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Sivaji : Cooooool
Have you witnessed a theater manager in Mumbai being summoned out by the crowd because the bookings for some Tamil movie had not opened yet? I have.
Have you witnessed a hundred man queue in a Mumbai multiplex for a Tamil movie? I was standing fifth in that queue.
Or can you even imagine the ticket roll needing replacement within fifteen minutes of the commencement of the booking for a Tamil movie in Mumbai? I saw that happen too.
The reason for all this is one man. The same man whom the national news channels have been shamelessly covering round the clock, pushing even the presedential election to the backseat. Enga superstar!
So, what's with all the hype? Does the movie live up to the hype of a Rajni + Shankar combo? It's an outright entertainer for all the masala lovers, a mega treat for Rajni fans and consequentially a sure shot winner at the box office. But Shankar, it seems, chose to leave an impression only on the balance sheet and the title cards! The disappointing part is that it's not a tight rope walk which Shankar mentioned. Rajni dominates from start to finish in a manner which only he can.
Have you witnessed a hundred man queue in a Mumbai multiplex for a Tamil movie? I was standing fifth in that queue.
Or can you even imagine the ticket roll needing replacement within fifteen minutes of the commencement of the booking for a Tamil movie in Mumbai? I saw that happen too.
The reason for all this is one man. The same man whom the national news channels have been shamelessly covering round the clock, pushing even the presedential election to the backseat. Enga superstar!
So, what's with all the hype? Does the movie live up to the hype of a Rajni + Shankar combo? It's an outright entertainer for all the masala lovers, a mega treat for Rajni fans and consequentially a sure shot winner at the box office. But Shankar, it seems, chose to leave an impression only on the balance sheet and the title cards! The disappointing part is that it's not a tight rope walk which Shankar mentioned. Rajni dominates from start to finish in a manner which only he can.
Read Review . . .
Sivaji is a multi-millionaire who returns from America with the intention of doing good to the people. He dreams of building a group of educational institutions and hospitals for the welfare of the poor. He faces stiff resistance from Adiseshan (Suman), a king maker, who fears that his business would be affected if Sivaji succeeds. Adi manages to stop Sivaji and bring him to the streets and Sivaji vows to hit back. Unless you have the IQ of a blonde or any person in BCCI, you would have guessed easily that it is time to buy your popcorns! The second half depicts how Sivaji strikes with amazing style and hard hitting action. Pucca Rajni flick to the last inch.
The intro of the movie is too plain for thalaivar standards. Agreed, Shankar padam needs to have something different. But different-a pannaraen-nu kerchief-a graphics use panni komanam-a use panna mudiyuma? There are certain golden rules which are better left that way. P.Vasu understood that much better than Shankar. Nonetheless, we had the usual koochals and gummalams. Thalaivar summa face-a kaamchaaley podhum!
The first half of the movie is average. It has simply grown itself out like TR and clearly needs to be fifteen minutes shorter, which I assume will happen in the days to come. Shankar has as usual built it up longer than what it deserves, that too with lengthy scenes and bad screenplay. He starts off the story right away and takes focus off with comedy and romance. A replay of Anniyan. The only difference being : thalaivar :-) Starting off on a lighter note, slowly building the seriousness and ending it with the great bang at the interval seems common sense. But it is well known that common sense is uncommon and Shankar is a living example.
Vivek steals the show in the first half, especially when he stops thalaivar from mouthing punch dialogues and says, "Vaenaam Sivaji. Ippo ellam chinna pasanga kooda veral-a suzhatti punch adikkaranga. Nee adhellam pannatha, naan paathukkaraen" and follows it up with a "Six-ku appuram seven da, Sivaji ku appuram evan da!". A seruppadi to all the wannabe superstars out there! I loved it! Sujatha surprisingly had a few lame jokes. Needless to say, thalaivar rocks. He has done whatever the director demanded without bothering about his image. The comedy was overall super, but it was at the expense of the story moving forward.
Thalaivar movies do not need many romance scenes. The scenes do not have any huge impact and can be trimmed. Nobody would have complained if Rajni was already married to Shriya right from the beginning! That would have helped the screenplay a great deal. All said and done, the girl is bleddy hawt! She is the perfect Tamil girl in the movie - sentiment, glycerine, josiyam, jathagam - who also has a key role to play. In the songs, she is sexy *drool*. I agree to be married to her till the next Asin flick releases :-)
The second half is ultimate adhiradi dominated by thalaivar, every single frame. The bajji kadai scene after interval is semma gethu. Nobody but thalaivar can do that! The pace of the movie becomes really enjoyable beyond this point. Shankar has targeted the issues related to black money, which Sivaji digs out of the system and uses for the welfare of the people. These scenes are really enjoyable and are classic Rajni style!
