys in this blog go gaga over it because I thought it was just serviceable. But after a while the rabble rousing started getting into my nerves and I stopped following the thread. What Nelson and Lokesh both did right is they understood what the general audience wanted from Rajini/Kamal and gave just that. The fanboys lap it up, the general audiences are happy getting entertained but the serious movie buffs are left scratching their heads. The fanboys celebrations can sometimes get into your nerves when you genuinely feel it should have been a better film.
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Jay Krishnan
September 3, 2023
@madhusudhan194 But honestly how was this serviceable to Rajni fans ? This didn’t look like a coherent movie at all. Honestly, it felt like Sun TV was pissed off with Nelson and asked him to somehow complete the movie. I can’t understand the dark ending appealing to a producer . It was almost like the producers had given up on it and figured they would promote the hell out of this to rake in some initials. It just so happened that the public didn’t care anyways about watching a coherent movie.
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Jay Krishnan
September 3, 2023
@Madhusudhan194 Did BR like Vikram a lot ? Don’t remember what his review for it was.I must confess some of the mass scenes were very well done but the story had me scratching my head. Vikram’s success kind of reminded me of Lucifer in malayalam . Big Mohanlal fan here but to this day don’t think it is a great movie or anything. Perhaps, a theater watch may have masked a lot of its deficiencies for me but the story is vague like Vikram
Something something drugs ,bad guys,politics and all that
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brangan
September 3, 2023
Yes. I liked VIKRAM a lot. I really enjoyed PATHAAN. I love lowbrow genre films that are made well, especially when (like in PATHAAN) they reference 70s Hindi-film masala or (like in VIKRAM) they reference 80s Hollywood action films. But the primary thing for me – for both films (and also WAR) is that they actually had a screenplay.
But I don’t have any issues with people enjoying JAILER. You cannot “reason” these things out. If it worked for you, great. If not… there are lots of other things you can do instead of getting all angsty about why people liked it 🙂
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madhusudhan194
September 3, 2023
“But honestly how was this serviceable to Rajni fans ? This didn’t look like a coherent movie at all. ” – As BR himself has pointed out before, the fans and the general audience don’t look for things like coherence, neat screenplay, character arcs etc. In a 160 min film if they get 10 whistle worthy moments, they’re happy. They don’t care how these moments are built up to as long as they get enough reason to celebrate the star. To be honest, both Jailer and Vikram deliver quite well on this front. I didn’t understand the celebrations behind Vikram and that’s okay. Because I enjoyed Jailer and someone else won’t be able to understand it. It’s just how the big star films work.
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therag
September 3, 2023
Like in politics, I think a lot has to do with Identity and the sense of “my film is a big success”. I firmly believe that Vikram’s success had a lot to do with KGF2’s success and Beast’s concurrent failure. PS1’s success was also the same – the notion among the audience that “my” film should be a success. I remember watching PS1 in the theater during the opening weekend and feeling that the audience was actually in major discomfiture throughout and was toughing it out during certain stretches. Like they would rather be someplace else but this was “their” film and had to be watched. In any other film (i.e not linked to Tamil kalaachaaram or pride), the comments would have started pouring out but for this one they mostly kept their mouths shut.
I see Jailer and Pathaan having similar undercurrents – Rajni is Tamil cinema’s biggest star and his films “should” be successful. Especially when his peer and rival Kamal Haasan just had a monster hit. (I always have a chuckle reading Anuja Chandramouli’s comments on this blog, she just cannot resist taking a dig at Kamal). Hindi cinema’s biggest film should not be a KGF2 or an RRR.
These sentiments are very strong among a core heavy movie-watching audience and their buy-in is required for a film to be a success. The “general” audience as we call it is sold once they know the reviews are “decent” (easily bought and paid for), and that the movie is a big hit (heavily hinges on the core audience). A mixture of FOMO and lack of choice will drive them towards these movies. Unless the movie is absolute dogshit like an Annatthe, their reaction will be along the lines of “decent, one time watch” or “Not that great. Don’t know what the hoopla is about” which is enough for the movie to coast to a decent total.
