Let me start off by saying that being a Rajni fan always brings about a certain bias when one is writing a review on a movie starring the man. I went for the movie on a Saturday afternoon, having heard that the movie would be worth watching. The crowd was not much, almost entirely comprising of Tamilians(Tamil movie - Rajni, what do you expect?). A group in front of me started hollering the moment the words "Superstar" came on the screen, and an elderly person had to admonish them to keep quiet.
The movie starts off with the village barber’s (Pasupathy’s) plight, he of the strict morals and unbending ideals. His family suffers; there is no food, no money.basically the epitome of how an honest man would be portrayed. He has a sweet wife(Meena), sweet kids who understand him, and so the plot goes on. His business has suffered due to an unscrupulous ex-employee(Vadivelu) who catches customers forcibly and shaves their heads. This ex-employee is a married to a thunder thighs hottie who won’t let him near her.
There is no money for the kid’s fees, there is no new material in the barber shop, there is, as of now, no happiness on the wealth front. There is a wealthy guy who will make him a new chair if he pays, and who wants to make a movie. Before you feel sympathetic, it gets worse. Enter a film production unit in the village, shooting a movie on the Superstar Ashok Kumar(Rajni playing Rajni with a different name). Money flows everywhere. Milkman, food guy, every tom, dick and harry in the village gets an "advance" for services, except our hero the barber, who refuses to take money for something which he has yet to do.
Headlines - The superstar is our barber’s childhood friend. And now, everyone else is his friend as well. The school principal has paid the fees from the school fund, but wants the superstar to come for a school function, the so-called producer wants the superstar to act in his movie, the neighbors want to give them food, etc etc. The poor barber doesn’t want to face the humiliation that he might have to face if the superstar doesn’t recognize him, but is pressurized into committing to people that he will do all of this. Of course, poor chap can’t even get close to his childhood friend because there is too much security, and that leads to accusations, blames, and the whole sob story.
Rajni is Rajni, style, mannerisms, charisma, dialogue delivery all packed into a neat little package. He fields questions on his entry into politics, Kamal Hassan, and a variety of other subjects and of course, is on ground level with his fans who worship him. The story is all about how the whole village, nay, the whole world comes to know that the man responsible for the superstar becoming a superstar is the poor barber, and all those who were cursing him now feel they have a great man in their midst. The hero meets the barber, and they have a tearful reunion.
The movie has good comedy, good songs, is typically fun. Rajni entertains, and that’s that!