Lingaa (லிங்கா Tamil; 2014)
The wait was finally over for Tamil movie enthusiasts the world over, including the band of ever faithful Japanese fans. Right smack on his 64th birthday, his latest outing was released. And in style, this sexagenarian walks out from a Hummer, which in turn is followed by a fleet of similarly spanking shiny Hummers to be showered by petals of flowers, as if ushering a demigod, by a bevy of beaus who look and dress anything but reflective of demure Tamil culture. To the catcalls and whistling of the cinema audiences, our hero shows his greatest presence - a turn to face the audience swinging the tail of his coat flashing his trademark smile and mustache still donning his thick crown of glory- his mane! That is Rajnikanth for you, still stirring the crowd after all these years!
Not bad for a man of his age to be able to single-handedly maintain the interest of the story. The other actors there are just side shows. He dons two roles, as a do-gooder king during the British Raj era and his wayward petty thief grandson in present time.
A dam engineer is murdered in a small village. His last dying words is to open the old dilapidated temple. As the temple is only supposed to be opened by the descendants of Lingeswara, the philanthropic nobleman who built the temple and the dam which saved the village from extinction, the search for his grandson starts.
Lingaa and his sidekicks are frequent visitors of the central jail. The petty criminals are known the policemen in that town. A TV compere, who just happened to be the granddaughter of the village headman tracks him down to bring him back to the village against his wish. Lingaa has a bone to pick with his ancestors who literally gave away all the family fortunes to charity, leaving him to fend for himself in the punishing world. After a failed robbery and in hot pursuit by the police, Lingaa has no choice but to go the village where he is ushered in full honours.
Hence starts the sweeter than nectar tale of a man beyond man who bends over backwards to fight the baddies in the form of corrupt British administrators and turncoats to use his own wealth, which would easily put him as the richest of the richest in Forbes 50, to serve the Indian poor.
The primary lesson to remember while watching some movies is not to ask too many questions. Do not ask how certain stunts are possible and why the costume change before the flashback story and after!
At the outset, the credits alerted that no animals were harmed in the shooting of the film and that of elephants were computer imaging. I would say that the computer animation specialist did a mighty fine job. The elephants which appeared in many scenes look quite real and I would not have even noticed.
Talking about real shots and computer graphic imaging, I was left in a quandary which was real and which was fake. Some of the scenes of the 64 old man was obviously staged as he swerved the curbs of the mountainous roads to leap jump into a hot air balloon to save his beau and to prevent the dam which had been the theme of the movie from being bombed to smithereens.
At the end of the day, viewers went back relieving themselves of their real life woes but still feeling that his previous efforts were more meaningful and far more entertaining. The unanswered question remains unanswered. Just like how the die hard fans were heralding 'Muthu' as his entrance into politics, many of the so called 'punch dialogues' were geared towards this end. More joy in suspense?
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| Lingaa |
Not bad for a man of his age to be able to single-handedly maintain the interest of the story. The other actors there are just side shows. He dons two roles, as a do-gooder king during the British Raj era and his wayward petty thief grandson in present time.
A dam engineer is murdered in a small village. His last dying words is to open the old dilapidated temple. As the temple is only supposed to be opened by the descendants of Lingeswara, the philanthropic nobleman who built the temple and the dam which saved the village from extinction, the search for his grandson starts.
Lingaa and his sidekicks are frequent visitors of the central jail. The petty criminals are known the policemen in that town. A TV compere, who just happened to be the granddaughter of the village headman tracks him down to bring him back to the village against his wish. Lingaa has a bone to pick with his ancestors who literally gave away all the family fortunes to charity, leaving him to fend for himself in the punishing world. After a failed robbery and in hot pursuit by the police, Lingaa has no choice but to go the village where he is ushered in full honours.
Hence starts the sweeter than nectar tale of a man beyond man who bends over backwards to fight the baddies in the form of corrupt British administrators and turncoats to use his own wealth, which would easily put him as the richest of the richest in Forbes 50, to serve the Indian poor.
The primary lesson to remember while watching some movies is not to ask too many questions. Do not ask how certain stunts are possible and why the costume change before the flashback story and after!
At the outset, the credits alerted that no animals were harmed in the shooting of the film and that of elephants were computer imaging. I would say that the computer animation specialist did a mighty fine job. The elephants which appeared in many scenes look quite real and I would not have even noticed.
Talking about real shots and computer graphic imaging, I was left in a quandary which was real and which was fake. Some of the scenes of the 64 old man was obviously staged as he swerved the curbs of the mountainous roads to leap jump into a hot air balloon to save his beau and to prevent the dam which had been the theme of the movie from being bombed to smithereens.
At the end of the day, viewers went back relieving themselves of their real life woes but still feeling that his previous efforts were more meaningful and far more entertaining. The unanswered question remains unanswered. Just like how the die hard fans were heralding 'Muthu' as his entrance into politics, many of the so called 'punch dialogues' were geared towards this end. More joy in suspense?
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