Almost all recent monster successes can be explained by this phenomena – Gadar2, PS1/2, Jailer, Vikram, KGF2, Pathaan.
The quality of the film is important only to a small (floating) subsection of the audience and films are not evaluated equally. A reader of Ponniyin Selvan will be very harsh on PS1/2 for any deviations, while being lukewarm or even positive towards a Jailer/Vikram because they simply don’t care.
Which is why a film like Maanaadu is that much more special. A supremely well made and executed film that is also a big hit among the mass audience is lightning-in-a-bottle.
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Madan
September 3, 2023
I cannot comment on the technical quality of Jailer but Vikram was at least a technically well made film and I do say that as someone who dunked on the film a lot (and still would if I dared watch it again). My problems with it were (a) the tone was so dead serious and the ‘irony’ like the wedding massacre scene was forced or should I say ‘playlist-y’. The tone wasn’t overall ironic like Pulp Fiction or Lebowski or, closer home, Soodhu Kavvum. It wasn’t even as smart as Appu Raja (yes, yes, I have to mention AS again) and (b) Kamal last did lowbrow action well in Viswaroopam. His whole posh accented high mindedness was an even bigger drag in a film like this. I felt like Kaithi had some of the same problems as Vikram but worked at least to a greater extent for me because Karthi was adequately casual for the role. Kamal has forgotten how to have fun in the films and it really showed in Vikram.
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Madan
September 3, 2023
“It’s like, if Raja today released an album that sounded almost exactly like Agni Natchathiram, there’d at least be some dissenting opinions like, one group would say “Wah! Wah! Raja has recovered his mojo” while others would say…”Man, this is kinda….dated”. ” – Not related but riffing off off this, one difference is Raja didn’t focus only on big project success even in his peak days and dared to work outside the film music structure with ambitious pet projects (the two fusion instrumental albums). Kamal showed this appetite for risk from time to time (and burnt his fingers in the process too) while Rajni never did. That’s also why Raja can collaborate with Lydian today. Even if only a niche audience understands why a classical guitar rendition of Is It Fixed is mindblowing, it doesn’t matter because Raja is not aiming for lowest common denominator acceptance anymore.
It is Rajni himself who has set fan expectations at the level where fan service is enough because he has only fleetingly tried to extend his repertoire. And as BR put it in one of the interviews (forget whether it was cineulagam or kumudam), Rajni was still bringing forth his star presence even in the ‘offbeat’ films like Puthu Kavithai. Whether people think Paa or Gulabo Sitabo are gimmicky or not, you could never imagine Rajni going there. Heck, he wouldn’t even venture to do a Piku.
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madhusudhan194
September 3, 2023
“I remember watching PS1 in the theater during the opening weekend and feeling that the audience was actually in major discomfiture throughout and was toughing it out during certain stretches.” – Tell me about it. I am one of those people who was completely baffled by PS1’s success. As someone unfamiliar with the source material but was still excited about the adaptation, I found the film difficult to follow. And I’m not someone who’s used to getting distracted while watching a film. And I could get similar vibes from the theatre I saw it in as well. So PS1 becoming the monster success that it did, was pleasantly surprising. I only felt happy because like Kamal, it was long overdue for Mani Ratnam.
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KayKay
September 3, 2023
“It is Rajni himself who has set fan expectations at the level where fan service is enough because he has only fleetingly tried to extend his repertoire”
To be fair to him, blame also rests with the Rajini Maniacs who simply will not accept the Rajini Formula tweaked in any way. It would take a truly shitty screenplay for even the Hardcores to say Ok, enough is enough (like Baba, Linga and Annathe). When it’s incorporated into political narratives like Kabali and Kaala, they don’t like it. When The Man’s On Screen Superhuman capabilities are co-opted into sci-fi like plots like Endhiran and 2.0, they don’t like it. I consider it a minor miracle that Chandramukhi was a hit, but that’s most likely due to the core strength of the Manichitratazhu screenplay and Vadivelu’s comedy, no matter how much Peee Vasu tried to fuck it up.
