Getting tickets for the much hyped and talked about film at almost all forums of social media became a tough task.
With whistles blowing in every seat,
Theri promised and opened as the
'next Bahubali'. Story wise it showed little promise to be anything other than the next tamil commercial film.
The first half was breezy and the presence of
Nainika clearly carried the film for the team. Her little quips and cute expressions are beyond her age. Pulling of lengthy dialogues, building conversations, dancing for a number and dubbing her own lines are very impressive tasks for a 4 year old.
Imagining
Amy Jackson to be Indian has become an encumbering task, but with this film, we thankfully don't have to think much about it as it seems like she has minimal role and her possible romance with Vijay is very subtely hinted or misses the eye.
Motta Rajendran or Mr. Onida Manda as the fans fondly refer to him gives us a staggering performance and travles throught the film, much to our relief.
Vijay has given an incredible performance, much more expressive and experimental with his style of acting, but the same cannot be said for his change in looks as it isn't convincing enough.
Samantha and
Radhika give us a performance that lives upto our expectations, but little Nainika steals the show.
The cinematography should be commended for their performance. The second half is pretty slow. Credit must be given to
G.V Prakash for this music though some of his song's tunes does sound oddly similar to previous tamil tracks, some even from yester years. That said, it's hard to ignore a tune that's running in the mind and not get influenced by it.
Jithu Jilladi did find the theatre to vibrate with whistles and some daring to shake a leg.
Eena Meena Teeka as the song promised as hearing it for the first time brought out a good viewing experience with it. The story of the film seems like one that you have heard all your life growing up, of revenges, sudden love, beautiful mother son relationship and son daughter relationship. One that's been tested and proven to be a show stealer, but have we crossed the line where it becomes monotonous?
The predictable plot is a huge let down for the film, though ace director,
Mahendran gives us an amazing performance as the villain. The trend for calm, collected and one will feel my presence villain scripts have started to trend after
Thani Oruvan's success. Director Mahendran's screen presence is just tok ahrd to put into words. Hat's off.
Though the predictability of the script did hinder with the viewing experience, social issues such as rape and a few scenes following it and the problems faced by a daily wage worker in a construction site was like a slap on the face.
The Vijay fan is ecstatic over the movie as it has to offer everything a Vijay fan looks for from a movie from their Illaya Thalapathy. But the difference of opinion among public arises when the non admirer views such such scenes and gets a feeling they have viewed this before, in many a films earlier.
A true cinema viewer wishes for a tighter script with better screenplay. A few unnecessary dialogues could have been avoided, but not all works of art can be perfect. Contemplating whether Vijay was a soul of a dead man could have also been a start. On the whole, the message is clear.
The chemistry between the daughter and father was really well put on the screen as much as between Samantha and Vijay, althought it seems like some scenes were removed due to the length of the film, here's hoping to catching them as deleted scenes. Because if that fact it seems a little irrational for things to get serious within a span of 5 minutes between the characters. We all knew Samantha was going to die right at that moment when it happened, that was the main blow to the film.
The day Tamil cinema stops showing growth over a film or predicting an alternative ending over a few shots before they try to take an alternative path is when it reaches the next stage.
Rating : 6.5/10
