Lingaa

First of all the movie has a brilliant plot, when it enters into Raja Lingeswaran's flashback. But why the movie has such a low rating and box office reception you ask, i'll tell you.

The movie is well cast. Especially Vijayakumar, who does a great job.

The movie falls mainly due to poor direction, cinematography, music and pretty much every technical department fails in this one.

K.S. Ravikumar had a great story but overloads it with a lot usual masala stuff, making it a tough watch.

The stunts reminded me of "Man of steel", with a lot of flying and destruction. Totally cringe worthy.

The director tries hard to bring the style element in, but fails. Because first the movies like Baasha, Padayappa, Arunachalam etc.. set a baseline standard for Thalaivar. Then the bar was set even higher by Shankar's Sivaji with an even more stylish Superstar. KSR tries to bring all these style elements together, failing big time.

Another extremely irritating part of the movie being the portrayal of the heroines. A total Arunachalam-Padayappa rip off. Those kind of heroines were popular then. Times have changed, it's 2015 now and social situations have changed a lot. But the director sadly, is still stuck in the 19th century.

IN A NUTSHELL, I WOULD SAY: The movie would have been better with only the RAJA's sequence, where SUPERSTAR would shine as an ACTOR rather than just a style icon.

Rajini did so well in the RAJA half, it was brilliant by the actor.

And one thing i would criticize on the RAJA's sequence would be that they fail to show the Architectural difficulties of building such a dam.

Other than that the RAJA's plot was just sheer brilliance. Certainly a watchable movie which could have been better.

I booked tickets and went to ''LUXE CINEMAS'' Phoenix mall Chennai the theater was house full(30 shows run per day in the multiplex all houseful),enjoyed the film cause it was funny and then gets real serious ,and it is totally worth your money.watch this film if you speak Tamil,and if your from India!you'd love it.it has everything every kinda person expects small to old.never mind the negative stuff people tell u about the climax just enjoy the film.:)however DO NOT go to this film during the end days(empty cinemas)you'd get real bored ,this film requires a audience like applaud viewing to enjoy it to the max.i know i sound silly but hell yea this is ''rajini's'' film and being his fan since i was 2 years old (yea 24 months exact)i can tell u just one thing.simply watching him act will suffice your money spent

Lingaa…My Review

What do we expect from a Rajnikanth film, which is already labeled as a mass entertainer? Only Pure Mass and, Lingaa offers it to a good level, except for the hilariously horrible climax.

Directed by KS Ravikumar, the movie is about Raja Lingeshwara, his efforts and sacrifice to build a dam, which will be beneficial for 10 generations.

The movie started in a good manner showing the present situation of dam and gave intro to few villains. The dam-checker dies requesting to open the closed temple. And, the village head urges that, only the heir to Raja Lingeshwara should open the temple, as it was built by him. And, there comes Linga(Rajnikanth), understands the greatness of his Grandpa, Raja Lingeshwara(Again Rajnikanth) and protects the dam from villains.

The story line has nothing great in it, but presentation in an engaging manner makes Lingaa watchable. The comedy track by Rajni nd Santhanam with Anushka kept the first half engaging. Those heist scenes were also funny. But the movie entered kick-ass mode after the intro of Vintage Rajnikanth as Raja Lingeshwara. Those flash back scenes, in the pre-independence period, were near class with a good amount of mass content in it. Once those flash back scenes end, the movie enters into crap-mode eventually leading to a horrible climax. Those actions sequences seemed so funny that, I was unable to stop ma laugh.

Coming to performances, Rajnikanth is the life of the film….A to Z, it is Rajni show. The movie required a superstar for the role and Rajnikanth was perfect. He kept the screen on fire as Raja Lingeshwara. He looked young at 64 with unmatchable screen-presence, mass dialogues, action sequences and dance moves, everything in Rajni style. Santhanam took charge over the comedy track with a few genuine wits. Coming to the heroines, Sonakshi Sinha had a rather important role than Anushka and she did justice to her role. Anushka had nothing to do except to reveal more skin, especially in Gasolina song. The one who acted as British Collector was also good. Dev Gill's good man role seemed novel. Jagapathy Babu was an unwanted antagonist, still did his part very well. Rest of the supporting cast did their usual jobs. Brief appearance of Brahmanandam was too crappy to be enjoyed.

