As much as I enjoyed this movie, I still feel like this shouldn't have been a Kamal Haasan movie.
Kamal has had a string of great movies recently... With Unnaipol Oruvan; a dialogue-heavy movie where the conflict required no excessiveness, with Vishwaroopam; a movie while flawed, was ambitious enough to take Tamil cinema to a non-Tamil accustomed front, with Uttama Villain; one of Kamal Haasan's best movies to date that is one of the very few movies in this exaggerated industry to consciously portray cinema as an actual art form, with Papanasam; one of the most simplest, yet a brilliantly made thrillers, with Thoongavanam; a movie that seemed to rid itself of every cliche that plagues the Tamil cinema industry (this includes the runtime as well), and Vishwaroopam 2; well.... Vishwaroopam 2 never happened.
And after 4 years, we have a new Kamal Haasan movie; which while enjoyable by Tamil cinema standards, doesn't have the ambitions and the cinematic progressiveness that Kamal movies have had. It was very well written, especially in its first half, but ultimately ends up being a Tamil action movie and I need not asterisk anything. The energy of the movie never waned and while it did seem like the writers hyped the story into a cliche third act, the movie holds up well, very well in fact, in the entertainment box.
Overall, I'd rather have seen this movie with some other actor since I feel like this macho persona is best left for someone that is not Kamal Haasan... not that he's bad at it, he actually did a stellar job, but because as of right now, he's the only big name Tamil actor to push the boundaries of this cursed industry. The last thing I'd want from him is the usual Tamil archetype overpowered Super Saiyan freak that we've seen a million times.
Kamal has had a string of great movies recently... With Unnaipol Oruvan; a dialogue-heavy movie where the conflict required no excessiveness, with Vishwaroopam; a movie while flawed, was ambitious enough to take Tamil cinema to a non-Tamil accustomed front, with Uttama Villain; one of Kamal Haasan's best movies to date that is one of the very few movies in this exaggerated industry to consciously portray cinema as an actual art form, with Papanasam; one of the most simplest, yet a brilliantly made thrillers, with Thoongavanam; a movie that seemed to rid itself of every cliche that plagues the Tamil cinema industry (this includes the runtime as well), and Vishwaroopam 2; well.... Vishwaroopam 2 never happened.
And after 4 years, we have a new Kamal Haasan movie; which while enjoyable by Tamil cinema standards, doesn't have the ambitions and the cinematic progressiveness that Kamal movies have had. It was very well written, especially in its first half, but ultimately ends up being a Tamil action movie and I need not asterisk anything. The energy of the movie never waned and while it did seem like the writers hyped the story into a cliche third act, the movie holds up well, very well in fact, in the entertainment box.
Overall, I'd rather have seen this movie with some other actor since I feel like this macho persona is best left for someone that is not Kamal Haasan... not that he's bad at it, he actually did a stellar job, but because as of right now, he's the only big name Tamil actor to push the boundaries of this cursed industry. The last thing I'd want from him is the usual Tamil archetype overpowered Super Saiyan freak that we've seen a million times.