This is a Thalaiva movie. Period. Nobody else matters. A trip down memory lane of what stunts he could do and how he managed to maintain a fanbase after all these years is all that made the difference. It did not matter that the services of all the great Indian actors from all char dhams of Indian cinemas had made a cameo appearance here. It is immaterial that Padaiappa’s arch nemesis, Neelambari, is made to look like a lizard on the wall, clicking occasionally. Who cares about the holes in the fantastical storyline that would make a schoolboy cringe? It is Rajnikanth. Superstar is back!
This is what I missed wondering why everyone was praising Rajni’s latest release to high heaven. Even the usually level-headed ones are also pulled into the merriment. It is not about the story or realism. It is an experience, an immersion, and something entrenched in the psyche. Blame it on Tamil Nadu’s early politics and the involvement of screenwriters, musicians, actors and lyricists with local leaders; cinema is not only an escape route to the mundane, unsettling daily lives but a direction towards how the state should be.
Overall, a Tamil masala movie embodies what life is, how justice should be served and what the philosophy of life is all about.
A lot of responsibilities were placed on the shoulders of Nelson Dilipkumar after Rajnikanth’s past few performances have not really been outstanding. Nelson is a newcomer with previous successes in action thrillers with dark humour.
The recurring opening intertitle since the 90s.
Per his usual persona, Rajni appears as a benign and unassuming retiree jailer who carries life performing his prayers, playing with his grandson and doing work around the house. He morphs into a fire-breathing dragon (@dinosaur - a side joke in the movie), just like in Basha when his son, a police officer, goes missing and is apparently put down by baddies. He does not have to create a new punch dialogue, as reminiscing his previous lines is already more than adequate.
Jailer Muthu assumes his previous avatar of a ruthless prison warden to settle the score with all the gangsters around town. He uses his remote-control tactics to mobilise his reformed gang leaders to help him out. Rajni just has to slit a few throats and fire a few shots. He does not have dance in set dances. All Muthu has to do, is wave his spectacles and snap his fingers.
That is Thalaiva for you. A must for die-hard fans who yearn for the serotonin-infused feeling they felt during Rajni’s blockbusters of the 80s, Murrattu Kaalai and Muthu, for one. It does not matter if it defies logic. It is an experience. Indulge. Nerupudaa! Atharluthuleh? ஆதரத்துலே?
Are we living lives that are so unfulfilling? Are we trapped in a quagmire of hopelessness and pessimism that destined us to be forever confined in a sticky web of doom and gloom? Are we resigned to the fact we are too intellectually bankrupt to lift ourselves up by our bootstraps?
Are we waiting for that imaginary knight in shining armour to magically hoist us out of our rabbit hole of melancholy? Is it possible? Or are we imagining another realm where all our aches, pains and attachments would be magically dismantled?
Perhaps we had fought our fights and had given up. All the power and wealth of the powers that be have disarmed us from the shield of resilience. We have crumbled and wilted to pressure. We are numbed to our addiction to our devices that have sapped our juices to think.
Maybe it is not a new phenomenon. For ages, we of the human race have suffered under the tyranny of dictators and power-hungry madmen. And we have seen saviours in the form of revolutionists, orators, storytellers and even kings who were given demigod statuses. Some were labelled Son of God, Messenger of God and even avatar or representation of God walking on Earth. Rulers were bestowed divine standings when the country was peaceful, crops were bountiful, and natural calamities were absent. When economics went south, their reputations took a beating and acquired demonic ranks.
That must have reinforced the existence of religions. And of angel and demons and when everything else failed, a blissful afterlife in the waiting!
This film is strictly for diehard Thalaiva fans who have not seen enough of his 80s, 90s and 21st-century mind-boggling, gravity-defying and logic-escaping masala-spaghetti flicks. The storyline is the same old same old time-tested format. One lone-wolf Indian cop sends shivers down the crooks and singlehandedly clashes head-on with the whole brunt of the mafia force with brute force without planning or regards to law and order, police professionalism as well as to human rights.
