Tamil filmdom’s celebrated ’SuperStar’ returns back with his ’Chandramukhi’.The movie as expected has garnered a good collection, going by the response and reviews, it seemed that this movie is not just a ’Super star’ material, but offers something that a Rajini movie has not offered till now...so I decided to give it a shot and my impressions are here...though late.Am not going to get into the details of the storyline as it would have been discussed already by other reviews.
Chandramukhi opens up in the way any Rajini film MUST open, with an intro scene that would give goose-flesh to any Rajini fan , a scene which defies all those laws of physics that we so religiously mastered in our school, but then this is a ’Super Star padam’ , yeah, ..Mr.SuperStar kicks bad-ass in his Intro scene(What else?) and immediately breaks into a song for his fans to go berserk and enjoy.The first half-an hour of the movie is typically engineered for Rajini, the scenes are intended to be a fiesta for the Rajini fans.Once the mandatory things are over, the movie shifts to the core story.Chandramukhi is indeed a thriller which masquerades itself as a ghost movie till the climax, then it shifts gears and talks about split-personality, psychosis, neurosis stuff to explain all those eerie happenings in the beginning.
Rajinikanth with his made-up younger looks, remains ’Super Star’ throughout, even though he plays a Psychiatrist from U.S. So that must be enough to explain his performance in the movie, you need an explanation only if you haven’t watched any ’Super Star’ film till now. But then the difference lies in the way the script has been developed, usually any Rajini movie(Post ’Superstardom’) will have its story with Rajini forming the fulcrum and all the other elements dutifully revolving around him, but this time the story (thanks to Fazil’s ’Manichitrathazhu’, a classy malayalam thriller) is not a typical Super Star stuff, rather the script by P.Vasu effectively accommodates Rajini’s Charisma into a psychotic thriller without doing any greater harms to both the elements.
Jyothika plays Ganga, who gets ’possessed(or affected)-by-Chandramukhi’ syndrome in the movie.She has tried her best in performing one of the memorable roles she has got in her film career, but then any elements of ’award-winning’ performance aren’t not seen anywhere.Prabhu plays his role convincingly well, the supporting cast also delivers the goods that they are expected to do.Rajini-Vadivelu combo forms the comic element of the film, they do evoke a laugh or two , though they are laced with some double entendres.Nayantara looks pretty, she plays the usual Rajini-Heroine, who has nothing much to do except dancing duets.
There are no punch dialogues, there are no finger twisting ’ishtytlu’, there are no hidden political agenda broadcasts, and only two fight scenes in the movie, a welcome relief indeed.But even without all these elements Rajini retains his Mass-hero charisma, definitely it’s a tight-rope walk for P.Vasu to script such a movie balancing the two mutually exclusive elements, he has done it commendably well.Songs by Vidyasagar sounded average in the audio, but with visuals they really spring alive with energy on screen, the classical telugu song ’Raa Raa’ in the second half is a notable composition, the background score is convincing.Cinematography and art designs are also commendable.But then there are certain unanswered questions,
# How come it’s possible for Ganga(Jyothika) to mouth out dialogues in flawless telugu, after all she suffers by some psychotic disorder, and nowhere we are shown any evidence of her knowing the language already?
# What the heck that big ’Graphics’ snake was doing in the movie?
Anyway..after all it’s a Super Star movie, and it must be enjoyed as it is.In that aspect Chandramukhi scores well in not only satisfying the ardent Rajini fans but also the common audience by giving them an entertainer.Viewers will have a definite feel of ’Paisa-Vasool’ after watching this one..what else one can expect from a ’SuperStar padam’.
P.S:- Plot - A Good unoriginal, remade plot, there’s no such option..so am putting it here.