Kaala - movie review
By now the verdict on the movie is already out and what would be spoilers in this post are common knowledge. Still, for the benefit of those who are yet to watch the movie, watch out for spoilers, which I would rather want to call as highlighters for the reason why the movie is disappointing. Oops.
For those who have seen Kabali – the previous venture between Ranjith and Rajini, The first half of the Kaala would feel like scenes that are Kabali discards. The story simply refuses to take off and keeps roaming on the runway. Even from the few cuts in trailer, it was very clear that this is going to be a fight between Dharavi Rajini against political bigwig Nana Patekar over the land where the chawl is setup. With the basic premise set clearly on the two minute trailer itself, the movie takes almost a whole hour to reach to that confrontation point. Ranjith, to give him the benefit of doubt, is just 5 movies old and 2 of them are with Rajini. For a commercial star of Rajini’s caliber, it requires specific fine tuning in screenplay, which is clearly lacking with Ranjith. On one hand, people make no mistake in pointing out the folly of dancing around trees with heroines younger than his grand-children, forcing Rajini to play his age, it simply cannot be half baked in attempt like Kabali. There are 2 scenes that could’ve brought down the roof in mass effect, one is the police station scene, where Rajini mocks the sitting MLA asking who the hell he is. It could’ve been Kaala’s equivalent of “Ennaku innoru per iruku” from Baasha and ends up as a comic squib. The other scene that had potential to be a blockbuster on the lines of Rajini’s confrontation with Ramya Krishnan in padayappa where he pulls the swing from ceiling and stylishly sits on it, was his interaction with Nana at Nana’s den. “Such a waste“ was the feeling after the scene got over. A Ravikumar or any other regular of Rajini, would’ve made it into a memorabilia of the millennium. Even the much touted ”Kya re..setting ah” from the trailer fizzles out. Those three scenes would’ve been enough for paisa vasool moments for Rajini fans who’ve to make do with the flyover fight alone. The final straw that fails the movie is that Rajini actually dies. Right from MGR days, very rarely have movies succeeded in tamil where the hero dies. I don’t recollect the last movie where Rajini dies and none that’ve gone on to be successful. The much touted climax, full of colors, brings back the dead don, metaphor-morphically and the violent end of the villain is shown as a colorful as Nippon paint would possibly allow.
During many scenes In the movie, it felt as if, Ranjith play acts in giving some leeway to the superstar in Rajini only to reign him back into a normal character. In fact, it is one of the lamest and weakest don roles ever to have hit the tamil screens and considering its Rajini who has played it, only has made it look even weaker. Consider this – during the police station scene, Rajini gets beaten and doesn’t fight back (Yup. You read it right). He even playfully lies to his wife on the way back that he gave it back doubly to those who beat him at the station only to watch her and his son in the next few minutes. The don doesn’t take any action but only visits the villain’s den alone to show his gethu. The villains create chaos and beat up his Kith and kin, during the protests and all the don does is again look angrily onto the camera. It was so 1980’s-ish and atypical to sivakumar may be, but not for superstar Rajini. The first half, showcasing the family life of the Don are nothing but dead weights to the storyline and his ex-love interest angle might’ve just been added to show case Rajini’s acting chops which does nothing to the overall pace of the movie. They could mercilessly chop of 45 minutes of first half and still the movie would make sense or not. The other off putting aspect being, there were way too many hindi/Marathi dialogues that it felt like a dubbed movie at many places, especially with Nana patekar doing his own dubbing in tamil. There were scenes that were clear bait traps for political parties to pick up and protest to ensure backup publicity for the movie, post release. If the movie is about glorifying Kaala, the Raavan of the masses, why degrade hindu deities? If ranjith had put in bit more effort to understand the story of Raavan, he won Lanka from his brother and chased away his own brother from Lanka for siding with Raam, his enemy. Considering that land is the basis for the movie, this section of Raavan’s story would’ve made more sense. Off late it has become fashion statement of fringe in TN that anything related to Hindu gods, if denigrated, would give them leadership status and wisdom to blabber about anything under the sun. Surprised to see that Rajini, an aspiring politician, has been gullible enough to be “tricked” by Ranjith into this situation. The movie might very well be the platform for Ranjith to launch his political outfit than Rajni, if at all that was the reason behind the attempt.
Gils verdict - as mentioned on paid reviews, it's not 51% rajini and 49% Ranjith movie. But out and out ranjith's film. It would have stood out on its own had the hero been anyone but rajini. It has nothing for the fans and is a total disappointment from that perspective. And it's not a shade on Nayagan just because it has Dharavi as setup. Biggest and only beneficiary is Ranjith alone.