Before Hanuman and Sugriva could help Rama with his rescuing work, they had to fulfil specific tasks in the Vanara kingdom. Sugriva's twin brother, Vali had forcibly taken over his throne and his wife. On his defence, Vali feels that Sugriva had betrayed him. Vali had previously gone to fight a demon deep into a cave. After not hearing about his whereabouts, Sugriva assumes Vali to be dead, closed the cave door to trap the beast and took over as the ruler. Sure enough, the returning Vali was not pleased. He not only fought back the realm as well as his wife too.
Vali had obtained a boon through Brahma who happily bestowed upon him the power to draw half of the energy of his opponents who should encounter him face to face.
Rama has to help out in return for the Vanara army.
To defeat the mighty Vali, Rama had to resort to what some warriors would call a dirty tactic. He instructed Sugriva to start a fight with Vali and from behind the covers of a tree, he mortally wounded Vali. Sita was rescued and blah blah.
The movie took this part of Ramayana to justify one’s seemingly ungentlemanly conduct to satisfy one’s personal intention. They seem to say that the outcome supersedes the means. Achieve your cause at all expense. Petta is another masala movie that has too much senseless violence and thrives on the past meaningless mannerisms and ‘stunts’ that made Rajinikanth famous in his early days.
The real hidden message of this movie is politics. As we are aware, Rajni’s recent dabble in politics is frowned upon by citizens of Tamil Nadu. The thought of him associating with Modi and the BJP does not seem to go well. His foes describe him of selling out the Tamilian struggles to the Central control and the Northerners. Note the characterisation of politicians from UP in the film as the baddies and how he, as the true blue Tamilian, befriends a member of the villains to defeat them at the own game.
It is definitely his political statement. Now the question is, are the voters going to buy it?
Kaala (2018) Sure, it is another fighting movie; one of the oppressed slum dwellers against the powerfully corrupt system of the ruling elites and a one-man gangster leader's selfless attempt at correcting the injustice. And the violence and sorrow to justify the resistance. One has to see beyond the things that seem to be glaring in the eyes to learn one or two. This movie thought me that Mumbai (Dharavi) houses the third biggest slum in the world; after Mexico City and Karachi. The slum came about as early as late 19th century when Bombay was developed by the British, and the city drew residents from near and far. Waves of migrations brought people of poverty from Gujerat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh among others. Annual economic turnover is said to be up to $1 billion. Occupants there involve in many familial cottage industries including tanning, pottery (by Gujaratis), embroidery (by UPites) and tailoring. By and large, residents of Dharavi are looked down. Many of them are from the lower caste- Dalits, Tamils or Muslims. The film clearly shows us that the inhabitants there have no qualms with living in harmony with others with different beliefs but it the leaders with specific agendas are hellbent on splitting them for votes. Major clean-up and redevelopment look easy on paper, but it plagued with mutual suspicion between NGOs acting on the slum-dwellers' behalf and the unholy association of politicians and business magnates. Another point that I learnt is that the society needs the toiling of the poor to maintain its upkeep. The supply of the subjugated must be maintained so as the well-to-do can flaunt their richness and sustain their lifestyles. The rich must be looked up as the endpoint that a pauper wants to reach. If everybody is satisfied with the position, people will have nothing to work for. Greed is good, is it not?
Here comes Kaala... The equilibrium of the Universe
is levered upon the balance of Good and Bad;
between White and Black; between Us and the Other!