Rajni has almost single handedly carried the movie and made it a super hit with some really good acting, ever refreshing style and stunning screen presence. There has not been a more stylish Rajni than this for a long long time. His chicklet gimmick, the coin toss, the way he bites his collar and says "BOSS", the "chumma adhuruthu-la" punch, his stylish walk and the best of all - "Boss, Mottai Boss!" are simply reason enough for me to keep watching this flick over and over again. Nobody could have done this character better than Rajni, and I mean NOBODY! You have to see it to believe it or you might just write me off as a crazy fanatic since I am that anyways! :-)
Suman as the villain is a good fit for his role. But his characterization lacked depth. Enough hatred was not evoked in the audience, which is an apparent flaw. When you are portraying a larger than life character, the contrast is felt better if the villain is detested and competes with the hero more often. That was missing.
The songs rock completely! It was disappointing to see a sadly choreographed intro song for thalaivar. There was nothing classy about it, other than Nayanthara who was gummu! :-D Vaaji Vaaji and Sahana tell us why this is the most expensive Indian film. The lavish sets of Thotta Tharani are a visual treat. Cool computer graphics in Oru Koodai Sunlight make a vellai thamizhan out of thalaivar. Adhiradi is the best of the lot, brilliantly choreographed and Rajni showing us that he can dance, given the right steps of course! There are also small bits of Rajni imitating Sivaji, MGR and Kamal which left me speechless!
The background score was decent. The 'Athiradi' theme and the 'Boss' theme at the end were excellent. Nothing as catchy as Shreya otherwise! :-D In fact, in a couple of places he has used instrumental versions of "Ballelakka" which just did not fit. It appeared as if he had given his word that he would compulsorily use all the songs as BGMs and was honouring his commitment!
K.V Anand with the camera and Antony as the editor - technically, the film was simply mindblowing. The stunt sequences could have been done a bit better. They fell short of being excellent. But it needs to be appreciated that they had tried out new innovative stunts instead of the wired stunts which are now as interesting as watching a tortoise race.
Shankar has faltered with the script. Those who look for the Shankar style strong message would end up disappointed. I did not expect Shankar to compromise that in a movie of this scale and ended up with a "something is missing" the first time I watched it. But he does deserve heaps of praises for showing us the best Rajni in a long long time (he looks bloody young!), sketching out a Sivaji which his fans would relish and doing that in typical Shankar grandeur. I take no credit away from the man for this. He deserves it.
I've watched the movie twice so far and I loved it more the second time since I knew not to expect anything from Shankar. And, being the crazy thalaivar fan that I am, I want to watch it again and again! Only for thalaivar! What's the point in watching it for just one man, you say?
Verdict : A good entertainer if you are ok with masala and not finicky about the logic. A GREAT entertainer if you are a Rajni fan. Sivaji rocks!!!! :-)
Those of you who want to praise thalaivar's performance, please leave a comment. Bleddy, else please wait in the 'office room'! ;-)
Note : Been away for quite a while now! Have moved into the second year now and left without anything to do and thalaivar got me out of hibernation! So looking forward to wake up often :-)
The intro of the movie is too plain for thalaivar standards. Agreed, Shankar padam needs to have something different. But different-a pannaraen-nu kerchief-a graphics use panni komanam-a use panna mudiyuma? There are certain golden rules which are better left that way. P.Vasu understood that much better than Shankar. Nonetheless, we had the usual koochals and gummalams. Thalaivar summa face-a kaamchaaley podhum!
The first half of the movie is average. It has simply grown itself out like TR and clearly needs to be fifteen minutes shorter, which I assume will happen in the days to come. Shankar has as usual built it up longer than what it deserves, that too with lengthy scenes and bad screenplay. He starts off the story right away and takes focus off with comedy and romance. A replay of Anniyan. The only difference being : thalaivar :-) Starting off on a lighter note, slowly building the seriousness and ending it with the great bang at the interval seems common sense. But it is well known that common sense is uncommon and Shankar is a living example.
