Normally I don’t catch festive release movies as soon as they come out. Just for the fact that I can’t hear any of the dialogues. I go to the movies to watch them in peace and appreciate the characters in it. But one lovely fan that I recently got acquainted with wanted me to watch this movie on the first day. So here I am…
Now where do I begin? Maybe I should start with saying that I sort of did like the movie. I did not expect to! It was a bit more cleaner than the previous movies from this director. Has he copied scenes from other movies? Yes! But he has managed to put his own style (I think) here and there. Which is something I appreciate. This guy is learning and thank god for that. He does not have unwanted, completely unrelated sob stories. I mean sob stories are there, but they are not unrelated. Are they necessary? The story would have moved even if that side story was not there. But it added to the tear quotient in the audience. So why not?
The story is pretty predictable on the whole. But I don’t have a problem with it. Not a lot of twists and turns. My biggest issue was the pace of the movie. It was very damn slow. The first half was especially dragging like hell. I mean no offence but how much backstory does one keep giving? Yes everyone has a backstory. We get it. You don’t have to show everything or tell everything. Sometimes less is more! It is okay if someone is from a completely normal family background and wants to do something amazing with their lives. Why should anyone who wants to be anyone always has to have a sob story? All of us go through some tragedy or hardship right. It is the norm of life. People who have normal parents and have had a normal childhood can also have big dreams.
Now let’s get to my favorites…
Vijay! This guy has some amazing screen presence and the director has made sure to highlight him throughout the movie. Almost as if giving him spotlight on stage. The stylish actor steals the whole movie. I love, love, loveddddd Rayappan role. The slow speaking elderly gangster dude is nice. I would befriend him if I ever met him somewhere. Now that is the kind of character I wish to see on screen. A character I look forward to meet in the real world. A man with a stutter whose eyes have silencing power amongst the enemies. Vijay is finally trying out roles that are not 20 something men achieving stuff! You go dude! Give us more such fun roles.
I had fun watching Anandraj. I have been a huge fan of his since his earlier years. He has done a role here and there that had some humour side to it. One I could remember is Raja Kaiya Vacha movie. And then he gave this re-entry with Naanum Rowdy Than pretty much taking everyone by surprise. I sort of thought he wasn’t used that much in this movie. He was just there. But hey, I still liked it. Along with Yogi Babu, Nayanthara has joined the comic relief patrol in the movie. I am not yet sure how I feel about her role. The song was dreamy though. I will give you that.
Atlee has a knack of showing colours and highlighting people in the midst of colours well. I do not know the technicality of it. But his songs all look worthy enough to be MTV album music videos (back when MTV was fun and played really nice songs) He is talented but he honestly needs a nice writer to strengthen his stories.
One thing I liked is how they handled the acid burn victim story. As in how they make her face her fear and her assaulter. Now that was a nice touch!
With that I have run out of stuff I liked in the movie. But the movie keeps going on and on. The football girls have way too much attitude to be honest. If this is your dream, won’t you try to put up with whatever coach they provide you and give it your best? What did your hardship ever teach you then? All those girls seemed a little too annoying for me. But that’s just me I guess. And then they put in these two victimized girls. One is physically harmed, one is emotionally harmed. I sort of liked them only.
And what is with the fat shaming? Honestly fat people are not strong. And thin people are not weak. The scene where the plumpy girl scores right from where she was standing reminded me of the scene in Enaku 20 Unaku 18 where bubbloo will score from his goal to the opposite one. Show me fat people who can’t pick up weights, show me thin people who can easily lift heavy objects or pack a powerful punch. Break the stereotypes man! I thanked the almighty god when the penalty shot came and one of the girls thought back about her family and how they crushed her dreams because they did not make her imagine them standing in front of the goal post blocking her like it was in Bend it like Beckam!
This isn’t a movie about women or women empowerment. It is a movie about a guy who is not able to accomplish his dreams directly so he tries his best to do it in some other way. I can see why a lot of feminists were pissed off with the whole dedicated to women thing. Please don’t present something with a bow which does not belong in it. Present it as it is. No harm in it.
But overall my biggest question is…. Why is he named bigil??????? Like he has a perfectly nice name right!