Amaran movie review: Sai Pallavi, Sivakarthikeyan stand tall in this tale of timeless love Amaran Movie Review: With wonderful performances by Sivakarthikeyan and Sai Pallavi, Amaran is a poignant yet powerful tale about Major Mukund Varadarajan's love for India, and his wife Indhu.

Amaran movie review:

        Gentleman cadet Mukund Varadarajan is marching along with his batchmates during his passing out parade. During this march, an animated Indhu Rebecca Varghese shouts out the name of the love of her life. She also runs around to catch a glimpse of Mukund, who is one among the soldiers passing out. GV Prakash Kumar’s rousing score primes the scene for a romantic high. She is jubilant, happy, ecstatic,and sports a smile that reaches her eyes as Mukund marches with a straight face. And at the very last  moment, as the march comes to a close, he finally has half a smile, even without looking at her. Now, is that smile for Indhu? Is he smiling because he has finished his training, and is living his long-time  dream of joining the Indian army? Director Rajkumar Periasamy’s  Amaran tells us that Mukund, after a point, didn’t really differentiate between the two, and that’s what makes his story all the more special.

Amaran begins at the end. 

We know where a rather sombre Indhu (a terrific Sai Pallavi) is going. This isn’t a film that is always subtle, but it isn’t always loud either. “I am in a forever long-distance relationship with my love,” says Indhu, as we first meet Major Mukund at Shopian. Rajkumar wastes no time as he establishes the fact that Major’s unit, the 44 Rashtriya Rifles, is one that has people from across the country. We hear Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi, and of course, Tamil. After a rather interesting introduction to the machinations of this unit, we go back in time to know how Indhu and Mukund fell in love with each other.

The meet-cutes are cute, 

and it is upto Sai Pallavi to do most of the heavy lifting in these scenes. Somehow, Sivakarthikeyan feels more at home in the uniform rather than when he is out of it. Sai Pallavi sells the chirpiness and the ‘butterflies in the stomach’ kind of love, and she wonderfully stays on the right side of the line between cute and caricature, albeit the Malayalam-Tamil dialogue delivery gets some time getting used to.

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Venkat Prabhu’s ‘GOAT’ might let you down if you’re expecting a globe-trotting espionage thriller or a genre-specific entertainer, but it is definitely a celebration of everything fans have ever loved about Vijay ‘The Greatest of All Time’ movie review: Vijay, Venkat Prabhu’s ‘GOAT’ chooses theatrical fan service over a compelling story.

Director Venkat Prabhu sets the tone of his Vijay-starrer GOAT (The Greatest of All Time) right from the very first scene. It’s a recovery mission for a covert team of agents led by Gandhi (Vijay) against the villain Rajiv Menon (Mohan). Gandhi, as someone the film hints about in its title, brings down the house with an action sequence laced with his unique style, but before taking the final shot at Rajiv, he is stopped by his friend, owing to the circumstances. This sequence, in a way, is a synopsis of the overall plot, and such slivers of excellence from Venkat and his team stand apart in this template film enhanced with impeccable fan service.

In GOAT, Gandhi and his Special Anti-Terrorism Squad consisting of Sunil (Prashanth), Ajay (Ajmal), Kalyan (Prabhu Deva), and their chief Nazeer (Jayaram) are seasoned agents/friends. Without their rationales milked in the name of patriotism, we see them as regular office-goers with the usual workroom banter and why Gandhi’s wife Anu (Sneha) isn’t impressed when work spills into their personal space. Unless GOAT is your very first action thriller, you know for sure that all can certainly not be good, and this is just the calm before the storm. So when tragedy finally strikes, and the film moves from 2008 to the present, the pedal hits the metal, and GOAT turns into a Chupacabra.

Inarguably, the best aspect of GOAT is its strong casting. While some might feel like glorified cameos, the dream team feels like the closest we have ever gotten to an Expendables. Not only does the familiarity help us invest in the camaraderie and friendship the team shares, but the veterans bring their A-game to the party.

Despite the ensemble cast, it’s Vijay who shoulders the film in dual roles as Gandhi and his son Jeevan. And Venkat, knowing his assignment well, gives ample space for both characters to have their moments. They both care for their ménage and have their fair share of losses and a mission to complete. Then comes the dichotomy, and that’s where both the filmmaker and his hero shine. As Gandhi, Vijay aces the role of a man with a lot of responsibilities that turn into a burden and end up as grief — the actor Vijay takes centre-stage in a scene where his character faces a major loss. But it’s arguably Jeevan who steals the show (and probably hence the name), and it’s a blast to see Vijay as a young adult, complete with antics we have long loved. Without entering the spoiler zone, it’s safe to say that Vijay has pulled off a role he rarely succeeded in with his past attempts.

It’s brilliant when a filmmaker takes feedback and reworks their product to deliver a better end-product. That’s how we got the Zack Snyder cut of Justice League and a more recognisable titular star in Sonic the Hedgehog. Similarly, after the de-ageing VFX criticism that GOAT’s promotional content got, it’s apparent that the makers returned to the drawing board to give us a far better and more credible rendition of a younger Vijay. Given that it plays a major component in the grand scheme of things, the makers took a precarious call that has worked wonders.

But similar to how the film uses technology to mask a 50-year-old and show a young adult, it also tries to conceal its shallow, simple, and painfully predictable plot with its star cast. If Vijay’s Leo reminded you of multiple films, GOAT will do the same; the Vijayakanth-led Rajadurai, helmed by Vijay’s father S. A. Chandrasekhar (in which the younger character is named Vijay, I kid you not), is a film that instantly comes to mind. GOAT, at its core, is a basic revenge story, and when made to look past the glitz — which you ought to at one point or the other — you are bound to see the paint chipping away from its grand facade. The action sequences are not exciting, the songs and background scores are disappointing, and probably the biggest pain in the neck is the antagonist played by Mohan. The character is bitterly underwritten, and the veteran cannot do much to salvage it. Not to mention how all the prominent female characters are always damsels in distress.

What works for GOAT majorly is how it keeps its stakes to a bare minimum and relies upon playing to the gallery. And boy, when the film gets into fan service mode, there’s no stopping it. Right from hat-tips to Vijay’s previous hit films, dance moves, and even mannerisms and references to his peers and political innuendoes, GOAT is undoubtedly a pop-culture treasure trove complete with its share of exciting cameos and a wonderful homage to a late legend.

GOAT might let you down if you’re expecting a globe-trotting espionage thriller, or just a genre-specific entertainer along the lines of Venkat’s Maanaadu. But if you want to catch the celebration of one of our most popular stars doing everything we love in his penultimate outing — including transforming from a GOAT to a Beast — then The Greatest of All Time is worth the entry fee; even with all its drawbacks, isn’t a lion always a lion?

The Greatest of All Time is currently running in theatres

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