I (Beauty) - A Beastly Mess!

A wine tastes better as it ages. Likewise auteurs like Shankar who are known for their extravaganza and have got a cult following, are also expected to deliver better films as they mature, not only because they can, but because they have the ability to connect with the audience's pulse and that's the sole reason why, he is, what he is today. But sometimes the crowned glory gets the better of an auteur and acts adversely. That seems to be the case with Shankar too in the case of 'I', the much hyped extravaganza that has hit screens after his last release 'Nanban', exactly 3 years back, which also released on a Pongal season.

The film has a very cliched plot and the director has tried to spin "Dr.Jekyll" kind of a story in it with typical Shankar ingredients like larger than life action, colorfully shot songs that look like music videos and some shoddily done graphics. I don't want to comment any further on the plot as I feel that there is very little to give away!

One of the biggest troubles with this movie is its length - a whopping 189 minutes. I'm sure this will get trimmed in the coming days, but Shankar should have curtailed his elaborations that felt unnecessary in so many scenes. But even then I feel that the film wouldn't have come across any better because there were far too many plot holes which were left unplugged.

The efforts spent in making such a movie at such a mammoth scale with extravagant production values is certainly laudable because it takes immense discipline in executing the production aspects, no matter how lavishly the producer is ready to spend. But how it gets transformed into the final product depends entirely on the director's vision. That's what seems to be the problem. With a very complacent and dry piece of writing, the film wobbles heavily, resting solely on Shankar's gimmicky toppings and Vikram's humongous efforts to sink into the character of 'Lingesan', the body builder - but that proves to be too brittle and very little to hold on.

I was also really surprised to see such dumb villains in a Shankar movie. They can be easily dismissed as caricaturish creatures who don't seem to have any goal in life but to bring down the protagonist. Even if that is the case with most movies, we shouldnt feel that that is the case. Their anger is premature and childish, thus the superbly choreographed action sequences with special effects prove to be such a bummer for the audiences. Also the way in which they get punished, the revenge saga seems to be taken for granted and proves to be too easy for the protagonist. Disappointing.

One of the few reliefs were Amy Jackson, who was eye candy and Santhaanam. Amy's lip sync seems to go off board at times as expected as she tries hard to wrap around her lips with Chennai Tamil slang. Santhaanam tries hard with his power star combination initially and later solely bears the cross in an amateurishly written supporting role.

With a UA certificate for it's little violence and immaculately disfigured characters, this movie might have a hard time to sustain at the box office even for the next few weeks. As mouthed by various characters in the movie at various points, we are expecting something more substantial from the ace film maker - "adhukum mela"!

Verdict: Below average

Rating: 2 / 5 (largely for the effort)