Some style, some punch lines, some action and a wee bit romance, all dotting a story with a populist theme – that’s the recipe for most Thalaivar movies. Sivaji is no exception. Shankar’s latest with Thalaivar in the lead has all that and some more.

Shankar’s movies have not veered away from the populist path, save for Kadhalan and Boys, to some extent. Sivaji should have joined that pantheon of Shankar movies where the common man suffers and makes the baddies suffer for subjecting him and the rest of the world around to the suffering. Except that in this case, Thalaivar is actually a rich man. Shankar twists the formula and subjects a rich do-gooder to the same abuse and suffering that the every-man hero went through in his other movies. The result is a movie that sometimes lacks binding logic, but more than makes up for all these shortcomings by exploiting the charisma of the leading man in question.

The movie opens anonymously, literally. We see a man driven to jail and is instructed by a police officer to cover his face lest people see his face and go wild. But, since we are not exactly Klingons, we all know who he is. A few minutes later, when he turns around for the first time, all of us know why we are there today. A multitude of whistles rise up almost in one and the ride begins. Well, what a ride it is. More than three hours later, we walk out, thoroughly spent physically, throats dry and hoarse.

Thalaivar carries this movie on his broad shoulders with minimal help from Shankar’s story and screen play. After a break from procedure in Chandramukhi, where he was absent from the screen for almost 20 min at a stretch at one point, Thalaivar hogs the screen once again here. But the average Thalaivar fan like me cannot complain at all.

Thalaivar rocks the scene in the action sequences. Look out for the scene in the roadside tea shop. And watch out for the sequence where Thalaivar says “singam da, single a dhaan varum”! Goosebump alert! The scenes where tosses the coins up to land into his pockets and the chewing gum popping sequences are very standard Rajini, aimed to rouse the audiences. But as usual Shankar goes a bit overboard on the special effects in some of the sequences and that sort of killed some scenes for me.

As if to offset, Shankar really scores on the song sequences. While Rajini’s past intro songs have set a really high bar, Ballielaka is a nice intro number by itself, with ample references to Rajini’s usual “son of the soil” role. Nayantara looks really hot. Sahana and Vaaji Vaaji have brought out the best from Thotta Tharani (and Shankar’s AVM’s pocket) with stupendously detailed backdrops. Oru Koodai Sunlight has Thalaivar in a blond wig and is part of the comedy gag. Athiradi is clearly inspired by Roberto Rodriguez’s Mariachi trilogy, complete with the machine gun in the guitar and the rockets in the guitar case, but Thalaivar is a sight to see in this song. Awesome picturization. The choreography credits include Lawrence, Raju Sundaram and Brinda and if you watch closely, it is very easy to identify the choreographer for each song. On an added note, Shreya looks gorgeous in every song (actually in the whole movie).

The make up leads one to think that Shankar has perhaps actually managed to reverse Rajini’s ageing process. If I had one misgiving about the movie after seeing the promos, it was about the hairdos. But after watching the movie itself, I think that my misgivings were unfounded. The blond wig still put me off, but the situation demanded it and is amply backed up by the lyrics. The sequences that have Thalaivar with the shaved head are the best, if you ask me.

Vivek adds to the movie, playing Robin to Thalaivar’s Batman and raises quite a few laughs. The best among these sequences has to be the one where he interrupts Thalaivar and complains about every Tom Dick and Harry uttering punch lines on screen and then proceeds to reel out one such line himself. As usual, Thalaivar is himself a part of the comedy track and shows his comic touch in the “Fair and Lovely” gag that runs through most of the first half of the movie. And watch out for the sequence where he mimics some other Tamil cinema icons. Solomon Paapaiah is part of the laugh track as well. And towards the end of the movie, perhaps for the first time in a Thalaivar padam, you see a trio of actors who came into prominence by mimicking the likes of Thalaivar.

Suman’s portrayal is understated and hence more menacing than a lot of villains we have seen in Rajini’s movies. Kanal Kannan makes the now almost obligatory appearance as the negative protagonist in a fight sequence. Pyramid Natrajan, Raghuvaran, Vadivukarasi and Manivannan walk in and out of the movie, while Shreya looks ravishingly gorgeous in a slightly meatier role as Thalaivar’s love interest and key plot device.

But as I mentioned earlier, this is a movie that sometimes lacks binding logic. And it is good that it is a Thalaivar starrer, for no one other than Rajini will be able to pull it off with such a handicap. But you should be really foolish to expect any logic from most Indian movies. So the standard Rajini padam disclaimer applies here too – Watch it with an open mind. This movie is no different in that aspect from a lot of Tamil movies and if you take my advice, you will have some three hours of solid fun.

Personally, I am hunting for tickets to have three more hours of solid fun tomorrow!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 1:01 am and is filed under Movies, rajini, superstar, thalaivar.