This must be the worst Rajni movie I have seen, and one of the worst movies, period,
that I have seen. I feel really bad about spending 3 hours of my time watching this
swill. Let me clarify a few things at the outset:
- I do not have a problem with Rajni movies, and I do not dislike Rajnikanth.
I don’t think he is a fabulous actor or that his movies are great examples of
movie making or acting, but I can put aside any logic, etc., and enjoy Rajni movies
at times because I grew up watching Rajni. Rajni is capable of being a good actor
(as he showed in Avargal, long ago), but he has preferred the brainless "ishtyle"
action star who throws the cigarette in the air and catches it with his mouth, which
has made him a superstar. I recently saw a program on Sun TV of a public function
where both Kamal and Rajni were present and in which one of the speakers
referred to the "superstar Rajni" and "super-actor Kamal". Very apt distinction.
But that is NOT the reason for my problem with this film. Rajni has a certain action
style, and he does it well, and he makes the big bucks. No one expects Kamal-type
roles of him, and if someone were to evaluate a Rajni movie based on those norms,
it would be a mistake. I am not trying to do that here.
- I do not have a problem with meaningless action sequences. Again, I would
rather that these pointless scenes were not present, but I accept them as part
of the Indian movie landscape, and am not going to put down a movie on that basis.
- I also do not have a problem with Rajni’s character being able to do anything he wishes
... such as being a psychiatrist who can also beat up 20 villains, etc., etc.
So what’s my problem with this movie? Just that it takes forever to build up the story,
and any suspense that might be developed is quickly dissipated by some meaningless
so-called comic relief, that too by the extremely annoying Vadivelu. Just yelling and
wailing constantly does not make good comedy. A good suspense has to be fairly taut.
This is simply a story told too loosely. After a long, slow buildup, during which I had to
struggle to keep myself awake, there is suddenly a flood of information, which almost
seems like how they end TV serials on Sun TV when the TV station asks the producers
to pull the plug, viz., almost a quick narrative of the end. There is very little character
development of any kind. They could have cut a lot of the fluff in the first 3/4 of the movie
and replaced it with significant elaborations of the narrative that is presented at the end...
some sort of insight into how the psychiatrist’s mind was beginning to put the pieces
together, what personality disorder is like, how the clues were gradually fitting into the
overall truth, etc. It seems like the writer could not think of a good way to let the clues
to the final truth about Chandramukhi come through gradually, and so decided to just
dump all of it on the viewer at one go. Quite a cop-out. Note that I am not asking for an
intellectual art movie, I am just asking for ways to make a story narrative more interesting.
The core story is actually quite good, but the way it is handled makes it incredibly boring.
I hear Jothika got an award for this movie. I cannot fathom why. Just mouthing a few words
in Telugu and rolling your eyes does not make a great role. They never gave suspense
a chance in this movie.
The songs: not much to talk about except the "Konjam nerum" song, which is actually quite
good.