Beast Review: Meaner, Leaner, Weaker, Can You Make It Any Worser?
Nelson Dilipkumar’s Vijay-starrer BEAST starts off in a literal Beast mode where we see Veeraraghavan (Vijay), a well-informed and well-resourced Indian RAW agent, cleaning up the terrorists holed up in a mansion like a pack of cards.
We see some exceptional action choreography and stunt sequences during this stretch where we see Veeraraghavan slaying the terrorists, literally.
There were numerous instances where we sit in awe of the brilliant stunt choreography, and what better than our own Thalapathy to be at the helm of it, jumping and swaying from one end of the building to the other, handling the guns and knifes like a pair of bamboo sticks.
I quite liked how the movie did not have a “special” introduction scene to the star, which registered the fact that this wasn’t a usual Vijay movie that we are going to witness. This introduction setup was like a Bond character introduction where we see a one-man show kind of a sequence. Incidentally, Veera gets called the Indian James Bond. The movie then moves to a mall in Chennai being taken control by the terrorists, and we see a reluctant (PTSD suffering) Veera agreeing to help the Indian Government on one condition.
I loved the premise that shows the root cause for Veera’s PTSD where a small girl is considered to be just collateral damage by the agency for an ongoing operation but how it turns out to be a huge loss for the girl’s family. This is a great plotline for a movie of such tonality, an angle from which we do not see terrorism much and how it actually affects even the people involved in it. That’s how the movie started off, in fact, but once the mall hijack was set up, this potentially better plot was let loose.
The movie starts showing signs of feebleness during the mall hijack as it takes longer to set things up, but during this setup, we at least see the Nelson-esque comedy with VTV Ganesh in top form.
VTV Ganesh’s one-liners are rollicking, it reminded me of his performance in Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya. Selvaraghavan‘s Altaf was indeed a different one, his voice and his mannerism perfectly suited the sarcasm. The restricted comedy from Yogi Babu and Redin Kingsley was terrific but needed a lot more from all of them together. There was a brilliant opportunity to do a comedy of errors kind of a thing here, something along the lines of what we saw in that exceptionally staged Metro train fight sequence in Doctor. The brilliance of Kolamaavu Kokila was that it involved utilizing the maximum comic potential of Anbudasan and Yogi Babu, and similarly, in Doctor, we get stellar comic timing by Redin Kingsley, Yogi Babu, Shiva Aravind and Sunil Reddy (Killi-Maahali combo). I was pretty excited to see the Killi-Maahali combo here in Beast as well, it meant that it was in the same Nelson universe, but those two were criminally underutilized.
Beast tries too hard to seamlessly juggle between being a funny-spoof movie and a serious action thriller, but the transition isn’t as seamless as it was intended. What worked brilliantly in Doctor did not work here for the sole reason that a big star has come into the world of Nelson. When a big star like Vijay comes in, everything gets bigger and scaled up to massive levels. It is required to have elevation sequences just for the sake of having it, which dilutes the narrative if it isn’t a strong one like Beast. At one end, we see an indestructible Veera counter-attacking every terrorist plan with so much “conviction”, but suddenly he dodges 100 bullets and hit 7 men with just 7 bullets of a shotgun. On the other hand, we see the Selvaraghavan character joking with the terrorists during his negotiation, and at one point we even see the main head of the hijacker group give up his ongoing hijack. The worst of all, we see the head of the terrorist group shown as a dwarf. I am sure all this was done to be light-hearted, funny and spoof-kind, but the plot is lost while focusing more on the transition from serious to funny mode than focusing on the movie’s highs and lows.
The audience starts thinking about the logic and the loopholes only when they do not connect with the characters. There needs to be an emotional core for the audience to connect to, which eventually would drive the movie. I would have wanted more of Veera’s PTSD suffering to take centerstage and eventually act as leverage for the character to overcome, which would have been that “low” for Veera and then come out with the much needed “high”. When the emotions are at the right amounts, people do not have time to think about the logic, as they are already invested in your characters and have started rooting for them to win. This issue was addressed extraordinarily in Payanam movie (a flight hijack movie led by Nagarjuna, directed by Radha Mohan). We get invested so much in the emotions of the flight passengers that we forget the logical loopholes even if there were any. Eventually, we know that the Nagarjuna character will succeed with the mission, but the suspense was maintained brilliantly through the emotions of the characters.
