Lingaa

If it's a project featuring one of the biggest superstars of Indian film industry eagerly awaited by his huge fan following in the south (coming after a long gap of three years ignoring the animated KOCHADAIYAAN), then its nothing less than a big cinematic festival in that specific region celebrating the event in an unbelievable style, not seen even in the case of biggest Hindi film stars to be honest.

However if the same film releases in its dub format in Hindi then it struggles to find viewers even in its very first show despite all the hype and publicity received. And I was really surprised to have this contradictory experience this Friday, when the theater owners told me that you will have to wait for a while as we need more tickets to be sold in order to run its first show as scheduled. Fortunately about 12- 15 people did come asking for LINGAA and I thankfully got to see it as desired in its dubbed version.

Moving on to the film, it has everything required for a Rajinikanth project supporting his larger than life image of both a superstar as well as a socially active person. But sadly the content has nothing fresh to say and gives you the same old feeling of watching a complete masala flick of the 80s with ample dosage of heroism, patriotism and emotional drama written around the superstar. In other words, LINGAA once again offers that standard mix of many typical sub-plots put together including a petty group of thieves, a casual heist, a romantic news reporter, the village link, an emotional flashback with the period theme, references of British rule and their brutality, a rich maharaja turning into a savior, an important dam built by him alone, misunderstandings being created, love affairs thrown in to fill the space and then a poor climax with some mediocre action heading towards a happy ending.

The dialogues are specifically written asking for claps and whistles in the theater, whereas few early songs are just added into the script like a five minutes relief item or a musical advertisement as usual. Beginning with all below average sequences, the narration goes into a long (nearly 100 minutes) flashback hindering the pace severely. And returning to the present you just have the routine end-fight to see, shot hurriedly with some mediocre special effects, strangely in a Rajinikanth film. Probably the length has something to do with the viewers phenomenal love for their icon, forcing the makers to give them more. But having nothing fresh to say in its nearly three hours, LINGAA struggles hard to make an impression and remains just an average film with the only saving grace being the Superstar.

Mentioning its plus points, the film largely works in its emotional or confrontation scenes alone and fails to deliver anything great when it comes to the basic storyline, songs, background score and performances. Where the action impresses in its early train sequence, it does exactly the opposite in the climax fight. Cinematography and Sabu Cyril's art direction visibly gives the film its much required support but A. R. Rahman's musical score remains the biggest disappointment undeniably. The master composes a very ordinary soundtrack for such a big venture and it was even more surprising to see the name of Gulzar behind some of its weird lyrics like "Mona Gasolina" and more.

Performance wise, Rajinikanth does manage to deliver a towering act as the generous Maharaja, but doesn't have anything novel to offer as the young thief (he has a double role in the film). Sonakshi Sinha does it well and is more appealing in her controlled act in the later reels. Anushka is charming as far as looks are concerned but gets to play a completely artificial character in the film. Plus the enormous supporting cast mostly comes up with all average acts as required in its flashback sequences.

In short, it's a project featuring one of India's biggest superstar, but again has the same predictable story to tell where the lead character first gets maligned and thrown out of the village only to regain his lost respect and image as the truth gets revealed with a hugely disappointing climax. Honestly we have seen this many times before since the last century and now actually wish to see something more innovative, path breaking and unexpectedly impressive when it comes to names such as Rajinikanth. Hope our Thalaivaa will deliver the same in his next venture rising above the routine soon.

Lingaa (Rajini), a happy go-getter lives out of petty thefts. He is in fact the grandson of Raja Lingeswara, the King of Gadwal Sansthan. Lingaa is traced by Journalist Lakshmi (Anushka) who wants him to open the old Shiva temple in her drought stricken Singanoor village. But MLA Naga Bhushanam (Jagapathi Babu) has vested interests in the dam to be constructed in Singanoor. So, why did Lingaa come to the village and how is he connected to the prestigious Singanoor dam initiated by his grandfather Raja Lingeswara forms the plot of the story. Rajinikanth: The Superstar is always a charmer and so is he in this film as well. He was an absolute entertainer in the first half. He was as usually elegant and majestic in the Raja Lingeswara role and indeed lived in the character. His one-liners and animated fights, especially the train fight in the second half was the real stunner. But the fans always expect more from the Superstar and that unique Rajini magic is missing in this film.

Anushka: One should wonder how she can be so pretty with each growing year. But somehow, she did not suit Rajini in the film.

Sonakshi Sinha: We know she is a lucky charm in the North but now she earned respect down South as well with Lingaa. She was very impressive as the village belle 'Bharati' and struck a decent chemistry with the Superstar in the song as well.

Jagapathi Babu: This manly star was the name sake villain in the film. If you are expecting a 'Legend or PNLJ' JB then we are sorry you might end up disappointed.

Santhanam & his associate comedy gang: They were indeed successful in entertaining, especially in the first half.

Brahmanandam: The special cameo by Brahmi was in fact the biggest disappointment. The rest of the cast especially the British actors did an impressive job. Lingaa is a one-time watch and that too for Rajinikanth. All the hard core Thalaiva fans, hold your excitement for his next film.

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

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.

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.