No disrespect to Kamal, he is a great actor, one of the greatest ever. But this movie, could’ve been made better by paying attention to details. Graphics is definitely better than his last attempt, Dasavatharam (https://govindanpotti.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/dasavatharam-sheer-wastage-of-3-hours ) . But both these movies together smashed down the expectations on Kamal as a director (for a lot of serious cinema viewers). I would’ve liked this movie if I looked at it just from an entertainment stand point, without opening my eyes to any international movies, war movies etc.
If you are planning to watch this movie, I recommend not to read further, I’m planning to do a write up which could contain spoilers. If you already watched it, please read and find if I make sense.
The opening song sequence itself was prolonged to an extent where I was looking at my watch to see when its going to end.[ The song was “inspired” or “influenced” by ‘Madhuvan me radhika nache re’ I guess – that’s not a bad thing, just mentioned on the flow. ] He has done the feminine character well, but then even Dileep had done it. So I believe its not a hard thing to do. But its very predictable in the beginning itself that Kamal’s character is just acting so.
The way Vis gets into trouble and gets into the hands of the terrorists doesn’t really conform to the way the character’s mightiness/intellectual is portrayed. If he is a guy who can even place bugs literally everywhere it shouldn’t be very easy for an amateur private detective (who is portrayed like a joker) to easily spot him doing Namas and then report it to his wife, especially when he knows that his wife has appointed a detective who is always following him. Makes no sense.
It would’ve been easy to fight a group of 4-5 people at his home when he and his wife are being captured than waiting till they are being taken into custody in a warehouse full of people.The initial fighting sequence has been done well technically but its mainly just from the commercial perspective. Unnecessary replays are an overkill.
I don’t know if its just me, but the character played by Rahul Bose is a failure, with his funny look and funny ways. I was a big fan of him, his movies like Mr n Mrs Iyer, Mumbai Matinee, Jhankar Beats etc. But this one, a definite turn off.
Positives – the gore, yeah good to see. Shot on the head, flying limbs, definitely done well. Come on we are in 2013, these techniques were incorporated in world movies since time immemorial, we are yet to catch up.
Coming to the flash back part – what sense does it make to believe that Taliban bigshot is recruiting people who can talk Tamil not Arabic. Funny ain’t it? Well, thinking of Dasavatharam, where it showed the meetings taking place in Tamil in a US board, this is acceptable, to see Taliban big shot Umar talking in Tamil and recruiting people with Tamil knowledge.
War scenes could’ve done better by focusing on some details. The scenes of shots fired from chopper failed big time. Some helicopters scenes are done only semi-professionally, could’ve made better easily. I’m a huge fan of war movies. The war/shooting scenes cannot even be compared to any of the good war movies that I know of. May be we can do a comparison with Mr Major Ravi’s war scenes and feel better.
Positives – the location shown is really good. Read wiki to find some sets were done in Chennai also. A hanging scene is done well. Carcass scenes, good job, but again, overkill. There is one scene in which Rahul Bose blindfold his son and makes him guess the gauge of bullets, some messenger interrupts him and Omar (Rahul Bose) leaves the son with the blindfold on. That kind of passes a message – intentionally or not.
The whole climax sequence is messed up. Too much pressure has gone in to make it a commercial type. Evident in each frame. Dr. Nirupama is unnecessarily becoming part of the swat team tracking down the Nigerian who is about to blow up the atomic weapon. In any angle, it is highly nonsensical that she got included in the team and to cover it up, she is given the chance to talk about Faraday shield. That character kept reminding me of the nagging Asin in Dasavatharam and last Faraday shield twist was more like the NACL/Tsunami bull crap in that same movie.
Now coming to the hype part – what is so provoking in this movie as to have caused a ban? I don’t get it. We had already seen too many Taliban atrocity videos where in they kill, decapitate, blow up into smithereens. It doesn’t take anybody much time to go to the internet and browse to see such original videos. But then, that’s not to be generalized as the action of a religion as a whole, its the action of a faction, an extreme one. I strongly believe that all the ban etc chaos was caused by brains behind the marketing team. Well, it worked. Period.
Note: I’m also a Kamal fan, please bear that in mind, if you intend to post comments. This blog is just to express my views on this particular movie. This is not against Kamal or his fans or his movies. Hate speech wouldn’t be tolerated. With that said, I’m winding up.
Aftermath 