Jailer - Movie Review

Superstar Rajinikanth and Director Nelson join hands for the first time with Jailer. Nelson's last flick Beast with Vijay didn't live up to the expectations of trade. On the other side, Rajni is waiting for a proper hit of his calibre for long time. 

Story :- Mutthu (Rajni) is a retired Jailer who is very composed and leads a peaceful family man life. His son Arjun (Vasanth Ravi) who is an ACP is very sincere in his duty and is tracking a gang who are smuggling idols and jewellery of God. The Gand leader Varma (Vinayakan) wants to eliminate Arjun from his way. One day Arjun disappears suddenly and even the police department couldn't track. Mutthu is forced to bring out his old lifestyle to track about his son. Will he be able to find about his son? How does he handle Varma? Forms rest of the story. 

Performances :- Rajni is back. He is stylish, fierce, funny, and Uber cool. This plot is tailor made for him and he has nailed it. Right from costumes to his antics, he looked perfect. Though it's a mass film, there is scope for great acting and Rajni was spot on. He didn't overdo anywhere, nor he underplayed. He just delivered what's required. Vinayakan as main villain is very good. His acting, dialogues and costumes, were well designed. Vasanth Ravi, Ramya Krishna had limited roles and they did well. Yogi Babu & VTV Ganesh brings good laughs in 1st half. Cameos by Sivanna, Jackied Shroff and Mohanlal clicked well, especially during climax it took to next level. Sunil is okay. 

Technicians :- Anirudh was phenomenal. His background score took an good scene to mind boggling scene. Especially, the Hukum background score whenever and wherever it's placed, it worked superbly. He is the biggest asset. Any mass hero deserves such background score from Anirudh. Cinematography is very good keeping color tone very subtle yet effective. Costumes of All the cast was very well done. Nelson made a terrific comeback. He delivered what a Rajni fan has been asking for ages. At the same time, he pleased family audience equally, barring the violence scenes. 1st half of the movie is one of the best halves I've seen recently. It had all the elements, character establishment, conflict point, submissive and elevation. I don't remember the last time I enjoyed a 1st half of a movie so well. In terms of engaging and entertaining, 1st half is like an Rajamouli film or a KGF, and for sure it will attract repeat audiences. 2nd half of the move is dragged a bit, which is a let down considering a great 1st half. However, the climax is a relief again. 

Positives :-

Rajnikanth

Terrific 1st half

Mind blowing background score

Elevation scenes

Negatives :-

Dragged 2nd half

Summary :- Jailer is a Paisa vasool film that has to be watched in big screens. You would love Rajni in this and it's been ages since one experiences such kind of euphoria in a theatre. 

Rating :- 3.5/5 (Would strongly recommend to watch it in theatres)

Bhola Shankar - Movie Review

Chiru is riding high after the stupendous success of Waltair Veerayya which was kind of a comeback movie after Acharya. However, he chose a 2015 Tamil movie movie Vedalam for remake and he chose Meher Ramesh as director, who was famous for giving stupendous duds to star heroes like Shadow, Shakti, Etc.,

Story :- Shankar (Chiranjeevi) and Mahalakshmi (Keerthy Suresh) are brother and sister who shift to Kolkata for joining Mahalakshmi in college. Shankar takes up taxi driver job for livelihood. A notorious gang is kidnapping young girls and selling them to foreign buyers and there is a big network out there. Police seek assistance of the taxi and auto unions to track this network and Shankar gets a chance to do so. However, he doesn't inform the police and starts eliminating them on his own. Why does he take up the task on himself? What's his & Mahalakshmi 's past? Forms rest of the story.

Performances :- Chiranjeevi looked very stylish, his costumes were good, his comic timing is still intact. The grace in his dance is still the same, phenomenal. There is not even a dip in his energy in dances, Action sequences, comedy scenes. He gave his 100% and there's no doubt about that. Keerthy Suresh gets the meatier role after Chiru and she did good job. Tamannah looked great. There is huge casting in the movie, with almost a dozen of comedians. They were fine. Vennela Kishore was good, Annie master was most irritating. Villains set-up and cringe dialogues looked this was of 90's film. 

Technicians :- There are only very few good things about the film. Costumes, Action sequence in ship, a few good comedy dialogues. Songs are way way below Chiru's standards. It looks as if it's low budget movie songs. Even the background score is a letdown. Mahati Swara Sagar wasted a golden opportunity to move to the big league. Editing should have been crisper and should have chopped at least few fights or reduce the length of them. Same goes with age old comedy scenes of hero elevations and unnecessary build ups. We are in 2023, not in Indra days. Now coming to the famous Meher Ramesh, everyone knew what we are going to witness, the day when this film was announced. We were anticipating a Shakti or Shadow, and he has delivered better than that for sure, but it's of no use. It's still a damp squib. The story, narration, emotions and elevations, all are at least a couple of decades older. You can't expect to pull audience to theatres in OTT days, with such content. I guess Meher Ramesh has ruined his last chance as a director. 

Positives :-

Chiranjeevi

Negatives :-

Meher Ramesh

Poor story selection

Age old drama, comedy, action

Summary :- Considering the age and efforts Chiru puts in, he deserved a way better film. Meher Ramesh lived upto his expectations of delivering a sub-par film. This is the 2nd film after Komaram Puli, which I'm well prepared before getting into the theatre that it would be pathetic, considering the director's track record. This film won't pull audience had it been a 90's movie re-release.

Rating :- 2/5 (Boring to the core. Avoid it)

Whenever a Chiru movie fails, lot of comments start pouring that he is done, dusted or they would advise he should stop doing remakes. He proved everyone wrong everytime and for sure he will do it again and again. He scored blockbusters with remakes like Tagore, Shankar Dada MBBS, Khaidi No. 150. Due to the OTT platforms, people have better access to other language movies and the remakes are not an unknown territory now. That's the difference. If the content is good and modified as per current trend, for sure movie will click. Pointing at Vikram and Jailer, people have started advising Chiru to roles suitable to his age. Jailer is a hit after more than a decade for Rajni and same goes with Kamal's Vikram. Just because they scored 1 hit, people start advising Chiru to follow it. His core strength is dances, comedy and fights, so as long he has the ability and energy to do it, he better so such kind of movies only. Rajni's strength is style and dialogues, he is sticking to it. Kamal's strength is versatility and he is keeping up to it. Chiru is a megastar and you don't need to advise him what he has to do or how to do. At 68, he is doing 2 films a year consistently and is doing promotions with enthusiasm. There are lot of vultures who wait for Chiru and his family to fail since ages and they grab the opportunity everytime available. It's not vengeance or anything, it's just sadistic pleasure. The more you cry, the higher he grows.