Solid: Vijay, Pooja Hedge, Selvaraghavan, Aparna das, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Director: Nelson
A bunch of oddballs thrown in a dire scenario led by an over-smart operator — in brief, that is Nelson’s MO. In each Kolamavu Kokila with Nayanthara and Physician with Sivakarthikeyan, he pulled off absolute bangers with this format. Along with his newest outing Beast, he continues to stay to it. Or does he?
Beast is the story of a patriotic sociopath Veeraraghavan (Vijay) who leaves his day job as a RAW agent after a painful betrayal by the institution. With religion misplaced and psychological well being in disarray, he now lives in Chennai. He’s taken to a marriage by his shrink, the place he has a preposterous meet-cute with Preethi (Pooja Hedge whose job couldn’t have been less complicated), falls in love, finds a job in mall safety, and leads to a spot hijacked by Pakistani terrorists. How he fights the captors, rescues the hostages, saves the day and likewise redeems himself makes the remainder of the movie.
Nelson wastes no time in introducing us to Veeraraghavan. We nearly instantly be taught that he’s a sensible cookie, treasured asset, coronary heart of gold, however with a worrying tendency to go rogue. AnbAriv phases the motion sequences with model and element that really elevates the star automobile. Vijay, for his half, is nimble on his ft, the actions and the touchdown inch-perfect. Manoj Paramahamsa captures the motion gently, with out pointless fanfare with the digicam. The writing of a very powerful incident, the betrayal, is slightly pedestrian. And Vijay’s efficiency on this scene is barely sufficient. However it works. In essence, the prologue is environment friendly.
That is additionally why the scenes that comply with are a take a look at of endurance. The dialog with the psychiatrist is a joke — not the nice form. The implication that decision can solely come from redemption defeats the very goal of admitting psychological well being points within the first place. The interplay between Veeraraghavan and Preethi is basic Tamil cinema bagasse. The ageist jokes about safety firms solely work sporadically. Nelson hurries via these sequences, thank god. Else, the restlessness to get to the purpose would have wiped out the viewers.
When the motion actually begins, when the terrorists shut down the mall and take individuals hostage, we count on that the fluff is over and the movie will come alive. It considerably does, however what we get is a lumpy Nelson-lite. The movie is so obsessive about Veeraraghavan’s bigger than life “Indian James Bond” picture that it eats into the motley-group-of-misfits MO that Nelson has created for himself.
Pooja Hegde’s Preethi has no persona of her personal, her existence is merely a method to an finish — bringing Veeraraghavan to the mall. Sunil Reddy and Shiva Arvind, who have been terrific because the native rowdy and sidekick in Physician, are ineffective. Yogi Babu and Redin Kingsley come, try to go. Satish as Preethi’s smitten fiancé is neither irritating nor humorous, no character needs to be so bland as to evoke no emotion from the viewers! VTV Ganesh appears to have gotten the higher deal, but largely underwhelming as a personality.
Selvaraghavan tries his finest to convey a dry cynicism to Althaf, the deputy safety advisor accountable for dealing with the hijack. However the writing fails him a lot, decreasing his existence to spewing pointless build-up for Veeraraghavan, nearly harking back to Vivek Oberoi’s character in Vivegam. The villains are lame, by no means posing any actual menace — at one level, they’re so simply fooled by Veeraraghavan’s lies that I discovered myself asking “yarra nee?” This makes the standoff weightless and the payoffs joyless.
This uncharacteristic light-handedness is in how Veeraraghavan is written too. The enjoyment of Nelson’s earlier work, Kolamavu Kokila and Physician was in not realizing how far the hero will go and what they’re actually able to. The disproportionate dialogue-level build-up for Veeraraghavan violently scratches out any factor of shock — we all know that he’s going to tie up totally grown adults along with his naked arms and carry them like a duffle bag (or ‘aamai’ because the movie describes it).
Additionally Learn: Vijay Is Tremendous-Chill In An Uncomplicated, Jolly Motion Comedy Beast The place The Stakes Don’t Matter At All
With the writing not powering the movie because it ought to, Beast depends nearly totally on its stunts and set items. They work and the way! The interval block automotive chase is pleasant. Sparks fly, each actually and figuratively, in each gunfight. Vijay is in high kind skating, driving, leaping and flying via an area as confined as a mall. The slow-mos, as repetitive as they appear, are a fan feast. If the vitality isn’t already pumped, composer Anirudh brings every thing he has acquired to the background rating to up the ante.
For a Vijay movie — in case your scale is let’s say, Bairavaa or Bigil — Beast is an absurdly entertaining movie. It appears to be like, sounds and behaves like a well-done motion film. The unbelievable continues to be palatable. On the finish of the movie and its musical epilogue, you wouldn’t go away unhappy.
For a Nelson movie, although, Beast is a step-down. From the very starting, it sheds its quirky Nelson-ness for genre-conformation. It turns into slightly peculiar fairly quickly. It takes a textbook method to setups and callbacks. It follows an apparent Vijay movie template in political dialogues and self-references. It disproportionately worships its hero.
That is maybe the start of the mainstreaming of Nelson. I, for one, am extra nervous for the trail that is taking.