Black has always been given the bad image by most societies. Black is associated with sin, evil, wrong, deficient, dirty and everything inherently perceived as wrong. White, on the other hand, is the epitome of purity; everything good, virtuous and divine. 'Kaala', the protagonist, is given such a nickname not only due to the hue of skin but to his strata in society. Hence, correspondingly all his deeds viewed from a negative angle. The politicians and the people in power, who have the luxury of appearing in pristine white attires, are seen as the do-gooders. Lest people forget that the whiteness of their tunic is the result of the back-breaking hard work of the lowly washermen. At a moment, I thought the dialogue could have suggested that 'Kaala', will rise again and again like mushroom after a downpour. Mushroom is also called 'Kaala' in Tamil although with a slightly different intonation. The oppressed will always return stronger with more vigour. When your options hang precariously on a thread, all you lose is your body. What you gain gives soul and life to the rest! Along the way, we are served with the idea that modernity is consumerism. The seemingly well-intended schemes put to us are mere fronts of the businessmen to make money out of our ignorances. They are the learned ones, Their pockets are deep, and we are easily lured by the promise of prosperity and the illusory end-point called happiness.
The last lesson that one learns from the movie is the relooking of good and evil as depicted in the holy scriptures of Ramayana. Leaders in South India had always sung their speeches to the tune that the epic had been a false representation of the image of the losers. They have always emphasised that the South under the rule of Raavan had been anything but tyrannical. He was a wise and just ruler whose subjects lived in bliss. Watching the tail end of the film, the speech by Nathuram Godse before his incarceration comes to mind. As we hear, the antagonist, the politician who wants to whitewash the slums with his development programmes, listen to the sermon of the temple priest, we realise how believers rejoice at the mention of the destruction of Raavan and his army. With the chanting 'Jai Jai Ram' (Hail Victory of Ram), we see the slum-dwellers get massacred on the orders of the politician. Surely, violence is the mainstay of any civilisation and to make forward leaps in humanity, people are sacrificed, and we are minor collateral damages in the grander scheme of things.
Bhuvana Oru Kelvikuri (Tamil, Bhuvana is a question mark; 1977) The question mark in this movie, starred by two powerhouses of the Tamil cinema, is whether a lady should stay chaste to one man even though he had wronged her willingly? The title suggests that Bhuvana would play a pivotal role in the story, surprisingly she only appears in the second half of the show.
Rajnikanth acts in one of his first roles in the positive light as before this, he was usually cast as a villain. Sivakumar, for a change, assumes a negative role. This film must have interested directors to put Rajni as their hero after this film. His unique mannerism and stylish stunts must have started here.
Rajnikanth (Sambath) and Sivakumar (Nagaraj) are street pedlars selling garments. Even though they are close friends, there are like different like night and day. Nagaraj is a sweet-talking businessman who works hard with a strong ambition for the future. He is also a womaniser who lives for the pleasure of the moment. Sambath, on the other hand, works only to get enough money for his daily fix of alcohol. He is a one-woman man. Tragedy hits Sambath when his girlfriend falls into a well and drowns.
Sambath and Nagaraj's friendship strengthens during tumultuous times when the Nagaraj saves the depressed Sambath from a suicide attempt. Their fate changes on a trip to Chennai when a man in the compartment they were travelling, carrying a load of money, dies of heart attack and they decide to keep the stash! This is where Bhuvana comes to the picture. She is the dead man sister and the money was actually temple's money.
Nagaraj befriends Bhuvana to keep her silence, just in case, their trickery is discovered. Things become complicated when she gets pregnant whilst Nagaraj is more interested in marrying a rich merchant's daughter and Bhuvana refuses to undergo a termination of pregnancy. Sambath moves in to save her honour!
That is when the real drama starts. Bhuvana refuses to have conjugal relationships with her fire-ceremonial sanctioned husband but wants to stay faithful to one man whom she had given her heart to. A lot of things happen along the way and finally, Sambath dies. Now, Bhuvana dons a widow's attire of white saree and the accompaniments.
So, what the storyteller seems to be telling is that all the external appearances are all facades of the society. We do things just to pacify society and live within its ambits. What goes within the heart or mind is anybody's guess. But are people so steadfast in their beliefs anymore? Times are changing and peoples' outlook on life and their values alter with the time.
