RETRO: A Cluster of different stories overstuffed into a good movie
ONE LINE:
When the hero tries to leave his violent past behind, to marry the love of his life. His foster father forces him to do some work, but he refuses. This leads to chaos and the opening of different stories, which made him realise his purpose in life.
The movie opens with the chapter - LOVE, which stands taller than all the others. The romantic combinations between Surya and Pooja Hegde worked very well. Surya's screen presence is stunning, Fights like a pro, unmatched visual of cinematographer Shreyas Krishna provides richness to the film. Throughout this chapter, the movie flows like clean river water, then slowly starts deviating when the laughter chapter gets into play, and finally mixes into the sea, when all the chapters are introduced. Even though some chapters are very much relevant to the story, it all went undrinkable.
Karthik Subbaraj is well-known for his writings and for making commercial movies in a very artistic way. He has his own style of engaging people through different emotions, led by characters, scene construction, different points of view, and so on. But, here in the name of genre bending, he over stuffed things, which became irrelevant at some point. Even in Jigarthanda Double X, we can see the same problem of stuffing politics, tribals, Clint Eastwood, spying police, and unwanted references in a spirited sequel of Jigarthanda, which is between a Gangster and a filmmaker.
When Jeyaram's character was introduced, the movie lost its pace and didn't pick up till the end. The reason, again and again, I am mentioning it is because Chapter - Love ( First Act ), where the heroine reforms the gangster hero who doesn't smile at all with a violent background, and the Tribe's problem at the end ( Final Act ) are very much enough to make a good screenplay with the already present masters around to execute a good commercial film.
Despite the flaws, the movie is good with beautiful action sequences where Surya takes on everything effortlessly. His hand movements and fight choreography were good, especially the fighting of young Surya in the train was out of the box, and the comical shots in between the fights were too good. The background plot reason for Surya not smiling and the construction of scenes for revelation is too appealing and eye-pleasing to watch. Even though the climax was not up to the mark and not convincing, it was well managed in the post-climax scene with a funny note.
The most appreciating part is the 15mins long single-shot, which was amazing. It has drama, fight, bloodshed, dance for a song, many emotions, and multiple tracking shots. Everything fell in place amazingly, even though it has some minor glitches, this whole shot stalls tall and mesmerised the audience. Watch it when you are free, it will definitely entertain you, but keep your expectations low as compared to Karthik Subbaraj's previous films.
LOVE - REFORM - REBOOT
YOU WILL FIND YOUR PURPOSE