Coming to the making side… KS Ravikumar didn't do justice to his job completely. I felt that, his concentration was fully on the flash- back part and left the other parts loose. A better script in those ending parts would have made Lingaa memorable. His direction seemed just okayish.Technically the movie didn't seem that rich. Songs were misplaced and certain scenes lacked basic logic. Pon Kumaran's story was good enough to build a decent script, but KSR screwed it with his crappy scripting in the end portions. How can one jump from bike to a parachute, then roll over it with a rope, fight with the villain, kill him, rescue the heroine from falling and kick-away the bomb into the dam that too all these in a span of less than 3minutes….!!! May be Rajnikanth can do it….but it felt too funny to enjoy.

Coming to the technical side, Music by AR Rahman was good. BGM was of top class but seemed normal at certain scenes. Songs could have been better, only a couple of them were good. Choreography of 'En Mannava' song was awesome. Editing wasn't crisp, certain portions could've been trimmed off. Action sequences in that Train Fight was of top class. Visual effects didn't seem that realistic except for a few shots in the train fight and dam building scenes. VFX in Gasolina song wasn't that fine. Camera work was of good quality. Kudos to Ratnavelu.

Overall, Lingaa adjusts itself to an average fare without offering anything new. Watch the film for impeccable screen presence of Superstar and those energetic flash back scenes.

Strictly Average

Thank You for reading ma views about Lingaa… Yours Truly…Sooraj

Watched Lingaa!! Well, the first 20 minutes was really unbearable, after which some respite, came with the nicely done slow motion fight scene on top of moving train. Though the movie is watchable once...it doesn't have the energy of a Padaiyappa, nor it induce pathos like Muthu, and definitely not the style and masala like Shivaji or Robo if one wants to draw a comparison. Can call it an average Rajni movie. One thing very evident through out the movie was clearly the star has aged. I think after this he should accept roles which matches his age like Amithabh does, take for example Sarkar, Baghban or even some thing like Drishyam etc, where the roles demand a more dignified star power.

ARR's music is also nothing to write about. Nor the production quality. In fact I can say the production quality is below average, no single scene looks like it was set in pre-independence era. The Slow motion fight scene is brilliant, looks like cut and pasted from some other movie. May be they outsourced that bit..who knows.

Its been 4 years since people saw a live action movie from Thalaivar and of course the expectations will be high when he joined hands with K.S.Ravikumar. The duo has almost given a pukka movie this time. Thalaivar fans will almost love the movie in which Thalaivar's charisma and style carries the movie on its shoulder.

Positives: Thalaivar! He is a big plus in this movie. No one could have done this role. People wont accept any other person in this role. As Lingaa, he brings in never seen charisma and his usual style at ease. As Raja Lingeaswaran, he brings in the ambitious thoughts of an anger Indian who wants to do something for his country.

Sonakshi Sinha - She proved language is no bar. Very wonderful depiction of a young naughty local village girl. She is a very big plus indeed.

Indianea vaa song will be loved by everyone for its picturization, the story it tries to tell and of course ARR's voice.

Dialogues are very crisp and sharp. Makes the movie watchable till the end.

Costumes are very good as its important to show Thalaivar in some never seen before costumes which suits his style.

Things which could have been better:

The climax clearly shows the hurry in which the team worked in order to release it on Thalaivar's Birthday. It is good but the scene has some poor MGR period's graphics and stunts which almost takes us to tollywood.

BGM - Though it is good at some points, it clearly shows the BGM to has been done in a hurry. ARR could have concentrated more on BGM. It let down some scenes.

Anushka has scope for acting but she was used merely for glamor and nothing else.

Many characters have no base stories to come up so that we can believe them and some are over-reacting. They change sides quickly without deciding.

Placing of En Mannavaa song is almost like a normal typical commercial movie where you pack 1-2 songs unnecessarily.

If not for the climax, My Rating will be 7/10.

Watch it for our Thalaivar!