A fortnight into 2020 & we had the first major release in the form of A R Murugadoss's "Darbar" which featured our Thalaiva. The Superstar is here to lighten up the Pongal celebrations & we can rest assured that he would certainly do that which the trailers also seemed to confirm. But from a personal point of view, I didnt quite find the trailer unique in the sense it is bindaas stuff but nothing that we haven't seen before. Anywaz I hoped that Murugadoss would be sensible enough to make utmost use of Thalaiva's stardom by inserting a credible story line. So is that what eventually happened???
On the behest of the Home Ministry, Aaditya Arunachalam IPS (Rajnikanth) was asked to flush out the Mumbai underworld scum. Being the upright officer that he was, he took up the challenge with a vengeance & dealt with the gangsters with an iron fist. As expected, this got him into trouble with the Human Right Commission but he ensured that they bent to his demands. Soon enough, he gets his hands on Ajay Malhotra (Prateik Babbar) who was the kingpin in the drugs & prostitution market. But his father, industrialist Vinod Malhotra's (Nawab Shah) influence meant that he didnt have to serve time in jail. To make matters worse, the Govt itself applied pressure on Aaditya to go easy on Ajay's case which the former refused to adhere to. So how does Aaditya manage to outsmart everyone???
A R Murugadoss has been in the industry for two decades now & has numerous hits to his name. However, he never had the opportunity to direct Thalaiva until "Darbar" came along which he himself had penned down. There is no doubt that the movie is a celebration of Thalaiva's style & stardom though not quite upto the level of "Petta". As far as the script is concerned, I certainly felt this was the weakest since "Linga". The scenes with his on-screen daughter Nivetha Thomas was endearing while the ones with Nayanthara felt unwanted. On the technical side, Santhosh Sivan was fantastic as usual with his cinematography while Anirudh churned out some chart busters. However, Sreekar Prasad ought to have trimmed many sequences.
Thalaiva was on song as the bad ass cop & was electrifying as usual. This was his first police officer role in 27 years since "Pandiyan" and hence it was refreshing to see him in that character. Nivetha Thomas has done a fine job, Suniel Shetty was ideal as the antagonist but he was barely used while Nayanthara was not even required. As for the rest of the cast, they did their parts aptly.
Verdict: About a week have passed since the movie has hit the screens & it has set the box office on fire with world wide gross collections close to 200 C. This is in addition to the 220 C that it garnered from its pre-release business. In effect, it has galloped away to a monstrous hit. There is no doubt that Thalaiva has rocked but I certainly felt Murugadoss barely gave much thought to the story line. Naturally the next question is, does a story line actually matter??? Hmm..I certainly believe so though when we see collections like these many might think otherwise. In short, there are lots to cheer if you are a Rajini fan!!!
Rating: 2.25/5
Regards...Ben
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