Beast

Although I was always on the fence about how good a director Nelson Dilipkumar was, some endearing elements of his earlier ventures like "Kolamaavu Kokila (2018)" and "Doctor (2021)" included his ability to churn out humour in the most unexpected of circumstances as well as his attention to detail when it came to his character sketches. His latest release "Beast", however, falters on both fronts while also failing to provide adequate mass elevation scenes and fan service to even render it appreciable for Vijay aficionados.

As the teasers and trailer mostly gave away, Vijay stars as "Veera Raghavan", a former intelligence operator who gets stuck in a mall Die Hard style while the establishment is run over by a gang of armed terrorists. How he uses his fists and wits to battle his way out of the seemingly intractable crisis and rescue the civilians trapped inside forms the rest of this cliched plotline. While one can forgive the predictability in the storyline, the superficial nature of the supporting cast makes the entire movie-watching experience go for a toss, with the antagonists especially reduced to mere caricatures, with no depth or character arcs to speak of.

And the comedy that Nelson has made his hallmark fails to take off. While some one-liners from veteran VTV Ganesh manage to evoke some laughs, the normally dependable Yogi Babu and Redin Kingsley are given precious little creative dialogues to work with. The female protagonists-Pooja Hegde and Aparna Das, as with all recent Vijay movies, reduce to mere also-there tropes. It was particularly painful to watch Shine Tom Chacko, a character actor who won the admiration of millions of fans across the nation with his powerful performances in "Kurup (2021)" and "Bheeshma Parvam (2022)" reduced to such a lame-duck side role.

Stunt sequences in superstar movies have always bordered on the implausible to the downright impossible but where Beast falters is in trying to also add quirkiness, the believability factor is reduced to nought as a whole while raising the cringe factor to full. With clear 'inspiration' taken from "Money Heist", at no point does any of the action choreography manage to wow you or catch you by surprise, despite having a superstar of Vijay's natural charisma and dexterity at their disposal.

Vijay's calculus in trying to broaden his appeal by imbibing Nelson's characteristic wit and humour into his superstar image with "Beast" was, unfortunately, undone by unimaginative, derivative stunt sequences as well as a string of poorly written, underdeveloped supporting characters. Nelson clearly had to sacrifice his natural storytelling style to accommodate the 'superstar' persona of his lead actor and in forcibly making Vijay dominate every sequence, the narrative strength and emotional impact of the storyline clearly suffered.

A disastrous, over-the-top, cringe-pro-max ultra-final act will render you speechless (in a bad way) and run screaming out of the theatre. Ultimately, we experienced the best parts of "Beast" even before the film's theatre release-its two superb songs "Arabic Kuthu" and "Jolly O Gymkhana" and its kickass BGM. This movie is one dumpster fire you would want to avoid at all costs. Not recommended!

Thalapathty anirudh bgm super .story screenplay very very average.it's looks like gurkha movie.it's better than gurkha movie but this is thalapathy movie.nelsons previous films are really good.but this time very big disappoinment.

Vijay makes 300crores box office movies every year with ease and this may also become one of those following the success of Master but overall for fans and as a movie it's a letdown.

Movie lacks Drama, Plot, Purpose and A Good Ending.

With the trailer it was very clear that 70-80% movie is going to be in Mall setting only. Nothing wrong Die Hard and Speed have done it in restricted setting but this movie had no drama and story spine to elevate audience interest to what's coming next.

Whole movie is a treat for Anirudh fans and slow mo lovers.

Cinematography is by far the best for 2022 Really happy to see the jet scene and CGI was spot on.

Very much like Ironman scene.

Went for morning first show Paid 4x times Took a leave from work Convinced myself that this is going to be good & returned home disappointed.

Also need to mention few things East Cost mall aerial shots were terrible (Probably shot on low end drones and hardly colour corrected/matched) Opening was great Wish the whole movie was about SPY living in POK and rescuing them as a normal Pakistani Localite against ISIS or ISS if they are afraid to take names.

Chemistry between Both leads was pointless.

Villain was hardly used to his potential just masked entire time like he's hardly given them any dates for shooting.

Even the mask was a joke nothing to remember.

Skating Fight was poorly choreographed and casting was poor too Altaf was bad, Umar was a joke, Comedians were used anywhere and anytime.

Highlights Jet CGI POK Scenes Songs BGM & Vijay Performance.

