The superstar of tamil films is back!
The legend:
A king lusts for Chandramukhi, a dancer and forces her to be his mistress. But, she continues her relationship with her lover. When the king finds out, he beheads the lover and burns her alive. But her soul lives on for revenge.
Story:
Prabhu and Jothika are married and they have bought an old palace which is supposed to be haunted by the spirit of Chandramukhi. They move in along with Prabhu’s relatives. Rajnikanth, a psychiatrist, is Prabhu’s friend and he is a visitor in the palace.
Everything is fine until one day when Rajnikanth leaves and Jothika decides to explore the room where Chandramukhi and her lover were killed and where her spirit is supposed to locked. Strange incidents start happening and and everything points to Nayanthara, the daughter of the gardner & Rajni’s love interest.
Prabhu calls Rajni for help. How the superstar solves the mystery forms the rest of the story.
Rajnikanth: An award should be given to the person who did the make up for superstar. He looks almost like what he did in Padayappa.
After being Mannan, Muthu, Baasha, Annamalai, Arnachalam and Padayappa, it is difficult to imagine him doing anything normal. As a psychiatrist He has very limited scope to do his trademark heroic scenes in Chandramukhi so, it is probably a bit of a let down for his fans.
Jothika: The theme of the movie is centered around her and she does a very good job especially towards the end of the movie.
The rest:
Prabhu, Nasser, Vadively, Nayanthara etc.. just make up for the numbers. They dont have anything significant to do. Infact I found it very funny when Prabhu emotes on the screen :))
Comedy:
Rajnikanth movies are always known for the good comedy content. Usually King Koundamani is his partner and this time it is Vadivelu. But, the comedy is a big letdown. The comedy track involves vadivelu’s fear of ghosts and fear of his wife falling for rajni. The comedy doesn’t hit the right chord!
Songs:
The songs are average. The standard superstar introduction song is ok and the other songs are average. But none of them are special.
Action:
There is no scope for action in this movie still the director manages to squeeze in a fight or two. Nothing much to write about.
My 2 Cents!:
It is good to see a Rajnikanth movie after a long time. This movie seems to be a step away from the image he has created for himself as super hero and towards a more character based role (although he is still a super hero in this movie). But, too many things about the movie seem half baked.
Many scenes, especially the action and scenes where the co-stars sing praises of the hero’s virtues are forced and unnecessary. In his previous movies like Padayappa those scenes were in line with the storyline but here they are out of place.
Most characters had no significant role. Like Vijayakumar, Nasser and few others were there just to make the head count.
It think the movie was a good 20 minutes too long
The climax is interesting. It leaves the answer to the question of whether ghosts and spirits exist, open ended.
Definitely better than Baba! Watch Chandramukhi without any expectations to enjoy it.
for Jothika + * for attempting a new story for a Rajni movie + * for Rajnikanth = 3 *s