Shankar is the best commercial director of our country and Vikram is the best actor of his generation. So when the duo which produced the Evergreen Blockbuster “Anniyan” came together again, expectations were sky high.
PLOT:-
Lingesan (Vikram) is a body builder who aims to become Mr. India in the near future and also has a huge crush on model Diya (Amy Jackson). Circumstances force Lingesan to become a model and he wins the heart of Diya. How his life turns upside down after that and how he avenges the people who destroyed his beautiful life forms the rest of the story.
I is nothing more than a usual commercial entertainer. It was promoted as a movie which would take Indian cinema to the next level but it does so only in terms of the lead actor’s acting skills and the amount of effort he has put in the movie is stunning. The story of the movie is very weak and the twists are predictable but the movie is not boring thanks to some engaging screenplay. Vikram is the soul of this movie. He has a well-toned body which would give even body builders a run for their money. He looks uber cool as the model and makes us feel for him as the hunchback character. He carries the entire movie on his shoulders and is flawless as an actor. Amy is used as a glam doll and she is passable when compared to the supporting actors. Only Santhanam does a good job among the supporting cast who are just used to fill the void in the movie.
A.R.Rahman’s songs are already chartbusters and Shankar has picturized all the songs as a visual treat. ‘Aila Aila’, ‘Mersalaiten’ and ‘Ennodu Nee irundhal’ stand apart from the rest due to their attractive Visuals. ARR has done an excellent job in the movie’s background score (listen carefully in the gym fight and train fight). Stunts are choreographed in a way that it will appeal to the masses and I will blame you if you look for logic there. P. C. Sreeram’s Camera work was as usual stunning and he even portrays the beauty in ugliness. Inspite of an incredible 3h 8min duration, I doesn’t feel that lengthy due to its fast pace, though I agree it lags before interval in the China portions.
Shankar despite having all the best resources a director could dream of, has chosen an age old plot and I must say that the movie on a whole didn’t meet the mammoth expectation. But, from the response of the audience I can assure you that it will be a huge blockbuster and has a good chance of beating Endhiran’s record. If Shankar didn’t give a movie that was out of the box or one that takes Indian cinema to the next level as promised, I blame our audience because when they really give such movies like ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ they make sure it ends up as a disaster during theatrical run and a section of elite people hail it as a Classic after some 3 years. A commercial director like Shankar makes movies not only for the elite people, he has the pressure to satisfy all the sections of the audience so in that way I would say that ‘I’ is indeed successful.
Rating: 3.5/5 (An extra 0.5 for Vikram).