The strategy of doing business in the new world is such. Just like in the computer software market, you create a hype. You promise the moon and the stars. You advertise. You create catch phrases. You create a concept, a theme. Then you set a launch date. Everybody waits with bated breath. Could it be the panacea of their computer glitches? Then the release is delayed. People get hot under the collar. Their pulses race. They cannot wait any longer. Everyone thinks that it the one - the greatest invention since sliced bread. Then the floodlights open after what seems like for eternity! And it turns out to be... just another whimper. It is the same old same old with the same perennial issues.
They used the same strategy with Kabali - creating a worldwide hype with giant billboards and even posters on Boeing planes. With so much of hoopla, everybody was just dying to find what it was all about. Even people who never understood the language or never gave a second look at a single Tamil movie before, started taking notice.
Nothing could stop us from achieving
goals if we chose the right path and
work with utmost dedication.
So far, the film reviews have been at extreme ends of the pole. Some praise it to high heavens whilst others suggested Rajnikanth should take a career change. Yours truly decided to make the pilgrimage to have a first-hand experience.
The movie has to be seen at two levels. At the first level, it is the physical, visual form that looks cluttered all over. The story is confusing with too many characters, all out to hack each other in unnecessary bloodbaths. The first half of the story throttles on aimlessly without direction in sight. An interesting mode of storytelling is employed here. Like a scene from CSI, the background story of a particular of a major event is told in short flashbacks. There seems to be some confusion in the timeline - 25 years before his release, the British were no longer estate owners and salary discrepancy by races were a pre-Merdeka issue.
Straying away from his trademark genre of releasing a wholesome family movie which infuses comedy and tree circling duets with young actresses, diehard fans will quickly realise that this one is sombre one.
Herein comes the real untold story of Kabali, the second level. It is the story of the orphan Indians who were left behind, forgotten, as the country headed for an accelerated pace of development in the 1980s. The people who were neglected by their leaders who were supposed to chart out vocational options when their livelihoods were affected when their services in the agricultural industry were not needed. Ignored by the current of modernisation with no economic prowess and living skills to stay afloat, they resorted to physical brute to demand their rights. They saw the country prosper at their expense and felt like second class citizens in a giant chess game of the politicians with personal agendas.
Kabaleeswaran (Kabali) is a small-time unionist who fights for the estate workers' rights. He is noticed by the national trade unionist who keeps power through gangsterism. Kabali gets entwined in dirty gang politics. The scramble for power finally lands him in prison and him losing his pregnant wife. In spite of the life in crime, Kabali is a 'Robin Hood' of sorts who is remembered for his philanthropic deeds.
So, 25 years later, Kabali returns to right the wrongs after realising much had changed in the country. He goes after his nemesis, Tony Lee and his henchmen. In the spirit of a Tamil film, his assumed to be dead wife is found to be alive and a daughter to top the icing. After senseless killings, brutal deaths and thugs running with machetes and guns, Kabali self-crowns himself as the head honcho of the KL and Malaysia's gangland.
Many spectators view the movie only at the Rajni styles and bloodbaths. They fail to see the underlying undertone of the storyline. From the word go, it is quite apparent that is a tale of the underclass. When Rajnikanth makes the iconic first appearance, he is seen with the English translation of Professor YB Satyanarayana's 'My Father Baliah'. This is an autobiography of a struggle of a Dalit who professes that one can be whatever he wants if he strives hard at it. Hence, the Malayan immigrant labourers of lower castes, their struggle and their need to prove their mettle. Many soft cues appear ever so often to denote that it is a display of class struggle. In the passing, the audience can observe (if they do) portraits of freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela, Che Guevera, Malcolm X. Gandhi and Ambedkar are also mentioned in a jocular fashion - that their clothes do not maketh the man they were. The tone of the underdog is present all over the narration, metaphorically and point blank through its shabbily snipped dialogues.
You would be surprised that many in the country are ignorant and clueless about the disappearance of the workers of rubber and oil palm estates after these plantations, which were cash cows to the colonial masters and the newly independent Malaya, were converted to housing estates. The clueless fret that this latest Rajni offering brought himself down to a cheap matinee star level to paint Malaysia as a wild, lawless land with every citizen a thug In the clueless minds, the delinquents are plain lazy and want life easy. Everybody can fend for themselves, why can't they? Interestingly, these same people are quite passionate about police brutality against the African Americans!
