tharindu-ssl

What can I say? From the start of the movie, it keeps you hooked with amazing picturization of the Greatest King of Sri Lanka. Even before the movie was released, I had high expectations about the movie as it is directed by Jayantha Chandrasiri. He is a creativity genius who does not take short cuts to deliver his arts. So if someone should take the risk of bringing King Dutugemunu to the screen, it is surely him. Music of Nadeeka Guruge is awesome. Camera work is mind blowing. When I read the book, I had a visual imagination of the book because Jayantha Chandrasiri, also the author of the book, has written the book in that way. Watching the movie was exactly the same experience except I think the battle strategies are more detailed in the book.

Why 8 points then? Because there should be always room for improvement. And for Maharaja Gemunu, it is the battle scenes that need more improvement. Given the budget of the movie and how much can it be expanded due to the constraints of income in Sri Lanka cinema, this film has the best battle scenes to date. Drama, acting of the movie is really good. It gives you a pride feeling about being a Sri Lankan. Some scenes sends a chill down the spine. Loyalty of ten great giants to the King, Angampora battle arts are a treat to watch. All the creators and actors have done full justice to their roles in the movie and Maharaja Gemunu is a masterpiece of Sri Lankan cinema to be admired in days to come. It surely set new benchmark for future of Sinhala Cinema and gives the message that "if you work hard and do justice to what you do, you still can earn well in Sri Lanka box office" because Sri Lankan people love good cinema.

Before the movie, I had read reviews and had very low expectations. But the first half of the movie was really funny. There are so many out of place and mismatch contents yet it kept the audience laughing. Not that the jokes are original or very well thought. Creators put in all they can and it is like watching a cartoon. How can you not laugh when you watch cartoon . So if it's the entertainment you seek, first half of the movie is for you. Abhsihesk Bachchan is shining and he gives the most entertainment. Also references to other movies are okay, funny.

But then the life of the movie drops significantly in the second half. Other than one or two jokes here and there, there is nothing to keep you entertained. You want to get it over with but the movie drags on trying to justify the heist and why the characters are involved in it. There is unnecessary fight between Charlie (played by SRK) and a Korean where Charlie's team does not come to help despite the risk involved in the fight.

The patriotic angle of the movie is forced on. SRK does what he does in all the movies. His signature all over the movie. Some dance is like actually you are watching a SRK Live in concert. In a song they make all other actors raise their arms like SRK always do. How a leading actor like Abhishek falls to that level is so sad. In fact most of the scenes involving SRK looks very familiar.

In the theater I was watching, there was a technical error and movie was stuck before it's last 10 minutes. It took some 5 minutes to fix and resume play but meanwhile many people had started to walk off as they were waiting for it to be over and took the tech error as an excuse to do so. Film being too long actually overshadows some rare key points in the movie.

Finally, expect SRK does some meaningful movie. After all, he is an actor who has given some memorable movies. Riding that success to do movies like CE, HNY is so sad.

I give 4 stars. 3 stars to the comic flow in the first half and 1 star to Abhishek Bachchan.