Remaking a remake. Review on Billa Movie

Seeing that a movie has attained a superhit status, makes other directors and producers want to toe that line and earn a quick buck. So following the 1978 box office hit Don starring Amitabh Bachchan, came the 1980 film Billa, starring Rajnikanth. Both movies did well even though the latter was a frame-by-frame copy of the former. But down south, Hindi is just as foreign as Greek/Latin.

Billa(2007) starring Ajith Kumar, hit the screens amidst a lot of curiosity and expectations. Taking the movie international, the movie of yesteryears has been modified to suit the new generation. Fast cars, automatic guns, exotic outdoors, things have all changed. But does the film do justice? Can it meet up with the standards set by the original(technically not one, but let’s not be finicky here)?

*.: The Story:.

Faithful to its 1980 version, the director(Vishnu Vardhan) has decided not to experiment with major changes in the script. Billa(Ajith Kumar) is a underworld leader who is involved in gun running, drugs and is so high up on the most wanted list that DSP Jaiprakash(Prabhu) has been flown all the way from Chennai to catch Billa alive to obtain more information about Jagdish, the mastermind behind all these criminal activities. Billa kills Rakesh, and this eventually leads to his sister Sasha(Nayanthara) conspiring to kill Billa.

In a high speed chase, Billa is injured and hides in DSP Jai’s car. In a classic example of Newton’s first law, DSP brakes his speeding car(after buckling himself up, ofcourse) and the already wounded Billa is thrown out of the car and succumbs to his injuries. Billa is dead, but the DSP’s job is far from complete. In a highly secretive operation(known just to him), he ropes in Velu(Ajith Kumar, in a double role), a small time pickpocket thief, to play the role of Billa. After intensive training in a warehouse, Velu transforms to Billa. Billa is caught by the police and while being transported, he is rescued by his gang lead by Sasha.

Claiming to be suffering from short term amnesia, Velu now learns everything about the gang and informs Jai periodically. A pen drive containing all contact details in the underworld is also handed over to the DSP by Velu. In a raid that would have rounded up the entire mafia gang, things go wrong as an unknown person shoots the DSP and he dies. Velu is caught by the police and he has no proof of his identity. Gokulnath(the Interpol officer) assisting the DSP believes in Velu and goes in search of the Pen Drive. Velu comes to know that Jagdish is infact Gokulnath and now has to prove himself innocent with the help of the local cop Anil(Aditya).

No Tamil movie is complete without a last minute kidnap by the villan and the hero rushing to save his beloved ones even at the cost of losing everything else that he so carefully and meticulously worked for. In Billa we have Velu fighting for Sasha and Karan, an orphan who Velu has taken care of since his parent’s death. Finally the cops catch up with Gokulnath a.k.a. Jagdish and kill him.

*.: The Review:.

There are some great shots in the movie and the touch of Hollywood is difficult to overlook. Right from the car chases to stunts like the one where Nayanthara jumps of the building, the direction is slick. The comedy track(featuring Santhanam of the Lollu Sabha fame) is a miniscule one, but brings down the house(Santhanam [to Prabhu]: “Neenga munadiye vandurdeenga na, ungaluku Puli veesham poturkalam”.(After seeing the looks on Ajith’s face), “Yen, Puliyar vesham potirkalama?”).

Namitha’s role as C.J. could have been omitted and no-one would have missed it. Her item-number, apparently to remind Billa of his old days, is the time you can go out for grabbing that pop-corn or visiting the over-crowded-in-the-interval restrooms. Nayanthara has transformed to a character similar to Lara Croft, complete with the gun straps at the thighs. Unfortunately, she does not look the part and it clearly shows that the director has taken his fixation for Hollywood too far.

Ajith clearly looks the part of an underworld don and does justice to the role. He carries his stunts well and shows a marked difference in style as Billa and as Velu. The title song has been badly assaulted by the music director(Yuvanshankar Raja) and is also skippable. Comparisons are hard to avoid and there is a wide chasm between how one Shankar(Mahadevan) and another(Yuvan) have handled the remake’s songs. Don has some good music that is in line with the movie’s 2007 avatar, but the same is not true of Billa. Some songs just jump out in the middle of the story(like the one with Namitha).

What would you do if Nayanthara had her gun to your head and you had a gun aimed for head? Would you escape death if you shot? It is almost certain that you will survive, for a finger at the trigger is faster than a finger near one.(See my product picture)

Should you go and watch it? I would say, wait for the DVD. It’s cheaper and you can fast forward all those unnecessary scenes.