Movie Review – Jailer

Where is Thalaivar heading to?

Ya ya, “Thalaivaru Nerantharam” and all is fine but what really it does apart from making a seventy year old man keep on walking in slow mo throughout the film. If slow mo is what I want I’d have rather watch Megan Fox in ‘Transformers 2’. Between ‘Jailer’ and ‘Leo’, probably the only two movies, which I thought, would’ve been nice if I had watched in theatre last year, I thought ‘Jailer’ would be better, because people were raving it. But apart from few moments which Rajini would make his own, no matter how crappy the director is, as a film ‘Jailer’ didn’t appeal. ‘Leo’ even though wasn’t great, at least had good filmmaking skills compared to this. What’s worse is even though I criticize, I enjoyed it while watching. That is dangerous.

Seeing Thalaivar in promos where he polishes his son’s shoes and gets ridiculed by his grandson, I thought the movie would have tried to create fake humility, but fortunately it was not the case. Nelson’s comic take worked. “Tiger” Muthuvel Pandian (Rajinikanth) is shown as a powerful man right from the word go, even when he is kidnapped when his son is on a mission. I must say, it was well handled. I expected, that for some time, he would play underdog and suddenly come to power but it was not the case. It might have worked better this way but would have been usual. Anyways the first part where he was not the ‘hero’ was only short lived and largely unappealing. There was not even an iota of sadness when we get to know that his son is killed. The director absolutely doesn’t give us any time to reminiscent.

Post that its usual Rajini template, only that there were three more people to walk in slow mo along with him. Even though monotonous, it all works due to the music and Rajini’s screen presence. But there is absolutely no creativity. Music is the same old, jarring, high octane pieces, which would last for the time being. One guy during some conversation casually said that Anirudh is a trending guy and not a trendsetter like Harris. There are complaints about Harris but that’s for another day. For now Anirudh’s music is working.

The crux of the story is nice, Nelson has packaged the story well with dark humor, the climax twist works, the villain is good, the cameos are good, even Tiger’s son Arjun (Vasanth Ravi) is good in whatever space he gets. I can get your mind voice, “ithuku mela vera ena da venum”. But altogether there was something missing. The film doesn’t feel coherent. Somehow Nelson and Rajini together sell this film. But we don’t get to feel for the events happening in the film. The highs are lows are ebbing. When Arjun dies, when the treasure is obtained, and all the main points in the film, we don’t feel the sadness or the elation, the characters feel. We just nod to what the actors say in that specific scene. But may be a lot many liked it because the emotion in the climax shot was brilliant, it hits the nail right on the head.

The trend of cameos are irritating. They just pull in people from different industry just for face value to sell it. We don’t get to know anything about them and absolutely no back story. We are applauding them for the stars they are and not for the role in the film. As it’s the beginning, it’s exciting but I’m sure it’s going to become a trend and soon become a cringe fest like Marvel Cinematic Universe. But I confess, the climax scene where they all light up the cigar together, I couldn’t sit in my seat out of excitement.

Movie Review – Rocky (2021)

Love thy violence

In what looks like a marriage between ‘Old Boy’ and ‘Super Deluxe’, this looks like a first proper film in the gore genre for Tamil cinema. Something which ‘Boys’ did to Adult film genre in Tamil cinema. The director, Arun Matheshwaran seems to have a strong liking towards violence and it wasn’t used just as a showbiz tool but as a world which he has created. Even though parts of it would definitely remind you of Korean films, it doesn’t come out as a film where the violence gives you a sadistic high but a definitive scare. May be because it’s the first film where this amount of gore had a native flavor to it.

The posters of the film was done brilliantly with all the characters together, Rocky (Vasanth Ravi), Manimaran (Bharathiraja) and co. It gave a Thevar Magan feel with Bharathiraja sitting in front and Rocky standing behind him with a number of associates. It felt like one whole gang who were fighting together against someone but on watching the film we realize it’s the complete opposite. May be the poster was done so intentionally to give a shock or done with the idea of the past of them. Even without the hidden meanings it was brilliant but after we get to know the story, it only becomes better.

As soon as the movie starts we get to know that it has a world of its own, just like ‘Super Deluxe’. The timelines are quite confusing because the film doesn’t take a traditional angle where the hero ages physically. Going by the angle that Manimaran’s son (Rishikanth) killed Rocky’s mother Malli (Rohini) and Rocky avenged him for that and spends time in jail, there was hardly any change physically of Rocky. It’s a kind of film that a question for that shouldn’t be raised. Just like how someone comes out of blue to try to kill Rocky’s Niece Malli (Anisha). Films like these give confidence to young directors to create whatever they like, without the need to stick by the tradition.

But even in a film which tries to be its own, why do you have to have songs. Especially the song when Rocky meets his sister Amudha (Raveena Ravi) spoils both the sequence before it and post it. It was a beautiful long shot to her room and back to road, giving a chill but thanks to the song we get to breathe a sigh of relief, post that we see Amudha dying in front of Rocky. The song could have easily been avoided to have the emotions swinging from tension to sweetness to horror but guess the director wanted to use the song as a tool for sweetness, which only led to relaxation. In fact it was the only point of relaxation in an otherwise solid tense movie.

Quite contrary to other Hitman movies, this film doesn’t feature bulked up people as goons but rather fragile ones actually. The horror is in their action and not looks. Especially Manimaran’s introduction scene where he explains how he was successful in fishery business was lit. Because till then Thanraj (Ashraf Mallisery) looks comic in his act of going front and back in a road roller but only when it looks like a threat we get to know what a horrific villain he was.

It could have been a terrific climax after all the blood and gore, but Lokesh Kanagaraj single handedly has spoilt the entire generation’s expectations by giving a definition an overdose of gun action in Kaithi. That’s why every other film which has similar climax looks meek. But thankfully, an actor with an otherwise average voice modulation, delivers one hell of a punch in the climax, which gives enough climax to watch the film till end with the glee, “Maman thangai magalaana, Mangai unakaaga, Ulagai vilai pesuvaar”