There was a hint of leaders of the community selling off their kind for self-interest. In what one may look as a tongue-in-cheek gesture, a free premiere screening of Kabali was shown to a packed hall of MIC leaders. The feted leaders who viewed the show were happy that Malaysia was used as the backdrop of an international movie. Little did they realise that the joke was on them. They were blamed for the community's follies! It is a cruel joke, like feeding dog meat to the dogs and finding pleasure in watching the dog dig in the chow!
As usual, it takes someone from outside the country to show how picturesque our country looks. The lush plantation greens of Carey Island is a sight for sore eyes. The aerial view atop the helipad Chulan Towers of the Twin Tower is breathtaking. Even the PPR (People's Housing Project) seem captivating.
To add further to the Malaysian flavour, many Malaysian actors and musicians are seen strutting their stuff. Even, the Indian characters are heard speaking with Malaysian Tamil lingo.
In summary, this is not one Rajni's best movies. At his age, the filmmakers managed to make a 65-year-old man appear gung-ho to beat up men less half his age. It is a Malaysian movie with Malaysian issues. Maghilzhchi! மகிழ்ச்சி!
This must be one of the last few movies where Rajnikanth, the unmistakable movie icon of India, who could do no wrong, appears in a negative role. Soon after 1977, as soon as he started winning awards, playing villainous characters, with which he began his career, became a part of a bygone era. After Murattu Kalai (1980), there was no turning back. He springboarded to a demigod status performing gravity-defying earth shattering stylistic stunts!
In this movie, he is cast as the villain opposite the then hero who at his tail end of his career, Jay Shanker. It is interesting to see Rajni at the receiving end of the feisty duel. This is not your typical Tamil drama with the usual forbidden love and opposition, and finally, love conquers all. It is an adaptation of a novel written by a Sujatha and is described as a psychological thriller with some necessary elements for Indian viewers like comedy sketches (by Venniradai Murthy) and fist fights. To keep the artistic feel into the movie, the filmmakers must have decided to make the film in black and white even though colour rolls rolled out from Kollywood since the mid-60s.
Gayathri's (Sridevi) parents are so happy that a well to do, honest young entrepreneur, Rajaratnam (Rajnikanth), asks for her hand in marriage. After a hasty agreement, the wedding takes place with his widowed sister representing his deceased parents. With a heavy heart, the bride leaves her father's abode to live with her husband.
At her new home, Gayathri finds a particular mystery that surrounds all the occupants. The brother and sister team (Rajaratnam and Sarasa) are helped by an old chef (SA Asokan) who speaks with sexual innuendoes, a hard-drinking timid village girl who is a helping hand and a rude no-nonsense limping Gurkha guard who keeps his two eyes focused on Gayathri at all times. Sarasa, who claimed to be a widow, is now seen dressing up with captivating modern clothes complete with make-up, Vermillion and flowers. And she drinks like a fish! There seems to be no barrier or hierarchy between bosses and workers. Her movements are kerbed, and her letters are vetted. All these shock Gayathri. Why is she treated like a prisoner? Why is it that the wallpaper of the bedroom has pictures of faces on it? It looks like it has eyes. Why are there screams from the outdoor post shack and why is the cabin out of bounds?
Why has Rajaratnam changed? He and his sister have just the most straightforward answer for all the things that she sees wrong in the family. Sarasa is dressing up in the house because she became a widow at a young age and she only acts as a widow for the society. The outdoor post is dangerous as there is a stray cobra there. But then why does the maid still go there? She starts seeing things that proved wrong or are only laughed off by everyone as a figment of her imagination.
Gayathri sneaks out in the thick of the night, disguised, to discover a deranged lady in the outdoors post claiming to be her husband's first wife. She later witnesses the guard burying the woman's body in the compound! Did he murder her? That was her last straw. Her attempt at sneaking out, however, failed, and a stricter house-arrest is imposed.
