Jul 13, 2007 11:09 AM
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The scribble that follows is not a review of the film; it is just a mere outcome of my disappointment with the film
Story Outline:
An NRI returns to India with a lofty goal of setting up infrastructure that will provide free education and medical services to every Indian. He puts his savings of 20 years on the line to realize this goal. The first half of the story deals with how he tries to get closer to the goal in the "Indian" way and fails, and the second half with how he does the same in the "Sivaji" way and succeeds.
My story about the story:
I wish the story looked as gripping on the celluloid as it must have looked on paper. I felt, somewhere and somehow, screenplay managed to kill the script. In executing the script, Sankar has overdone all that he is good/fabulous/fantastic at, a lot of times doing away with way too much than is required. It is like a gold bait that gets no fish. I would rather have an ordinary bait and have fun fishing.
Sometimes, less is more
As appealing as the concept of the story is, more than once the pace is interrupted by songs, and sadly by the grandeur of them! May be it is a too-MUCH-spoil-the-broth kind. Why picturize three songs that weigh equal on scales of grandeur, costumes, richness and choreography? I would have loved to watch just one of those songs and be left with wanting for more(like in Bharateeyidu/Indian). Afterall, an icing on the cake should never BE the cake. And a word about choreography, it was bland, euphemistically speaking.
Choice of male lead?
I know this heading has no place for Rajni's films. Afterall, he always does justice to the roles he plays. With all due respect to his acting prowess and style, there were times during the movie that I felt Rajni was not fitting the role very well. Or was it the other way round - was the characterization not done in a way that befits Rajni? But then, with Arjun cast in Oke Okkadu and Kamal Haasan in Indian, I guess Sankar was left with Rajni, who is of the same calibre as the aforementioned actors. But, anyday, either of the former two would have fit Sivaji's role better than Rajini, given the way the role was executed on screen, involving lots of action.
Music?
One other heading which cannot claim a place in reviews about music that has anything do with A.R. Rehman. The background music and other non-vocal(I hope this is not the professional term used to mean what I meant) bits are good, but the songs failed to make any impression on me, whatsoever. More than once during the songs, I checked if I was getting too confounded by the grandeur of the songs and thus not letting the music make its impression on me. I closed my eyes to "feel" the music, but felt nothing, except for an increasing impending need for the song to end(guess it was way too painful to acknowledge the fact that ARR's music was not making any impression on me).
Brainy or Brawny?
Either make a KRISSH or a Rang De Basanti, I don't think the combination works too well. The former has to do with brawn(translates to lots of action which in turn translates to tonnes of graphics), and the latter with brains(translates to an intelligent script and the execution of it). And mixing the two - brain and brawn - in superlative amounts unfortunately takes the mix that far from reality. I felt Sivaji fell into this category, lots of times making itself far from plausible and thus losing its grip on the audience. Afterall being an NRI does justify 250 crores of savings, but can that really justify possessing superpowers?(there was this action sequence which reminded me of Hrithik in Krissh, but then the guy HAD superpowers)
May be I am all wrong in my scribble. May be I just have to blame the exorbitant expectations Sivaji had set for me, thanks to the inundating trailers on TV and the "exclusive news" channels going out of their way to do 30 minute programmes about the movie. May be I should have just shut up knowing I will be swimming against the current. Pchhh!
