The much-awaited high-budget movie having Ilayathapathy Vijay has finally released after a hiccup in the morning due to financial reasons. This is definitely a magnum-opus with the budget, scale and the cast too. The movie has two big stars. The second being Sridevi, who marks a comeback with this film. Another interesting part is its genre – i.e fantasy and adventure together. All these factors makes one curious to watch this film.
Vijay appears in a double role. The movie is initially set in present and then the hero does a time-travel to the past. The past is set in the time of kingdoms, princes and warriors. What compels him to go the past, and what are the scenarios he comes across is the rest of the film. The movie story, if unveiled, will leak lot of key scenes and will spoil the fun. So the analysis will be devoid of any spoilers.
First things first, the efforts of making the film shall be appreciated for attempting such a project like this. Moreover, there is a comedy element too and not purely based on war and emotion. So, the comparisons that are being made with Bahubali may not be appropriate. However, the same bunch of people who were behind the VFX of Bahubali , have contributed to Puli too.
The very concept at a skeleton level for this movie looks interesting. However Chimbudevan partially messed up with the screenplay. The first half is interesting only in parts. Moreover, the comedy that has been written is pretty bad. The jokes are so forced and hardly evoke any laughter. It’s the second half that does slightly better. The climax ends with the touch of mass. The writer and director – Chimbudevan definitely tried something different, but it was not exciting enough. A couple of scenes will be enjoyed by the children thoroughly. Well, it’s a movie that probably is confused what to deliver. It tried to be a mass film. It tries to be a comedy.
It tries to be a kids favorite to. Well, in the attempt to impress all ages and sections equally, the film ends up being Jack of all trades and master of none.
Vijay has a great screen presence. His dances and his heroic body language help the movie to an extent. He was comfortable and apt in both the roles. He played the savior roll well. Coming to Sruthi Hassan, she is gradually moving to another level, in terms of the skin show. Her midriff and the cleavage took the responsibility for acting on her behalf. Sad to see a talent like her doing such roles and dancing to awkwardly skimpy outfits in some awful songs. Oh, yes, the songs and the background score are so mediocre. Devi Sri Prasad’s work in this film added to the list of what went totally against the movie. A crucial job gone wrong. Not sure if fault is his or the director’s selecting capabilities of tracks. Sridevi is an evergreen icon. If it’s just the scale and the genre that motivated her making a comeback through Puli, then her judging skills should be pitied. A bad judgement after all in Tamil, that too when she chose a fantastic film like ‘English Vinglish’ for her Hindi comeback. Sudeep was good, as usual.
All in all, the film caters neither to children nor adults. Except few parts, the film suffers big time due to the lack of clarity in director’s vision with respect to the audience.