As anticipated, Nelson succumbs to the star tropes of Thalapathy Vijay, failing to come up with a script that'd even keep viewers mildly interested. In fact, the opening act is the only decent stretch in the entire film. Everything from PTSD therapy to terrorism to women's looks is shamed to the core. The mass elevations are zilch, and Veeraraghavan's awkward stiffness doesn't work here at all. It's like Nelson literally planted Vijay in a Doctor-like universe where everything including a hostage situation is treated too lightly, terrorists act like caricatures, there's a buffoon for a home minister, and the supposed humour doesn't function one bit. The writing lazily imagines Vijay shooting and stabbing his way through dozens of baddies for nearly three hours, with an uber-cute Pooja Hedge hot on his trail for no legitimate reason whatsoever. Anirudh delivers on the musical front, but in a film where nothing really sticks, it'll hardly be remembered. Nelson needs to rework his formula that worked pretty well in his first two films - the secret sauce (dark comedy + hilarious supporting acts) is terribly lacking in Beast. And oh, that dreadful climactic stretch.. nail in the coffin!

Beast (2022) : Movie Review -

Nelson's last film, "Doctor", was truly a new attempt in the action-comedy genre for the Tamil audience. Yes, it had those avoidable spoofs that were planted to please the hardcore masses, which disturbed the seriousness of the storyline, but otherwise, it made for a good watchable flick. With Beast, he goes completely massy with superstar Vijay, only to spoil the basic, simple rules of filmmaking. On the other hand, Vijay is also coming from an average flick, "Master", but it was saved by the director Lokesh Kanagaraj. Beast gives him a full-scale, massy avatar but not style and logic. If you remember watching Bruce Willis starrer "Die Hard" (1988), or the recent Hindi adaptation of it, "Sanak" (2021), then I don't think the story of Beast has anything new for you, except the action and hardcore patriotism. Just imagine those two films with regional comedy flavours, and the closest possible outcome is Beast.

The film is about a talented and patriotic RAW agent, Veer Raghavan, who quits his job after one sad and unwanted incident. Even after quitting RAW, the trauma stays with him as he tries to cure it with the help of a psychiatrist. With the help of his girlfriend, Preeti (Pooja Hegde), he gets a job in a company and visits a shopping mall, which eventually gets hijacked by terrorists. Veer decides to save the hostages for the sake of mental peace, which has got something to do with that old trauma. What challenges he has to face during the battle and how he handles terrorists and politicians to complete the mission is all that forms the rest of the narrative.

The screenplay here is very problematic. You have no clue about the number of terrorists in there, as Veer finishes them off easily and yet has many more left. Veer's strategies are sometimes successful, while others fail, but he has counter-strategies for every terrorist move. There are a lot of surprises in store, and some are really interesting, but I just can't spoil them here. What brings Beast down is the poor writing and illogical screenplay. The film is hampered by unnecessary comedy because it ruins the importance of a damn serious event like the hijack. You can't have any explanation for hostages having fun and cracking jokes during the hijack. The romance and jealousy parts were too cheesy to accept. Come on, you are the hostages under the attack of dangerous terrorists, so please show some little amount of fear.

Veer Raghavan is a tailor-made role for Thalapathy Vijay. He has his swag, that style that makes his fans go crazy, and a larger-than-life stature in the film. Pooja Hegde has good screen space, thankfully, and she plays a pretty enjoyable role here. There is very little scope for Pooja and Vijay's chemistry because the entire theme happens in a survival mode, but they have a start and a fantastic song together. Yogi Babu does what he does best: comedy! Beast gives every supporting cast member a fair amount of screen time. Selvaraghavan, Redin Kingsley, Bjorn Surrao, Aparna Das, Shaji Chen, Shine Tom Chacko and Ankur Ajit Vikal all appear at intervals throughout the film.

Anirudh has delivered another foot-tapping chartbuster with 'Arabic Kuthu'. The full video song is nothing short of a musical and dance treat for Vijay and Pooja Hegde fans. What dance moves does Vijay have, man. Killer! And how gorgeous Pooja Hedge looks in that ethenic look. Just wait for the full video song to be released, and you will go Gaga over it. But we have that energetic background score here to make you groove to it. The dialogues could've been better considering the swag of Vijay he had in Thupakki, Mersal, Sarkar and Master. I mean, this man is the darling of the masses, so he deserves better dialogues that can create mass hysteria in auditoriums. However, the action is pleasant. No matter how sordid the pre-action conditions are, the stylish action sequences are a sight for sore eyes.

After the poor writing, if any person is to be blamed, then it has to be director Nelson Dilipkumar. That awkward vision to carry forward a mediocre storyline is no less than a big mistake. Nelson makes mistakes, repetitively, and that's what hurts the film the most. Those errors in illogical situations can be forgiven, but not the logical confirmation of the director. Why are those comedy scenes needed when you are supposed to make an action thriller, that too with a concept of hijack? It was fine with Doctor because the protagonist was fighting the battle alone, rather than with a crowd of hundreds of people surrounding him. Nelson could have removed the cringe plotting here and Beast could have easily made it a watchable affair. Sadly, that doesn't happen, and the film succumbs to its outdated storyline and lukewarm presentation. Overall, the beauty of Pooja Hegd and the Beast mode of Vijay may please some of their fans, but not others. It's torture for them.

RATING - 3/10*