I enjoyed two viewings of the latest Kollywood Blockbuster ‘Kabali’ - FDFS and SDSS (acronyms for "First Day First Show" and "Second Day Second Show"). FDFS is understandable for having been a hardcore Die-hard Rajini fan all my life, I caught a late night flight from Hyderabad to see it with friends in a theater of absolutely electrifying and festival-like atmosphere in Chennai which stands unparalleled in this aspect to anywhere else in the world! But you may wonder why the second viewing? And my answer is - it was absolutely "sine qua non" to drown out the noise and hoopla that messes with your judgment on the first viewing, esp. for a Rajini (or Thalaivar as he is referred to by the Tamil masses) movie of this "hype magnitude"!
Now coming to the review itself. Being a Thalaivar film watcher from the 1990’s which became an
obsession from the 2000’s became, I have been fortunate to see the progression
of a Superstar into a Godlike persona of gargantuan magnitude. I have seen Thalaivar
movies of different genres and classifications. From a broad-brush split of
mass and class (mass being Baatcha, Padayappa, Sivaji and the likes) and class
being Johnny, Mullum Malarum, Thillu Mullu, etc.) Kabali falls exactly in the
middle! This should be deemed a directorial triumph on the part of
rookie-director Pa. Ranjith to create a movie that while being classy for the
most part also superbly caters to the mass instinct, appeal and
larger-than-life persona of Thalaivar to his billion fans. The movie seems to
have been staged with calibrated precision to extract the best out of the Super
Star! I find that many critics have rushed into critiquing this movie after one
viewing. I urge them to view it again because the second viewing will help,
as it helped me unravel the following.
1. That Pa. Ranjith is an extremely shrewd young
story-teller who actually stages his major scenes especially the songs and
action sequences with unbelievable visual precision. Each of the action
sequences starting from the fiery Kabali just out of Jail
pulverizing the Tony Lee underling to the climax action sequence when Thalaivar
walks away with a Kalashnikov on his shoulder on top of the Roof-top restaurant
with Petronas Towers and a sea of sky-scrapers providing a stunning background
have been staged in precision - with a clear beginning, middle and end. Not a
minute more, not a minute less! These action sequences are just precisely
controlled. This is as it should be in a classy gangster action movie. So the
complaint has been what about the intervening drama build-up that seems to lag?
Don't they create a ‘start, stop and start again’ feeling one maybe disposed to
ask? Well, to me, it appears that Ranjith wanted it exactly that way! He has
carefully infused those drama moments to show the softer, humane side of Thalaivar
and the winner in each of these scenes if of course the Superstar himself. When
is the last time we saw Thalaivar emoting with his eyes as much as he did in Kabali? The longing, the yearning, the love, the angst, and
many of the softer emotions have come flowing thru his eyes and the little
inflections have a tremor like impact! The net effect of such softer sequences
is the enhanced and brutal impact of the brilliantly choreographed action
sequences that come and go in staccato bursts!
2. The surge of characters and their exact contributions to
the movie - I can assure that my second viewing greatly helped in this respect
- I realized that each of these characters, while seemingly plentiful, has been
brilliantly thought-out and well fleshed-out as well. Take for example, the guy
who receives Thalaivar and his daughter from Chennai airport - here is a guy
who actually gets involved in the Kabali drama to the
extent that he almost loses his life in that hair-rising action sequence in the
Pondy guesthouse! The actor who did it is simply brilliant!
3. The third and most important revelation is that Kabali is after all, an out and out, director's movie! What a
refreshing change from the last few outings of the Superstar, where the stories
were woven to accommodate the Superstardom of Thalaivar! In Kabali,
it is clear, that Ranjith was the orchestrator and the Superstar himself
beautifully coalesced into the role of the Malaysian Gangster Kabali!
Ranjith hasn't compromised at all. In fact he even got away with a climax which
is suggestive of the end of Kabali, or is it? I've been a
movie-buff as long as I can remember... Tamil movies, Hindi movies, Bengali
Movies, Hollywood movies, World Cinema. It really didn't matter as long as I
was watching the moving celluloid images. And I can say with some confidence
that the technical aspects of this film were absolutely brilliant. The music
and background score of Santosh Narayanan should rank as one of the best in Thalaivar
movies for nearly two decades. The last time I was made to notice the BGM in a Thalaivar
movie was in Dhalapathi which was released a quarter century ago, when I was
still a toddler in nappies! SaNa (as he seems to be known) has come up with
stunning BGM and completely off-beat numbers that are already topping the
charts. My personal favorite is "Veera Thuranthara" - an eclectic mix
of neo-funk/rap that has been brilliantly used by Ranjith to show Thalaivar in
his 80’s look, the ride behind his friend Amir (with that nostalgic
"step-cut" hair) in that vintage bike was captivating! The camera
work was consistently brilliant with a bias towards the grandeur - the
cinematographer has used stunning pan-shots capturing the KL skyline and
nightlights as well as the verdant Malaysian estate grandeur with equal ease.
4. And finally, this review would be completely remiss not
to mention the towering screen presence, panache, and style quotient of Thalaivar.
Kudos to the costume designer and hair-dresser for such amazing work that shows
the Superstar in stunningly handsome looks scene after scene.
To sum it up, this movie is a downright winner and it is a shame that many reviewers have put on needlessly punctilious lenses for an out-and-out commercial entertainer. More shameful is the stream of social media messages that aim to portray the movie in poor light. Many of such reviews, memes and caricatures happen to be in Tamil this makes me recall the Superstar dialogue in the movie about the "Crab-story". Here is a Tamil movie that has soared to dizzy heights nationally and globally and there are people right here amongst our very own Tamilians, trying to bring it down with uncharitable and downright envious postings in the social media, many of them being grotesquely indecent.
But the wider national and global audience is wiser and I'm hearing that Kabali is doing earth-shattering business around the world. That's the way it should be. This is by far the best Thalaivar movie in a long long time!!!! Period.
To sum it up, this movie is a downright winner and it is a shame that many reviewers have put on needlessly punctilious lenses for an out-and-out commercial entertainer. More shameful is the stream of social media messages that aim to portray the movie in poor light. Many of such reviews, memes and caricatures happen to be in Tamil this makes me recall the Superstar dialogue in the movie about the "Crab-story". Here is a Tamil movie that has soared to dizzy heights nationally and globally and there are people right here amongst our very own Tamilians, trying to bring it down with uncharitable and downright envious postings in the social media, many of them being grotesquely indecent.
But the wider national and global audience is wiser and I'm hearing that Kabali is doing earth-shattering business around the world. That's the way it should be. This is by far the best Thalaivar movie in a long long time!!!! Period.
