Whenever a Diwali or Pongal comes along, we have the A lister movies hitting the screens hoping to cash in on the festive vibe. This time around it was Vijay & Karthi vying for the top honours with Lokesh & Atlee respectively. After I had watched Lokesh's highly commendable "Kaithi", it was time to shift attention to Atlee's "Bigil". As I had mentioned in my previous review, I did find the trailer pretty entertaining & was eagerly looking forward to it. The question is whether that expectation was a hoax like the Twitter #DhoniRetires???
Michael Rayappan (Vijay) is the leader of the masses who is based in a slum in Chennai. He was always at logger heads with a rival gang headed by Daniel (Daniel Balaji) as the latter repeatedly tried to endanger his life. One such attack resulted in his friend, Kathir (Kathir) getting paralyzed for a sustained period of time. Incidentally, he was also the coach of the Tamil Nadu women's football team & requests the Association to consider Michael as his replacement as he was a star player in his heydays before destiny charted a different path for him. But will Michael be able to gain the trust of the girls especially since they held him responsible for their coach's condition???
Atlee burst into the industry like a breath of fresh air with "Raja Rani", but since then I have found his movies to be pretty ordinary. Incidentally, all of those movies featured Vijay making this his third on the trot. This is undoubtedly the most mediocre among the lot, as I just couldn't understand whether he took any kind of effort to script this along with S Ramana Girivasan. There are surely whistle worthy scenes which would make the fans go gaga but they are far & few. The second half which is a packaged as an inferior cousin of "Chak De" among other inspirations, barely manage to keep us engaged. However, I do acknowledge the fact that they had tried to incorporate women empowerment into the proceedings & managed to succeed in it to a certain extent. If at all Atlee was sensible enough to trim down on the excess flab & made it into a full fledged meaningful sports drama, then this would have imparted a whole different viewing experience.
On the technical side, G K Vishnu visuals were fine though the manner in which game was shot left a lot to be desired. A R Rahman manages to lift the mood with his BGM & also with the 'Singapenney' track that he had rendered with Shashaa Tirupati. With an inconsequential script, there is precious little that Vijay could do but even then he does manage to carry the movie on the basis of his star value. As Michael he did his part aptly while as his father, Vijay's body language wasn't convincing in many sequences after all merely having a husky voice & dyed hair doesnt suffice. Nayanthara was ok though you cant help feel that she was wasted. As for the rest of the cast, Yogi Babu & Vivek tickles the funny bone while the rest were average.
Verdict: As expected, it had a bombastic opening at the box office & has closed in on the 150 C mark. But wihether it continue its march towards a blockbuster status remains to be seen. With regard to my opinion, I found it to be pretty mediocre & hope that Atlee makes a much more sensible movie with SRK, who is desperately trying to strike gold. In short, if you are a fan check it out or else dont bother!!!
Rating: 2/5
Regards...Ben
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