But as Brother MANK’s write up highlighted, seems the Montage/Highlight Reels approach is what they want. So it’s what they get.
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KayKay
September 3, 2023
“I am one of those people who was completely baffled by PS1’s success.”
I’m one of those who’s on the opposite fence for this. I watched BOTH PS1 and PS2 in the theatres, and actually splurged for one of those “Deluxe” cinemas, you know the one with long reclining chairs or cabins, blankets and where they bring the food and beverages to you? Tickets are expensive but it was soooo worth it to catch PS1 and 2 this way, and I walked away truly satisfied I’d been served a skillfully crafted, gorgeously filmed and superbly acted slice of entertainment. I saw both these movies and my first thoughts were…No way this isn’t being a hit.
And can’t quite fathom all these comments about how the movie is complicated. If you found PS1 and PS2 complicated, then the Byzantine Plot Machinations in series like Game of Thrones and House Of Dragons is going to give you a migraine.
And I read the books (English translation of course) after watching them, and Mani had actually simplified the story for screen. If people are going to complain about the Movies being complicated, then thank your lucky stars Mani didn’t go more faithfully on the books and you were spared the Mathuranthagan/Chendhan Amudhan “Man In The Iron Mask” style swap sub-plot. Or the fact the book is far more ambiguous about how Karikalan died.
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madhusudhan194
September 3, 2023
“skillfully crafted, gorgeously filmed and superbly acted slice of entertainment” – can’t disagree on that at all. To me these two films are easily the best mainstream films from Tamil cinema in recent times. I could appreciate PS1 after reading the book and by the time PS2 released, I had completed a significant portion of the book and found the film to be riveting, the climax twist notwithstanding. It’s just that the second half of PS1 left me confused on what is leading to what. And I heard thie from a lot of people as well. It had a huge opening so it was never going to be a disaster but I didn’t think it would go on to become the monster hit it eventually became. But yeah glad to be proven wrong. Big Mani fan here.
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therag
September 3, 2023
@KayKay, I liked both the movies very much. I was merely commenting on the likelihood of the “mass” audience sitting and appreciating them.
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Bala
September 4, 2023
As some one who thoroughly enjoyed PS books, i found the movies to be a let down. In fact, Rajni’s speech on PS1 audio launch did more justice to the book than the two parts did together.
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Jay Krishnan
September 5, 2023
@therag You are onto something here. I have never been able to articulate this. I think that is one of the main reasons some of these movies have succeeded. The game of one upmanship, which hero is the box office king state pride, national pride have all played a part in some of these bang average mass masala movies doing the kind of business they are doing. DQ acknowledged in one of his interviews that this is a wave at the movement and he hoped King of Kotha( which I hear is dogshit) would ride the wave too.
I think Rajni signaling a fight between eagles , crows etc worked in that all the Rajni Nirantharam shirt wearing guys had decided they would like the movie if it was not as bad as some of his recent ventures.
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Jay Krishnan
September 5, 2023
@BR of course, no one needs to be ashamed of liking Jailer ! It is just that it is difficult for anyone to articulate why this was liked other than Thalaivar Vera Vera level ! 😃
And about Vikram, I agree it had a screenplay and 5-6 mega mass scenes with all the actors in outstanding form. I swear I was sat in tur theatre watching the movie meandering away in the first half till the Kamal reveal and his confrontation with Fahadh. I can understand the success of the movie even though I found the story itself very flabby and vague. I believe that is what mass masala is meant to be, the highs need to be memorable for the lows to be forgotten. What is your theory on Vikram working in South India but not up north like KGF ? I think it was probably to do with the flabby story with a lot of characters, references to previous Kamal and Lokesh movies and in general a vague story. KGF had a simple story to tell ( I hated both the installments BTW) with a lot of freshness in terms of how the movie was shot.
