When A R Murugadoss joined hands with Rajnikanth, most of us were expecting a movie of style and substance. The famous ARM touch in Ghajini, Thupaaki, and Kathi is missing here, instead, it is unabashed fan worship of Rajni the superstar by his fanboy. Rajni takes this below-average movie to a more than watchable level, that too at this age of 69. That’s what true “SuperStardom” is.

I won’t go to the plot, as there is nothing in it. Regarding performances its an out and out Rajinikanth show. Watching him the way he fights and dances in Darbar, his energy level was like a 40 year old one. His comic timing was ok. After Rajni, Niveda Thomas and Yogi Babu were the notable performers. With Yogi getting some superb one-liners, the daughter-father combo featuring Niveda and Rajni was heartwarming and is sure to pull in family audiences like Viswasam. Nayantara had a disappointing outing, so were the performances of Suniel Shetty and Prateik Babbar.

The camerawork of Santosh Sivan was terrific. Songs except for Chumma Kizhi from Anirudh were forgettable.

My opinion is Pa Ranjith although didn’t taste success with Kabali and Kaala, showed how to utilize the superstar and actor in Rajni. But Murugadoss, as well as Karthik Subbaraj, had to sacrifice their style to accommodate the superstar in Rajni, which diluted the script as well as the overall movie only to be saved by the unbelievable charisma of the evergreen phenomenon named RAJINIKANTH.

Author

Sarat Kumar