BIGIL (2019)
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| Critic - No.175 |
Produced by: Kalpathi S Aghoram, Kalpathi S Ganesh, Kalpathi S Suresh
Casts: Vijay, Nayanthara, Vivek, Yogi Babu, Jackie Shroff, Kathir
Language: Tamil
Music: A.R.Rahman
Genre: Action / Drama / Sports
SYNOPSIS:
A do-gooder don Rayappan (Vijay) wants his son, Michael a.k.a Bigil (Vijay) to uplift the life of his people by becoming a soccer champion, but fate draws the youngster into a life of violence. Situation brings him back to the track of soccer after 7 years and will Bigil manage to fulfill his father’s dream this time?
REVIEW:
After a dream run of churning two blockbusters with Vijay, Atlee has whipped up yet another masala flick which is perfect for the festive season and this time with more blatant social messages that are placed organically in the story. As the synopsis suggests, the first half of the film focusses more on the mass treatment with hero glorifying moments, hill old predictable ‘Baasha’ or ‘Mersal’ kind of flashbacks and fights that are crafted for Atlee to tick the wish list of Vijay fans. The romance portions with Nayanthara also looks forced and the couple even get a song for `just a sake.
As film was travelling in an unimaginative yet decently engaging first half, the writer Atlee overtakes during the second half where the film starts focusing on the different issues the women soccer team members are facing. The film has women being victims of acid attack, male chauvinistic ideology and even fat shaming. The dialogues of Atlee are razor sharp that keeps the messages of the film powerful despite the lack of in depth in the sports aspect. The choreography of the soccer matches are decently shot with of course ‘masala’ moments that are unrealistic but yet sinfully entertaining. The sports movie must-haves are present like the team in disarray cold shouldering of the new coach who is attempting to gain the respect of the team and the internal pointing fingers. If only Atlee had stayed consistent with the sports aspect of the film backed with solid research, it would have been a strong first Tamil star driven sports film.
Vijay definitely shines well as Bigil and his mastery of the body language of a soccer player (e.g. celebration, dribbles and kicks) are noteworthy. Even though Rayappan’s physical look is something different for Vijay, the character seems a little underdeveloped and melodramatic that might just need a whole new film to better explore and understand fully. Other than the soccer team girls (especially Indhuja, Varsha, Amritha and Indraja), other stars such as Nayanthara, Jackie Shroff, Kathir and Vivek appear in thinly written characters that don’t really add value to the film. Yogi Babu’s occasional witty one liners do evoke a few chuckles in the first half before he fades off in the second.
Technically, the film looks rich and fine with Muthuraj’s precise art direction and Vishnu’s polished cinematography aptly supporting this grand looking sports film. Verithanam can easily be the best looking Vijay intro song in his career. A.R.Rahman’s songs are perfectly placed (except Unnkaaga) with Singappenney and Mathare surely giving one the intended goose bumps.
In overall, Bigil is an expensive looking, colourful masala flick like Vijay-Atlee’s previous flicks, Theri and Mersal. Even though the film is excruciatingly long, running for almost 3 hours, Atlee seems like he has finally unleashed the writer in him (after Raja Rani) to take over with more mature handling of serious themes that gel naturally with his world of mass, something he staggered in his two previous flicks with Vijay. And it is always nice to see big stars taking a step back in the climax and letting the supporting characters take the lead with the main message echoing naturally. Bigil is one good example after Ajth's 'Nerkonda Paarvai' this year of using a strong star vehicle to reach out to a bigger crowd on serious issues.
VERDICT:
Bigil is a well made 'masala' sports flick that Atlee uses to drive away some serious themes of women empowerment through the overblown yet entertaining 'mass' world led by the charismatic star, Vijay.
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