*Verdict first
*Shankar! Is he the director of this masala film starring the Tamil Superstar?.The answer is surprise! surpise! yes! he has managed to provide a movie for the masses . entertainment to the core .which now makes him a complete masses director cutting across all sections and centers of the audience . What happens to the average shankar fan with all the media hype. "Obviuosly dissapointment" . But then the film is starring the Tamil superstar . then what are we really complaining about. Its a superb masala entertainer.Does it have the right ingredients to make the average Rajni fan happy? lets find out.
*Actors Characters
*Sivaji - played by Rajni is a NRI who returns back to India with loads of hard earned money working as a software deisgn architect.Aim and mission to setup an university and a hospital to provide free education and health for the poor under the name of sivaji foundation. Objective is to ensure that education is provided to everyone and then thats the only way we can have prosperity.
Tamil Selvi- played by Shreya . A simple down to earth tamil girl who has humble parents in the popular debate artist Raja and the small screen host Uma . She works in a music instrument shop and obviously invites everyones crush why sivaji alone.
Adiseshan - Played by Suman of yesteryears who makes a comeback of sorts on tamil screens after a long time but as a villian. He runs the business empire of educational institutions and hospitals and is the king maker in deciding the power sharing of the local govt.
mama- played by vivek. is the loyal companion to assist sivaji with his ambitions and helps to keep the audience busy with his punch dialogues and naughty comedies for which he so famous for
*PLOT
*Sivaji decides to setup the foundation and approaches adiseshan for help. The later is not happy as that would spoil his business . The project is on after all the initial struggle for approval with all the beauracrats and the politicians . Huge money is paid in the form of bribe to get the project going against the wishes of sivaji but he is cornered and left with no choice . In the meanwhile Sivaji has a crush on Tamil selvi and proposes to marry her. What follows is a sequence of comic events where sivaji tries to impress tamilselvi and her parents. As they finally do get convinced the astrologer lands the bombshell that in the event of marriage sivaji would loose a lot of wealth and can cost him his dear life. The preplexed Tamilselvi tries to give lame excuses to avoid sivaji and then the romance is so powerful that eventually she has to agree for the marriage . True to the astrolgers prediction, Adiseshan who in the mean while is silently watching the sivaji empire grow seizes the right opportunity which somehow results in the total downfall of the empire. Sivaji looses all his valuable pocessions and bought to the road. This is when adiseshan gives him the One Rupee coin to start his new business as a beggar. The transformation in sivaji from there on to take on the powerul adhiseshan is the main plot of the movie.It deals with how sivaji ammasses crores of black money from all the business men in Tamilnadu and converts them through a hawala transaction and gets it in thelegal form of huge donations for his sivaji foundation. Once its done he uses all the money for the development and runs a own private govt of sorts. This time he seizes the opportunity and lands adhiseshan in prison . the destroyed adhi wows to punish sivaji . Sivaji marries tamilselvi in the meanwhile however the faith behind the astologers prediction still haunts tamil selvi. This weakness results in the downfall of sivaji in a way that he is arrested and eventually killed. what happens in the final phases of the movie is the rebirth of sivaji as Mgr with the help if the dean and the miracles of technology. MGR takes on adiseshan for all the illdoings and eventually adi dies in a stampede in his own college premises. The movie ends with the slides of the directors dreams of india becoming a powerful nation as black money is totally abolished and money card is introduced with a wish that all these dreams come true
*Positives
1) Expensive sets for the songs by thotta tharini and song picturaisation. Binny mill transformation and the ramaji rao studios well utilised .
2) Youthful looks of sivaji . costumes and all the different getups that an average rajni fan would never have imagined . The white sivaji was a treat for a average fan
3) Photography of Kv ananth. sheer visual treat. never could have asked for better
4) stunt scenes at the music store, on the open air theater .
5) Comedy tracks being a part of the film . entire comedy was terrific . escpecially the " pappu bhuva" episode and eating the red chillies was awsome. The fair and lovely seqeunce . the space outfit fitted with the a/c. the train suicide attempt . solomon papaiya fun. was all mind blowing laughter stuff.
6) CG’s to enhance sivajis style and usual gimmicks that keeps his audience going crazy. the chewing gum and one rupee coin flicks. the pistol boomerang. the cracker on sivajis mouth .the mouse on the laptop .and the list goes on
7) Nice touch with the enacting of sivaji.mgr and kamal on the first night and the mimic roles by damu, chinnijayanth and mayilswamy .
8) 3 different rajinis as sivaji the NRI, sivaji as the lion, MGR as the tortured bald boss the later being the best of the getups was an interesting thought
9) Shreya was beautiful . definitely the audience would envy rajini for being paired with .
10) Not much of punch dialogues that u associate with rajni films a big bonus
*Negatives:
1) Dissapointment with the less shankar element . script never had the strength that we would have associated when casting the superstar. No power in despatching the message or rather diversion from the core to accomodate the masala elements was obvious
2) Same old fashioned reproduced masala element with regards to plot . one man mission fighting corrupt society
3) Rahmans music is good in portions . lack of clarity with regards to lyrics
4) Raguvaran wasted in the film. a big dissapointment remember him for all his powerful villainous roles
5) Age catching up with the superstar probably time to look out for better roles.
6) length of the film
7) Shankar is generally associated with fantasies, the surprise element however was missing
Is there an arguemnent at all. rajni’s fan ought to be satisfied aint it?