Beast could have been something extraordinary had Nelson taken a little more care in setting up that emotional core, instead of conveniently tweaking his story to cater to the star power. I am sure he will come back stronger to his forte of dark comedy, he just needs to back his strong suit and not budge to the star power and other external factors, and write something that would fit any star into this universe of his.
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Tamil Puthandu is on Chithirai 1 and not Thai 1 as claimed by ‘Dravidian Stockists’
Puthaandu or the Tamil New Year marks the first day of the first month (Chithirai) of the Hindu Tamil calendar that is based on the solar cycle. It usually falls on the 14th of April of the English Gregorian calendar.
Not just by Tamil Hindus, the commencement of the new year is celebrated as Vishu in Kerala, Rongali Bihu in Assam, Pohela Boisakh in Bengal, Bishuva Sankranti in Odisha, Jud Sheetal in parts of Bihar, etc. Even countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Bali, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc also celebrate the traditional New Year around this time.
However, the DMK and other ‘Dravidian Stockists’ observe Pongal (which occurs around January 14) as Tamil New Year as they argue that celebrating Chithirai 1 as the beginning of a new year amounts to following a ‘Brahmin-dominated’ or Sanskritic tradition which goes against Dravidian ideologies.
But no matter how much the ‘Dravidian Stockists’ try to distort and deride our culture which is based on science, there is also enough evidence in ancient Tamil literature that the first day of the Chithirai month marks the beginning of a new year.
“திண்ணிலை மருப்பின் ஆடு தலையாக விண்ணூர்பு திரிதரும் வீங்கு செலல் மண்டிலம்”
“Thinnilai Marruppin Aadu Thalaiyaaga Vinnurpu Thiritharum Veengu Sella Mandilam”
The above quote by Nakkeerar, a famous Tamil poet of the Sangam age, notes that the world runs with the goat (Mesha Rasi/Aries) as the first sign.
Not only in this Sangam song, many ancient Tamil songs that are about the astronomical predictions and changes in position of planets and starts.
Kudalur Kizhar is another poet of the Sangam era whose poems are part of the Kurunthogai (166, 167, 214) and Purananuru (229). In the poem in Purananuru, where he predicts the death of Chera ruler Yanaikatchei Mantharanj Cheral Irumborai (62-42 BC), he mentions Chithirai month and Mesha rasi.
In essence, the first month of the year is the month of Chithirai during spring when the Sun enters Mesha (Aries) zodiac sign. The year ends with the month of Panguni when the sun comes up in Pisces. This is the solar calendar that is followed across the country while there are many communities in different states that follows the lunar calendar.
There is a reason why the harvest festival is celebrated in Thai (January) and the New Year in Chithirai (April). Earlier, after harvesting the crops in the Thai month (January-February) farmers take short period of rest in the months of Masi and Panguni (February-April) and start their farming again from Chithirai (April) which marks the beginning of the spring season.
So, the festivals that we celebrate are part of ancient knowledge and tradition handed over to us by our ancestors. They also signify the rich cultural heritage of this land.
Hence, Puthandu is not a day that can be changed to the whims and fancies of a bunch of politicians and their stooges to peddle their nonsensical agenda. No matter how hard the inimical forces might try to delink Hinduism with Tamil culture, they will fail. Miserably.
Back in 2008, when the ruling government in Tamil Nadu was DMK, the then Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi passed the Tamil Nadu New Year (Declaration) Bill 2008, changing the Tamil New Year from Chithirai 1 (April 14th) to Thai 1 (January 14th or 15th).
This ridiculous change was in action for three years until it was rescinded by the AIADMK in August 2011. The DMK’s move to delink Tamil and Hindu culture did not find any resonance with the Tamil people as Tamil people continue to celebrate New Year on Chithirai 1 rejecting the DMK’s move to the dustbin.
And it will remain there!
(With inputs from Sundar Raja Cholan‘s Facebook Post in Tamil)
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