Finally after a prolonged wait, H Vinoth's "Jana Nayagan" has managed to obtain clearance from the censor board & hit the screens across the globe last week. Initially scheduled for release in January, Thalapathy had announced that this flick would mark the end of his career in movies as he decided to plunge into politics full time. Anyway the box office has gone gaga, but is the flick worth the hype???
As most of you will be aware, it is the remake of Anil Ravipudi's "Bhagavanth Kesari" or rather, the first half sticks to it before the latter half turns out to the political manifesto of Vijay's TVK. Interestingly, Vijay's character is named as 'Thalapathy Vetri Kondan' which is unabashedly shown as being tattooed as TVK in his forearm. It started off as a foster father-daughter relationship (Mamitha as Viji) before it took liberal diversions and ended up with Vijay the saviour for the masses.
On paper, Vinoth's screenplay might have sounded interesting as it touched upon various aspects such as girl empowerment, democracy, corruption etc. However, when he tried to execute it on screen, it seemed like a montage of various issues and that in turn took out the organic feel to it. It seemed like Vinoth referred to the TVK manifesto and put each point in it as a separate scene and made Vijay mouth dialogues that was either to boost his political image or to trounce the other parties. Another major flaw was the production quality which was pathetic to say the least as most of the sequences were shot in studios which was blatantly evident while the VFX was laughable at best. On the technical side, except for Anirudh's BGM, none of the other departments deserve a mention.
So was it a complete washout? I wouldnt say so, as Vijay did his part quite well and was adequately supported by Mamitha, who despite being side lined in the latter half was impressive in the action sequences. Pooja Hegde also had a legitimate role & did a decent job unlike the usual trend where actresses just walk in for a song and dance. Bobby Deol's character arc hardly made sense & his performance was quite rigid as well. There were a plethora of other artists as well who were average at best.
Verdict: If you ask me what was the best part of this movie, then it is undoubtedly Vijay who rocked & to add to the hype, the title card and end credits was both exciting and nostalgic. However, as a movie as such, it left a lot to be desired!!!
Rating: 1.5/5
Regards...Ben
