Director: Karthik Subbaraj
Cast: Rajinikanth with an ensemble cast including Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vijay Sethupathi
“Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.” – Clint Eastwood
Close on the heels of the magnum opus 2.0 comes Rajinikanth’s latest offering Petta, marking his first collaboration with director Karthik Subbaraj. Notably, 2.0 is still being played on many screens across the country, more than a month after it’s release and this has brought about a rare scenario where the same lead actor has two of his movies running in parallel. But hey, we’re talking about Rajinikanth here and in general, what gets categorized as trivia with respect to others is just a footnote when it comes to him!
Kaali (Rajinikanth) takes charge as a hostel warden at a picturesque college, set amidst hilly and misty surroundings. Everything is not so rosy within the campus though as various menaces seem to be rearing their ugly heads. A notorious gang of students lead by Michael (Bobby Simha) create nuisance through their distasteful ragging of juniors. The food that is served to students is barely edible and the contract for that too, is held by Michael’s family who are influential in the area. In step Kaali, to take on Michael and his family and establish himself as a firm favourite with the students! Kaali becomes a trusted friend and guide and even helps fix relationship troubles when called upon. On one such occasion, while helping out Anu (Megha Akash) and Anwar (Sananth), Kaali gets bitten by the romantic bug himself when he meets Mangalam, Anu’s divorced mother played by the ravishing Simran! Michael and his father (Aadukalam Naren) are not ones to cower down though and plan an attack on the hostel to take Kaali down. This is where the film takes an interesting turn. Michael’s attack is foiled when another seemingly unrelated gang also enters the campus on the same night and starts an ambush on Kaali and the students. Kaali manages to ward off both gangs with great difficulty but realizes that the students are in great peril as the attack by the second gang seems to stem from an unresolved conflict from his own past, that also involves one of the hostelites under his watch. The rest of the film now chronicles Kaali’s revisit into his past and how he takes on old foes (Singaaram played by Nawazuddin) and some new ones (Jithu played by Vijay Sethupathi) who are gunning for his blood.
At the start of the film, there is a card that is shown that reads that the film is inspired by, and is a tribute to Rajinikanth. The screenplay definitely stays true to this. The sequences in the college hostel are just pulsating and Rajini is at his charismatic best with both his mannerisms and dialogues. The action sequences are choreographed stunningly (by Peter Hein) and the visuals are breathtaking to watch (Tirru wields the camera). The romantic segment between Rajini and Simran is magical and their chemistry puts a lot of other contemporary on-screen pairs to shame! There has to be a special mention for the art direction. Suresh Selvarajan’s design of the sets, especially the college and hostel campuses, are so alluring that even the carnage that happens is beautiful to behold. This is also perhaps Anirudh’s finest outing to date as far as re-recording is concerned. His score is classy and riveting at the same time and sets the pace perfectly for the story to keep moving.
Though all the individual ingredients seemed to be there, the film starts falling a bit flat mid-way. The key reason for this is Kaali’s back story (where he appears as Petta in Madurai). At this point, you cannot but draw some parallel to another Rajini film with a meaty flashback sequence- Baasha. In that film, the flashback had a really powerful story and characters that made a real indelible impression on the audience. In Petta, though the back story has eerie similarities to Baasha, the plot is just not strong enough. The whole sequence seems to be rushed and talented actors like Trisha are no more than just passengers. The only highlight here is Nawazuddin who puts in a terrific shift as Singaaram and the transformation of his character into the prominent political figure Singaar Singh in Uttar Pradhesh is very well written out. This is again where another colossal actor seems to have been used sparingly. Vijay Sethupathi’s character Jithu screams for some scope to light the screen up with but the script just does not accommodate it. You do question then, if such an ensemble cast was even needed for this story. There are also a couple of twists as the film approaches the climax. Whether as a consequence of the weak back story or due to some logically questionable scenes (wouldn’t there be police backup to prevent someone from breaking into a political VVIP like Singaar’s mansion and ambushing him?), these twists do not really seem to make a big impact.
To conclude, this was a film of two halves- one which Rajini stole the show in and the other which Rajini battled hard to save. You cannot but admire the man’s determination and energy. In the recent past, there have been a number of weak scripts that he has held together by just his sheer will and skill. Petta is definitely Rajinikanth 1.0, though it does not really hit the level of films it considers itself as on ode to.
Overall rating: 3/5
