Rajinikanth, Santosh Narayanan and Pa. Ranjith with an offer you cant refuse

Whistle – silence – action – the most famous dialogue + Neruppu da track – then the majestic walk, the first action scene, hits the right chord. Perfect entry for a SuperStar film, after the electrifying intro scene.

The script tries to connect emotionally once in every few minutes through dialogues or shotd, like ‘Enakku oru ponnu oru paiyyan irunthiruntha ippo ava vayasu irunthirukkum’la?’ and ‘Ava ennai motivate pannitte iruppa, chinna chinna vishayangalil kooda’, it comes at regular intervals till the family re-union.

In a beautifully composed scene, Ranjith uses Ilayaraja’s classic ‘Thentral Vanthu’ song’s female slow version, adds the portion ‘Oda Neeroda Intha Ulagam Athu Pola, Nilaiyaa Nillaathu Ninaivil Varum Nirangale’, before shifting to action scene and then to ‘Ida Pakkam Thudithidum, Iruthaya Isai Ena Irunthaval, Aval Engu Ponaalo’. The feeling it creates in less than a minute is awesome.

In another memorable moment, ‘Maya Nadhi’ song comes at the most beautiful part of the movie, during the reunion of Kumuthavalli and Kabali. ‘Vaanam Paarthen’ music plays in the background till the moment of meeting, then comes silence, few drops of tears, followed by the song ‘Maya Nadhi’. The subsequent scenes are simply awesome, with the classic ‘Naan seththuthaan poyirunthen, nee ennai vanthu paarkkira varaikkum’, cut to ‘Maya Nadhi Indru Maarbil Vazhiyudhe Thuya Naraiyilum Kaadhal Malaruthe’. Whistle worthy moment.

The best things about the Kabali are what are not there in the movie, the flying rowdies, insert-comedy scenes, buffoons, item song etc… The storyline is explained within the first twenty minutes of the movie. Of course, this is nothing new: revenge is one of the most common themes in cinema and Kabali is another one in million. The movie starts and immediately enters the plot (even though it takes the easiest path, voice-over) and moves (slow or fast) without any distraction till the Neruppu Da climax action scene.

the actor, few scenes and the soundtracks

Kabali is a slightly obvious mash-up of the ‘70s Hollywood crime movies. On the negative side, some scenes and characters does not connect with audience even for a moment, and the most distracting part comes two or three times, ie the ‘emotion’ continuity miss. Eg.: The scene at airport which comes after Chennai action scene as continuation does not have any link other than the costumes with the previous scene, especially no emotional link. This drastically changes the mood of audience in a negative way, it takes away even the lowest connection with the characters from audience. Characterizations are thin on the ground, it’s a bit nutty. The characters are uninteresting apart from Kabali, even though Dhansika and Radhika Apte did perfectly in the limited space.

It has violence with style by Rajinikanth, but it doesn’t try to make every death scene spectacular including of the main villain. Like Yun-Fat Chow movies, this isn’t that kind of film where the story takes primary presence in the film, it is the character Kabali and his emotions which Ranjith wants us to follow. Makes you want more, and it definitely made me want a sequel. Rajinikanth did an amazing job depicting the character. It could have been just another mindless action flick, but the actor, few scenes and the soundtracks give it some depth to make it a film worth watching more than once.

There is a scene where Kabali (Rajinikanth) says, ‘Naan munnukku varrarathu thaan un prachanai’na, naan munnukku varuvenda, coat suit poduvenda, kaal mela kaal pottu ukaaruvenda style’a geththa… athu unnaala poruththukka mudiyalai’na saavuda’ within fraction of second the electrifying ‘Neruppu da’ action scene starts.

‘Nerupuda! Nerunguda Papom, Nerunguna Posukura Kootam, Adikira Alikira Ennam Mudiyuma Nadakuma Innum?’