Sivaji: Movie Review

At a time when it is enough for the superstar to make a guest appearance in movies for it to run 800 days, comes this visual extravaganza by Shankar… something that a Rajni fan would literally die for. It is clearly not one of Shankar’s best stories, but given the tremendous amount of pressure of directing the Superstar and satisfying his fans, he has done a marvellous job. It is also clearly not one of Rajni’s best movies. I would still prefer his Basha, Padayappa etc. but they were of a different era altogether. When there was far less expectation from him. In fact, if Rajni had acted in Mudhalvan THAT would have been something out of the world. With the given script, Shankar has brought out ten times more than anyone can expect to get out of it. One small doubt… Why do they show black money to be possessed only by politicians, higher officials and businessmen and not by Cinema Actors and Actresses?

Rumors like the budget of the Sahara song being the entire budget of the movie Veyyil, are not hard to believe. The picturisation of the songs were one of the best ever in Indian Cinema and Vaji Vaji, Sahara and Athiradee make the movie worth watching again. If not for the songs, if not for the stunts (especially the car fight), if not for Rajni or Vivek, the movie is definitely worth watching for Shreya (…slurp). She’s one of India’s naturally beautiful actresses (unlike Asin who wears a ton of make-up) and definitely no other heroine would have suited better for the role (I mean songs). The money spent lavishly for the extravagant sets in the songs have been intelligently compensated for, in the heroine’s costumes. Generally when songs are picturised with foreign dancers, our heroine would be the worst in the group. But in Style song, Shreya makes India proud. Vivek does a wonderful job expressing no fear of acting with the Superstar. Usually when Vivek comes in all the scenes in a movie, the movie doesn’t do well in the Box Office. Sivaji will definitely break that curse. Shankar can never rest until he tries something new in all his movies. This time he has tried everything he can with Rajni, making him fair, shaving his head, made him dance, made him imitate other actors (too good), and even killed him in the story. The fair Rajni, though wasn’t better than the usual Superstar, was a different idea and worked out very well. But some people feel he looked like he was affected by leprosy.

One thing that Shankar has to be appreciated for, is that with Indian Cinema being ruled by Bollywood, he made the entire nation turn and take notice of our Cinema and actually made them feel jealous. Though I doubt if the movie would run for as many days as Chandramukhi, mainly because it has released in literally all the theatres in Tamil Nadu. When I went to Tirunalveli a few days back for a trip to Kutralam, all the small theatres in all the villages were running it with many shows not completely filling up. Usually Superhit movies release in fewer theatres so that people in remote places travel to see it even after many days.

It would be difficult for Rajni to act in any other movie after this, as no other director will be able to show him this young. Of course, maybe if you spend a sixty crore. This movie has definitely taken him to a different level. Rajni has proved once again with this movie that he will always be the reigning Badshah of Tamil Cinema forever. As for Shankar… Better luck next time.