Vivek steals the show in the first half, especially when he stops thalaivar from mouthing punch dialogues and says, "Vaenaam Sivaji. Ippo ellam chinna pasanga kooda veral-a suzhatti punch adikkaranga. Nee adhellam pannatha, naan paathukkaraen" and follows it up with a "Six-ku appuram seven da, Sivaji ku appuram evan da!". A seruppadi to all the wannabe superstars out there! I loved it! Sujatha surprisingly had a few lame jokes. Needless to say, thalaivar rocks. He has done whatever the director demanded without bothering about his image. The comedy was overall super, but it was at the expense of the story moving forward.
Thalaivar movies do not need many romance scenes. The scenes do not have any huge impact and can be trimmed. Nobody would have complained if Rajni was already married to Shriya right from the beginning! That would have helped the screenplay a great deal. All said and done, the girl is bleddy hawt! She is the perfect Tamil girl in the movie - sentiment, glycerine, josiyam, jathagam - who also has a key role to play. In the songs, she is sexy *drool*. I agree to be married to her till the next Asin flick releases :-)
The second half is ultimate adhiradi dominated by thalaivar, every single frame. The bajji kadai scene after interval is semma gethu. Nobody but thalaivar can do that! The pace of the movie becomes really enjoyable beyond this point. Shankar has targeted the issues related to black money, which Sivaji digs out of the system and uses for the welfare of the people. These scenes are really enjoyable and are classic Rajni style!
Rajni has almost single handedly carried the movie and made it a super hit with some really good acting, ever refreshing style and stunning screen presence. There has not been a more stylish Rajni than this for a long long time. His chicklet gimmick, the coin toss, the way he bites his collar and says "BOSS", the "chumma adhuruthu-la" punch, his stylish walk and the best of all - "Boss, Mottai Boss!" are simply reason enough for me to keep watching this flick over and over again. Nobody could have done this character better than Rajni, and I mean NOBODY! You have to see it to believe it or you might just write me off as a crazy fanatic since I am that anyways! :-)
Suman as the villain is a good fit for his role. But his characterization lacked depth. Enough hatred was not evoked in the audience, which is an apparent flaw. When you are portraying a larger than life character, the contrast is felt better if the villain is detested and competes with the hero more often. That was missing.
The songs rock completely! It was disappointing to see a sadly choreographed intro song for thalaivar. There was nothing classy about it, other than Nayanthara who was gummu! :-D Vaaji Vaaji and Sahana tell us why this is the most expensive Indian film. The lavish sets of Thotta Tharani are a visual treat. Cool computer graphics in Oru Koodai Sunlight make a vellai thamizhan out of thalaivar. Adhiradi is the best of the lot, brilliantly choreographed and Rajni showing us that he can dance, given the right steps of course! There are also small bits of Rajni imitating Sivaji, MGR and Kamal which left me speechless!
The background score was decent. The 'Athiradi' theme and the 'Boss' theme at the end were excellent. Nothing as catchy as Shreya otherwise! :-D In fact, in a couple of places he has used instrumental versions of "Ballelakka" which just did not fit. It appeared as if he had given his word that he would compulsorily use all the songs as BGMs and was honouring his commitment!
K.V Anand with the camera and Antony as the editor - technically, the film was simply mindblowing. The stunt sequences could have been done a bit better. They fell short of being excellent. But it needs to be appreciated that they had tried out new innovative stunts instead of the wired stunts which are now as interesting as watching a tortoise race.
Shankar has faltered with the script. Those who look for the Shankar style strong message would end up disappointed. I did not expect Shankar to compromise that in a movie of this scale and ended up with a "something is missing" the first time I watched it. But he does deserve heaps of praises for showing us the best Rajni in a long long time (he looks bloody young!), sketching out a Sivaji which his fans would relish and doing that in typical Shankar grandeur. I take no credit away from the man for this. He deserves it.
I've watched the movie twice so far and I loved it more the second time since I knew not to expect anything from Shankar. And, being the crazy thalaivar fan that I am, I want to watch it again and again! Only for thalaivar! What's the point in watching it for just one man, you say?
"Kanna, panni-nga dhaan kootama varum. Singam, single-a dhaan varum!!"
Verdict : A good entertainer if you are ok with masala and not finicky about the logic. A GREAT entertainer if you are a Rajni fan. Sivaji rocks!!!! :-)
Those of you who want to praise thalaivar's performance, please leave a comment. Bleddy, else please wait in the 'office room'! ;-)
Sivaji! Chumma Adhirudhula!
Note : Been away for quite a while now! Have moved into the second year now and left without anything to do and thalaivar got me out of hibernation! So looking forward to wake up often :-)
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