Vijay carries the film on his shoulder
Quantifying the ambition that the film’s title spells out counts as a difficult question. Superstar Vijay, as he wished, was not challenged. He tries his best to embody what his fans believe him to be and manages to land on his feet at the end of the formulaic practice.
Vijay dives into the project in the dual role of father and son The greatest everPatchy at best on his shoulders. He navigates the inevitable obstacles in over-plotted films with traditional flair, if not with consistent success.
Director and co-writer Venkat Prabhu weaves the film around the semi-retirement leitmotif that Vijay has employed in some of his recent releases (the beast, lion). The hero emerges from years of living in the shadows and returns to the thick of the action.
A bunch of deadpan throwbacks to the megastar’s own films and stray nods to other Tamil movies and songs that place him in the larger context of mass cinema history, The greatest ever Perhaps Vijay has a meta-illusion of the imminent end of his acting career in preparation for plunging into full-time politics.
The greatest ever Vijay looks to extend his unbroken run of box-office successes – a string of nine blockbusters making him the most bankable actor in Indian cinema. The film has everything that his fans desire. What can be done with it is a more basic script.
The film grapples with themes that have been done to death – friendship, loyalty, betrayal, guilt and redemption – and builds to a long-drawn climax that pits the actor’s two personalities against each other. Outside the parameters of fictional narratives, one can interpret a conflict between a past generation and an age carrying a baggage that blurs the lines between good and evil, between a sense of duty and the need for self-preservation and vengeance.
Vijay plays MS Gandhi – note that the initials are MS, not MK. Dhoni’s parallel comes to the fore in the film’s climax, which coincides with the make-or-break final over of an Indian Premier League knockout match in a packed-to-the-rafter Chepak.
Gandhi – peace not his primary weapon, righteousness is – leads a quartet of undercover agents who work for RAW’s Chennai-based unit Special Anti-Terror Squad (SATS). He is the MSD of Indian espionage – a great finisher no matter how bad he starts.
The same is true for films. The greatest ever Opens with a bang alright but the rest of the first half loses its way a bit as it tries to strike a balance between the hero’s inherent war and family responsibilities.
As he himself suggests, he has two bosses, one at work, the rock-steady SATS head Nazir (Jayram), and another at home, his wife Anusuya (Sneha). He gets into more trouble with the latter than the former.
After several important revelations and a series of assassinations by a duplicitous youth from Gandhi’s past, The greatest ever This leads to an unoriginal ending that is somewhat redeemed by the flair with which it is mounted and filmed. Cinematographer Siddharth Nooney and editors and Venkat Rajen deserve a mention here.
A devastating bomb blast is just a button click away. Gandhi, trained to never waver, is determined to demonstrate that to the GOAT. He swung into action as thousands of innocent lives hung in the balance.
The team – working with Gandhi Kalyan Sundaram (Prabhu Deva), Sunil Thiagarajan (Prasanth) and Ajay (Ajmal Amir) – is sent on a sensitive mission to Kenya. They derail a train carrying weapons-grade uranium meant for a terrorist group. In the heat of the moment, they outlast their brevity.
The ill-advised overreach – which does not yield the desired results – haunts Gandhi, his wife and their five-year-old son Jeevan (Akhil) – and his SATS associates. In the lead up to the break, Gandhi and his boss get into a violent confrontation with a man who hides his face behind a crash helmet with ‘Devil’ written under the visor.
its residue The greatest ever A renegade secret agent (who has a giant ax to grind and unleashes endless bedlam) and various other traitors and scoundrels who push the hero and his men to the end of their tether.
The film is a touch tiresome at times as it is overlong. However, action sequences and plot twists are judiciously spaced throughout the three-hour runtime. So, none of them are out of place. If one can say the same about the songs (composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja). They not only slow down the film but stretch it unnecessarily.
The director, on his part, seems aware of the impact that musical numbers can have on the pace of a film. In a sequence that follows the cold-blooded murder of a government official, the criminal uses his romantic interest (Meenakshi Chowdhury) as a means to shake off the pursuer. This is why you called me here, asked the lady. No, (I called you here) for a song, replies the man.
In this type of thriller, action is the main currency. Not every song is music to the ears. Likewise, not every attempt to inject humor into the film’s proceedings pays off.
Yogi Babu is cast as a man who has a stolen mobile phone which contains important secrets. Taken from the names of the protagonists, Nehru and Bose are evoked by sub-plots to stretch the film which doesn’t quite add up.
Vijay, by creating two distinct characters, one gray and steely, the other black and restless, and both bearing the scars of past events, makes up for what the film lacks in logic and flow.
It’s a rescue he’s pulled off so many times this millennium that it’s stopped surprising his critics. His fans will surely find no reason to feel shortchanged with Kis The greatest ever In generous proportions.
