Lingaa – Style Matters!

If ‘Kochadaiyaan’ is not considered as a ‘Thalaivar’ movie in it’s true sense, then it’s been a whopping 4 years since the mighty superstar has appeared in front of his loyal fan base in his ever charismatic avatar – ‘the do-gooder’ whom we’ve always adored as depicted in so many of his previous movies. The larger than life roles that he has enacted, his punch dialogs which literally became a part of our day-to-day lives, the subtle political inferences that are made in his movies that would keep the armchair political analysts and the political class at large wagging their tongue to make hay with the superstar’s shining glory and finally we get that ‘feel good’ factor after watching his films that is so uniquely tailored for him and his hardly earned charisma. His latest movie ‘Lingaa’ looked so promising on paper with bigwigs in all departments including the magician director, K.S.Ravikumar and the ace composer, A.R.Rahman. Did the movie live up to it’s expectations?

The not so special good vs. evil plot was made to look interesting with a well etched out flashback with Rajini donning dual roles. The story revolves around a dam that was built in the pre-independent era by Raja Lingeswaran (Rajini). A corrupt politician (Jagapathi Babu) wants to get the dam certified as  unfit so that he can get a renewal contract  and that gets foiled by Lingaa (also Rajini), the grandson of Raja Lingeswaran.

The problem with Lingaa is that the movie takes it sweet time to reveal the cliches and when it comes to the portions where it really matters the most and when it is really required to up the ante, it just rushes without a trace in order to compensate for the lost time. For instance, the climax was the most cliched and ineffective I’ve seen in recent times. Tamil audiences of today have started tasting subtle climaxes even in action thrillers without any extravagantly fought out stunts with brawns. So why take such a huge effort to make the already larger-than-life man look much larger (but they’ve actually ended up with the scene ending as a goof-up).

The initial portions of the movie were also a taken-for-granted ride where Rajini was made to look young and do things which youngsters of today may not enjoy. The characterization of Anushka was nothing worthy of mentioning, but that of Sonakshi in the flashback was somewhat fine tuned. She does attempt to express a bit. Santhaanam’s characterization was toned down and he had a limited space where he was not able to allow his comical liberties to flourish. Also it was sad to see an upcoming actor like Karunakaran in such a dumb role and his cool comic sense was merely wasted.

On deeper retrospection one can sense that the above mentioned issues with the movie is largely due to the fact that the script was solely written for the ‘Super Star’. To glorify him. To pronounce that he is the man of the masses. But no one needs to prove time and again that he is a superstar. He has proved it to the whole world umpteen number of times in the past and he would do so in the future, on and off screen. If this trend continues then the super-stardom would prove to be a rhetoric for the man himself. As a star Rajini had reached his peak long back. Now it’s time for him to evolve into a much more matured artist, dabbling with experimental roles - well, it can also be a doting father’s role, a wise uncle’s role, a treacherous villain, a strong supporting artist or even a hero who is aged. In his forthcoming movies if he plays his age, more than him the audience would be the most relieved lot. Believe me, it was really embarrassing to watch him romance two heroines who are half his age (the best thing is that he himself has admitted that romancing Sonakshi was embarrassing as she used to play with his daughters when they were kids).

He can even take cues from his counterpart in Bollywood - Amitabh Bachchan, who is having a ball, playing different roles and heartily satisfying himself with any role that comes his way. It’s time for the long-lost actor in Rajini to come to the limelight withering the super-stardom which is only preventing him from choosing what he would have liked to do. Whatever said and done, his inimitable style would stay on in whatever avatar he appears even in the future!

Rating: 2.5 / 5

Verdict: Watch it only for the ‘Thalaivar’ factor!