For those who have seen Kabali – the previous venture between Ranjith and Rajini, The first half of the Kaala would feel like scenes that are Kabali discards. The story simply refuses to take off and keeps roaming on the runway. Even from the few cuts in trailer, it was very clear that this is going to be a fight between Dharavi Rajini against political bigwig Nana Patekar over the land where the chawl is setup. With the basic premise set clearly on the two minute trailer itself, the movie takes almost a whole hour to reach to that confrontation point. Ranjith, to give him the benefit of doubt, is just 5 movies old and 2 of them are with Rajini. For a commercial star of Rajini’s caliber, it requires specific fine tuning in screenplay, which is clearly lacking with Ranjith. On one hand, people make no mistake in pointing out the folly of dancing around trees with heroines younger than his grand-children, forcing Rajini to play his age, it simply cannot be half baked in attempt like Kabali. There are 2 scenes that could’ve brought down the roof in mass effect, one is the police station scene, where Rajini mocks the sitting MLA asking who the hell he is. It could’ve been Kaala’s equivalent of “Ennaku innoru per iruku” from Baasha and ends up as a comic squib. The other scene that had potential to be a blockbuster on the lines of Rajini’s confrontation with Ramya Krishnan in padayappa where he pulls the swing from ceiling and stylishly sits on it, was his interaction with Nana at Nana’s den. “Such a waste“ was the feeling after the scene got over. A Ravikumar or any other regular of Rajini, would’ve made it into a memorabilia of the millennium. Even the much touted ”Kya re..setting ah” from the trailer fizzles out. Those three scenes would’ve been enough for paisa vasool moments for Rajini fans who’ve to make do with the flyover fight alone. The final straw that fails the movie is that Rajini actually dies. Right from MGR days, very rarely have movies succeeded in tamil where the hero dies. I don’t recollect the last movie where Rajini dies and none that’ve gone on to be successful. The much touted climax, full of colors, brings back the dead don, metaphor-morphically and the violent end of the villain is shown as a colorful as Nippon paint would possibly allow.
During many scenes In the movie, it felt as if, Ranjith play acts in giving some leeway to the superstar in Rajini only to reign him back into a normal character. In fact, it is one of the lamest and weakest don roles ever to have hit the tamil screens and considering its Rajini who has played it, only has made it look even weaker. Consider this – during the police station scene, Rajini gets beaten and doesn’t fight back (Yup. You read it right). He even playfully lies to his wife on the way back that he gave it back doubly to those who beat him at the station only to watch her and his son in the next few minutes. The don doesn’t take any action but only visits the villain’s den alone to show his gethu. The villains create chaos and beat up his Kith and kin, during the protests and all the don does is again look angrily onto the camera. It was so 1980’s-ish and atypical to sivakumar may be, but not for superstar Rajini. The first half, showcasing the family life of the Don are nothing but dead weights to the storyline and his ex-love interest angle might’ve just been added to show case Rajini’s acting chops which does nothing to the overall pace of the movie. They could mercilessly chop of 45 minutes of first half and still the movie would make sense or not. The other off putting aspect being, there were way too many hindi/Marathi dialogues that it felt like a dubbed movie at many places, especially with Nana patekar doing his own dubbing in tamil. There were scenes that were clear bait traps for political parties to pick up and protest to ensure backup publicity for the movie, post release. If the movie is about glorifying Kaala, the Raavan of the masses, why degrade hindu deities? If ranjith had put in bit more effort to understand the story of Raavan, he won Lanka from his brother and chased away his own brother from Lanka for siding with Raam, his enemy. Considering that land is the basis for the movie, this section of Raavan’s story would’ve made more sense. Off late it has become fashion statement of fringe in TN that anything related to Hindu gods, if denigrated, would give them leadership status and wisdom to blabber about anything under the sun. Surprised to see that Rajini, an aspiring politician, has been gullible enough to be “tricked” by Ranjith into this situation. The movie might very well be the platform for Ranjith to launch his political outfit than Rajni, if at all that was the reason behind the attempt.
Gils verdict - as mentioned on paid reviews, it's not 51% rajini and 49% Ranjith movie. But out and out ranjith's film. It would have stood out on its own had the hero been anyone but rajini. It has nothing for the fans and is a total disappointment from that perspective. And it's not a shade on Nayagan just because it has Dharavi as setup. Biggest and only beneficiary is Ranjith alone.
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