Sunday, June 17, 2007

Sivaji - the "boss" is back!!

Just got back from watching Sivaji - and I must say that the "too-much" hype leaves the feeling that the movie should have been a bit better...

First things first - Rajni is back with full vigour and looking several years younger thanks to some "cool" costumes and makeup - Shankar sticks to his usual formula - though the main theme this time is black money and corruption...

I wont bother with writing the story here because either you already know it or you dont want to know it - (u dont care/u wanna see it live in a theatre).. The film starts with what is a feeble introduction by Rajni's standards and then continues along very light lines..

The entire first half is a fun-riot, nothing really serious happening - with just the establishment of the characters and their relations - Vivek is quite equal to Rajni here playing his "mama" and they evoke quite a few laughs..

Then, tragedy falls just before the interval - after this the Rajni "formula" starts and the adrenaline rush never stops till the very end - with the "motta" MGR finishing things off!!

The fights are way better than "Chandramuki" but still the intermediate scene where Rajni bashes up some 20-30 people doesnt always look too good - the opening "comic" fight though is a classic!

The songs are all good and well-shot - a couple are really fun too - but they inevitably act as speed-breakers - they hold you attention by their sheer lavishness but I dont think - but if you have already seen the songs then you will feel irritated when the break the swiftly moving movie..

Shreya has a pretty good role considering this is a "superstar" movie - but still she is involved only in the songs and in the scenes which set up these songs primarily - she looks good and does her part well - All the other characters are adequate - Suman as the villain looked like a good concept - the underplayed bigshot - but I had the feeling that casting such an unknown here reduced the effect quite a bit - imagine if one of the long list of actors who refused to do this role actually accepted!!

The overall script is good - esp the comic parts - but there are some unbelievable things too - like when Shreya saves Rajni, the way the entire legislative-judiciary system seems to work and so on..

I think you have noticed by now from my writing that my overall impression was that this was a pretty good movie but there are some minuses which stop it from being the "great" movie expected from the stellar team working on it..

Rajni fans - they will surely enjoy this one - even though the "glorification" is not that continuous ; Others - can see it once too - its quite an entertainer!!

Score : 70 (Would have been a lot lesser if not for Rajni!)

PS : BTW, Pirates 3 too didnt meet my expectations - too little Jack, totally unnecessary story complications and leeeeeength bog down what should have been a great movie. Score : 64