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mvky
September 5, 2023
Jay Krishnan, I agree with all the points made by you. I almost had similar thoughts about the recent blockbusters but I could not put my thoughts as well as you. It is more like gambling or lottery than genuine. If that money contributes to the economy and job creations, I have no complaints. Many times I sat through such films just waiting for the torture to be over. Maybe that is why popcorn is born to make things easy for the viewers.
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kaizokukeshav
September 6, 2023
“Agreed Mohanlal gets a truly ‘badass’ intro. And what happens next? The next scene he is shown to be so subservient to Rajini. Such a ‘badass’ arms dealer (I presume this because he opens a container of the most sophisticated arms for Rajini to pick and choose…) gets so subservient towards one man. WHY? ”
It felt like ML got his space, RK got his space both agreed on a disagreement on killing Vinayakan. Just because someone is openly friendly doesn’t mean they’re a pandering in gangster world and one doesn’t need to have a scarface either. Agreed that many details were missing with the background of Muthuvel, but the director took it for granted that people have already seen enough movies to understand the obvious. For me Jailer is Rajinikanth’s KGF, watch it purely for the elevations.
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Satya
September 8, 2023
RIP G. Marimuthu. He was one of the more dignified presences in this film and others too, esp. Pariyerum Perumal. Thanks for everything!
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hari
September 13, 2023
Finally caught this movie in Prime, and what a major disappointment from the director of Kolamavu kokila and Doctor. This movie did have its Nelson moments but very few and far between.
Just like Gargi needed a child rapist as a father, to show how good the daughter is; here Jailer needs a nincompoop, supposedly corrupt son to show how noble the father is. Sigh.
The hero was definitely Anirudhh, otherwise this movie would be a dud. Can you imagine the thoppai boss’s walking with swag without the bgm.
And all the violence, surprisingly no one find such mind-numbing violence to be a problem. My wife who avoids violence, was all ok with the movie because it came with wham bham music and she is sure that no one gets killed :). Here again Ani to rescue.
And finally those snipers who are able to get the shots into the living room needs to be hire soon by the armed forces.
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Anon
September 13, 2023
@satya, yes very dignified guy
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ravenus1
September 16, 2023
Around the 110min mark, there’s a scene where, as per Prime’s subtitles, Ranjini’s character is advising a Telugu movie guy “Don’t make garbage in the name of commercial cinema”. Given the no-emotional-stakes, no-internal-logic and utterly no respect for the audience’s patience this wankfest displays, they have some gall to make a statement like that.
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vijay
September 16, 2023
” Given the no-emotional-stakes, no-internal-logic and utterly no respect for the audience’s patience this wankfest displays, they have some gall to make a statement like that.”
that is the only real dark humor in the film:-)
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KayKay
September 17, 2023
“that is the only real dark humor in the film:-)”
I do wonder though, was it truly tongue in cheek or were they being serious? I suspect the latter as Tamil movies have a long tradition of film-makers pre-release saying that their movies are “suitable for the entire family” and then the actual movie turns out to be anything but.
So, a movie that features a graphic decapitation, a knife through a man’s neck in loving close ups and sniper bullets blowing people’s brains out also having a scene where it’s hero advises a film-maker to make movies”the entire family can watch” is par for the course.
Unless by family he means the Manson Family
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Vivek
September 19, 2023
Saw this on prime today. Even by recent Rajini film standards, quite dull. Many of the actors were just props. But the most criminal use of an actor was Girish Kulkarni’s. Poor guy barely got a line to say.
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Sri Prabhuram
October 24, 2023
Seeing Vinayakan working with GVM in Dhruva Natchathiram is definitely noteworthy.
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