2 . 0 : WHERE, THE DECIMAL IS SIGNIFICANT THAN THE WHOLE!
WHEN K BALACHANDER DIED IN 2014, I SAID THAT HIS GREATEST CONTRIBUTION TO CINEMA WAS NOT HIS MOVIES, BUT RAJINIKANTH. AND TODAY, IF YOU’RE IN YOUR LATE TWENTIES AND WATCHED THIS FILM WITH A SEA OF SUPERSTAR FANS! THEN THERE’S ONLY ONE THING YOU’D WANT. MARRY SOON, BEGET A CHILD, AND TAKE HER/HIM TO THEIR FIRST RAJINIKANTH EXPERIENCE. JUST FOR THAT LITTLE BUNDLE OF LOVE TO GET THE PHENOMENON THAT IT IS.
“CINEMA IS THE ULTIMATE PERVERT ART. IT DOESN’T GIVE YOU WHAT YOU DESIRE — IT TELLS YOU HOW TO DESIRE. — SLAVOJ ZIZEK”
IDEA, JOKES AND FILM-MAKING
To talk about the movie’s core idea, it’s unabashedly galactic in vision and over the top with the largest, most ambitious sense of cinema imaginable for the message it wishes to convey. But someone once said, every idea is a joke unless someone achieves it. But, when the achievement is a manifest as in a joke, then, it is to be laughed at, or feel pity right?
People say Shankar is James Cameron of India, but he’s more close being the Michael Bay of India. The whole idea of the cell phones becoming the mainstay of the film is novel and how it is included in the movie is brilliant. You subtract the VFX of the Cell-bird, Cell-man and the Cell-murmuration, from the movie, and everything else is below excellent.
Any Rajini movie is a Rajini movie only if there’s enough space for the Rajinikanth that Rajinikanth is. Unlike, Enthiran, where it had a good amount of character exploration and screen space for the Superstar as Chitti, v2.0 and Vaseegaran, at which time they were new to the audience. In this movie, what the two vital variations of Rajinikanth’s role do is minimal. And they have a minimal Rajinikanth too, literally. Neither does Akshay Kumar’s role fist you like it could have. There’s no whining about how Pakshirajan looked in his various metamorphism. It looked very convincing. But what mattered the most was, what he could do! Maybe, this is a movie which required more run time as usual Shankar films, with more angular intensity to the initial story, or the existing screenplay is weak with strong, and almost-strong characters with compromising scope and exploration.
There’s more conscience to the movie in mind than the output we got to see. What stopped Shankar from making a movie for the audience to attach and empathize with? Why does Shankar choose to do a “Pei Otturadhu” (evicting the ghost, or desi-exorcism).
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Like everyone else could guess, Here’s my link to the fan theory challenge by Lyca Productions in Twitter. I just wanted the delivery to be unimaginable.
WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET
Imagination is everything. It’s brilliant no doubt. Visually, the film is a huge improvement to it’s spiritual predecessor. If not for the visuals and Rajinikanth, the film offers less to wow upon. Considering the mind mapping that went into creating whatever comes in those VFX shots, is a wonder for cinema here. It’s all some grade one projection that you get to see, there’s no depth in dialogues, which look like superimposed communicative element. However, what saves the day and delights you is Rajinikanth’s theatrics. There’s a charm in his voice, that always puts you in a smile, and makes you grin, and laugh and emote along with him. However, not all of it were exploited here. You laugh like 2.0 when it laughs, and you repeat after, when it dictates a dialogue. “Have a blast” it says, and you go “Whooooooohooooo!”
My phone actually fell down at a point, and I was like, with what’s happening on screen, it’s all alright. I even looked if a sparrow popped up on the screen with the vibe that the visual sound was creating in the premises.
In a Rajinikanth movie, all you want is Rajinikanth. But all you see is Vaseegaran for the major part of the buildup to the climax of the movie. A dumb in appearance, acute in mind guy sporting a french beard, who is not at all Rajinic. There were little or no whistles when he came first on screen. That’s a dull intro, but any intro of any Rajini movie shatters one’s ear drums. It was for Chitti and 2.0 and the other Rajini that got whistles. Not some guy who codes and talks spiritual science. His whole character in 2.0 felt to me like a non-Rajinikanth role. Bring Chitti and 2.0 already man! Make them do something, why are you walking on fields and sitting inside a lab talking to insignificant role players?
TWO POINTS, OH!
Being dispassionate to a movie like this is hard. Be dispassionate it affects how one reviews it, and if one chooses to be passionate, it accentuates the movie. However, given the main element being entertainment in going to theaters, there’s some value to this, but that should have been more than what was given. I want to watch movies. I want to love it. So help me! Stick to the basics of films, get them convincing, then color them with your vivid vision and high budget visual effects.
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SPECIAL MENTION TO THE TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT! RAHMAN, RESUL, MUTHU AND EVERYBODY ELSE DO A FIVE OUT OF FIVE JOB, SO I ONLY THINK WHEN THE CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP HAS A FETTERING WAY TO NAVIGATE, ONE CAN’T BLAME THE REST OF HIS LOTS, WHO DO AS HE COMMANDS.
