Jeetu Joseph, the director of this one, made a decent movie with Mohanlal and Meena a few years previously, a blockbuster that is supposed to have broken many records - Drishyam. It was not perfect by any means, but it engaged everyone from beginning to end, especially by having an everyday Joe as the one who finally turns tables on what typically bogs today's everyday Joe down.
The telling of the take was gripping, especially towards the end, when one begins to feel that every move and counter-move that our Joe has made is being outmaneuvered, he simbly does not give up, and keeps adapting himself to the situation.
In spite of the fact that it was loosely inspired by 'The devotion of Suspect X', the telling of that tale was riveting. Jeetu Joseph directing the Tamil remake also was a good thing, with that being a decent adaptation as well.
Now, for this.
What I liked:
+ The relationship between the main leads, played by Prithviraj, Neeraj Madhav, Divya Pillai on one end, and also Rasna at the other end.
+ Sticking close to the characterization of the main lead, who uses prepped bombs for exacting his revenge.
+ Virumandi's Pasupathy is the JamesWoods-like foil to Prithviraj's Stallone-proxy (keeping with the 'Specialist' comparison, which also used the motif of controlled explosions for exacting revenge, albeit more engagingly, and with better effects, a couple of decades ago) is perhaps one of the best things about the movie. Not completely menacing, but almost being in-step and in-sync with the hero's machinations, makes the cat-and-mouse game a little more riveting that the pedestrian script allows for both characters to play with. Bang- on casting, and an amazing performance, but Pasupathy's always been that way in each and every role he's performed.
+ Tackling the issue of bio-terrorism in an almost-meaningful way, and the attempts made to make it seem topical and relevant, which it surely is.
What, imho, ultimately let the movie down, ultimately:
Overall, this was a missed opportunity for all involved. Yet, worth one watch.
The telling of the take was gripping, especially towards the end, when one begins to feel that every move and counter-move that our Joe has made is being outmaneuvered, he simbly does not give up, and keeps adapting himself to the situation.
In spite of the fact that it was loosely inspired by 'The devotion of Suspect X', the telling of that tale was riveting. Jeetu Joseph directing the Tamil remake also was a good thing, with that being a decent adaptation as well.
Now, for this.
What I liked:
+ The relationship between the main leads, played by Prithviraj, Neeraj Madhav, Divya Pillai on one end, and also Rasna at the other end.
+ Sticking close to the characterization of the main lead, who uses prepped bombs for exacting his revenge.
+ Virumandi's Pasupathy is the JamesWoods-like foil to Prithviraj's Stallone-proxy (keeping with the 'Specialist' comparison, which also used the motif of controlled explosions for exacting revenge, albeit more engagingly, and with better effects, a couple of decades ago) is perhaps one of the best things about the movie. Not completely menacing, but almost being in-step and in-sync with the hero's machinations, makes the cat-and-mouse game a little more riveting that the pedestrian script allows for both characters to play with. Bang- on casting, and an amazing performance, but Pasupathy's always been that way in each and every role he's performed.
+ Tackling the issue of bio-terrorism in an almost-meaningful way, and the attempts made to make it seem topical and relevant, which it surely is.
What, imho, ultimately let the movie down, ultimately:
- The pathetic CGI/VFX. I'm sure they were visualized greatly, but nothing was spent in trying to bring them to life. Good CGI is when you don't even know its been used. Here, you know every-time, in every scene, and its also unintentionally funny. We get to watch better CGI in international TV shows.
- Love Jayaprakash's acting, most of the time. Right since his fantastic performance in 'Pannaiyaarum Padminiyuum', with Vijay Sethupathi. Even his performance in 'Run Raja Run' as well as 'Thegidi' elevated the material. Here though, while he's wasted by both the writing as well as the directing, he also fails to bring anything special, leaving the heavy-lifting to Pasupathy (thankfully).
- Pathetic detailing of the overall medical/bio-terrorism plot. Made the half-baked Organ-smuggling plots of both 'Yennai Arindhaal' and 'Thani oruvan' seem better etched in an epic fashion, in comparison.
- Short shrift given to the cops conducting the investigation (contrast this with how even inept cops and mortuary owners are given to do in 'Oppam'). A movie's as good as it allows its supporting characters to be. This one fails in that department.
- The (gripping-in-the-beginning, to be fair) narrative technique, unfolding the tale while a penultimate action sequence is playing out, all the way till the mandated intermission, seemed novel for all of 15 minutes, and then proceeded to become a very tired exercise in pretentiousness. It also did not help that the action sequences with the uniformed bouncers was artificial (except for a couple of moments, which looked sincere, raising my hopes for those moments), and devolved into something predictable and boring.
Overall, this was a missed opportunity for all involved. Yet, worth one watch.