An Eye Sore, Ear Jar, Misfire of a film.
Never in my wildest dreams, did I imagine a film I chose to watch in theatres, out of my own interest, would be this bad. I should have understood by seeing only ten tickets booked for the show. But thinking that it has become a trend to watch films in OTT, I thought I was in for something special. But my first movie experience in theatre for this year ended up to be a debacle. It was nothing but a star vehicle disguised in the form of corny art film, which in the end misses to be both.
The film starts with all guns blazing and ends the same way and gets our ears impaired. I was sitting in the last row of the theatre. Similar to how I was sitting for ‘Oppenheimer’ Being a Nolan film, there were lot of fan boys who were defining where to sit for optimal film viewing, film hearing experience, when to loo, how much your bladder can hold etc. This film didn’t have any such advice. I was excited for the bass at the start of the movie and even was appreciating why it’s always a terrific feel to watch film in theatres but by the end of it, I was dead and tired. I was in the state of, “sugar patient ra naanu”.
Dhanush was getting high praise for his role of Captain Miller. It’s becoming very problematic when non Tamil people judge Dhanush’s acting. They were raving about ‘Raanjhanaa’ at the time of the release. Guess Bollywood is so tuned by its larger than life hero’s that even such a normal realistic acting feels like epitome of acting experience to them. It was the same for Miller. Dhanush does nothing extraordinary.
It was very difficult to understand what the film was trying. Was Arun Matheswaran, kidnapped by Dhanush and at knife point, was made to write an artsy story with commercial elements. The film was boring and bland, for the sake of appropriate adjective. There is Dhanush, who is Analeesan or Eesa who later becomes Miller or Captain Miller. Even a fourth standard student would be able to decode what the director was trying to do with names. He’s Eesan, the great god of destruction, who would come out of myth to save the village and in the journey kills a few thousand people and gets killed a lot of his people. It’s very difficult to understand when would he side with whom, yet he’s showcased as a character with clear motives.
There were a lot of corny dialogues, symbolisms and rapturous music. Hell, even the art direction was elementary. In the end nothing makes sense. It just feels like a loud ‘Maryan’ Dhanush’s choice of heroines are great to see in instagram but they do nothing in the film. In a film where she’s supposed to be strong with arms and words, the only scene Priyanka Mohan feels at home is when she smiles. What a misfit. Velmati (Priyanka Arul Mohan), except for her name was a disaster in all aspects. Truly resonating the fact that she’s nothing but a Melugu Doll.
There were two more interesting peculiar characters, Sengolan (Shiva Rajkumar) and Captain Rafiq (Sundeep Kishan). There is one shot where the three of them join hands and do an ‘Aayutha Ezhuthu’. By that time, I was tired to even criticize. Seriously, when there was so much guns and bombs around, who comes with a sword and bow and arrow to fight. (I could only remember Hawkeye coming with his bow and arrow and making a great scene dumb in the first Avengers movie.) And that was supposed to be heroic. Is this even the guy who made ‘Rocky’. And don’t get me started with the parallels he was trying to show between the two films with the help of ammunition.
Of course action films like these come up with a certain suspension of disbelief but the whole film being so was unacceptable. How was even Dhanush dodging so many bullets in the interval, why were none shooting at Dhanush when he was surrendering? Why were all the characters so one dimensional. Why so much Deus ex machina in a supposedly noncommercial movie. And who was this guy with munda baniyan and sunglasses, who comes out to save all the main characters just in time. But thanks to him, he was the only fun factor in an otherwise dull action movie. And finally that reveal, oh my god, it was truly exhausting. What should have been like the scene where Parthiban raises hand in ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ ends up to be like a total spoof? Is that sculpture supposed to look like Dhanush, or is it just me.
Out of three hours, the only scene which works is, when Eesa is in the army camp, Abdool Lee (Sembatta / Stephen) is criticized by one from the group getting the name. That reaction of Dhanush when he says, “enga ponalum ipdi oruthan vanthuran” was the only natural aspect of the whole film which tries to do so many things, without knowing what.
After ‘Rocky’ I was truly happy for Arun Matheswaran, so much so that, I didn’t want to immediately watch ‘Saani Kaayidham’ and exhaust his filmography. But after ‘Captain Miller’ I seriously doubt whether he has anything in him. More than anything, the film was such a disappointment.
constantscribbles 