Gayathri pens her misadventures in a notebook and sneaks it into an old paper stack when the old newspaper man made his rounds. By the twist of fate, the note gets to the hand of a writer, Chellappa (Murthi) and his friend Ganesh (Jay Shankar).
To cut the story short, Ganesh does his own snooping to discover that Rajaratnam and his motley crews are blue-film makers and distributors. Without Gayathri's knowledge, she was an unaware participating actor in their latest venture, taken with a concealed camera through the walls of the bedroom!
The much-criticised part of the film is the climax when the treacherous team records a rape scene of Gayathri. Gayathri commits suicide before she could be 'deflowered' by a man unsanctioned by the Gods and elements of Nature. I suppose the storyteller must have decided to end the story in the most Hindu way using the Vedic scriptures as his guide. A man can do all the unholy things, but the woman must stay faithful to one man, only one man. This must have been the rationale of the practice of suttee in medieval India. Besides the social stigma and economic burden of being an unproductive member of the society, the method must have worked well to confiscate the property of the deceased with no kin to claim ownership. The supposed sacrifice of the wife also, it seems, helps to transfer credits to the husband to offset his misdeeds or karma in his next life! That is just my impression!
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?
Chennai Express (2013, Bilingual - Tamil/Hindi) Another cheesy typical Bollywood movie that would satiate the appetite of the masses as well as the coffers of the producers - it has set the history of being the highest grosser surpassing '3 Idiots'!
It tells the story of a 40 year old sweet merchant (Rahul, SRK, who else) orphan who grew up with his grandparents. His 100 year old granddad dies and to fulfill the deceased's wishes, he has to spread his ashes in Rameshwaram in the southern tip of India.
Rahul is upset because it interferes with his grand plans to holiday with his friends in Goa. He tricks his grandma into believing that he is leaving by train when his friends are actually waiting at the next station. Unfortunately, Rahul gets into the same compartment as Meenammal (Deepika Padukone). Meena, the daughter of a villager gangster, is escorted back to her village by her father's henchmen after she tried to abscond from being married off to another gangster cousin. Rahul gets pulled into the web of mis-communication, deceit and violence to follow Meena to her village. Bla, bla, bla, Rahul hates Meena, Bla, bla,bla, Fights, eloping, in another village, situations, understand, fall in love, goes to Rameshwaram with the urn of ashes, fights with gangsters, fall, rises from ashes like phoenix fights the villains, wins the heart of the girl and everybody is happy! As you can see, it did not really win my heart. As Indians all passionate about classic story lines and dialogues, the filmmakers have successfully used these formulas. Many scenes are reminiscent of classic Hindi and Tamil movies. The early scene of the heroine running to alight a moving train is ashamedly similar to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. It is probably done to draw the audience to the aura of the evergreen hero since the 90s. A letter throwing incident involving different young couple to be at a secret rendezvous is eerily same as a scene from Muthu. So is a scene where the couple is on the run. They are treated as a couple in a land with Kerala background.
Sadly, many of the talented Tamil actors' might is wasted here. Sathyaraj, besides his masala wise talk cracking matinees, his acting is quite recommendable in films like 'Periyar'. Delhi Ganesh's ability also goes to waste. I suppose the viewers are going to the theatres not to see this oldies but to see their favourite pint evergreen actor challenge the massively muscular gundhas, take them one on one or many, fall, rise with rejuvenated zest by the power of love, make a come back, put a scythe at the neck of the opponent to put his claim on the girl of his choice and feel good about it, not to analyse and criticize!
The release of the film coincided with India's Independence Day with the aim of uniting the country especially the Hindi speaking and the Tamil speaking population of India. At the same time, so as not to upset the southern viewers with their brand of stereotyping and jokes, the director must have come up with the skeet that idolizes the uncrowned King of Tamil Nadu - Super Star Rajnikanth.
