Movie: Lingaa
Cast: Rajinikanth, Sonakshi Sinha and Anushka Shetty
Director: KS Ravi Kumar
Rating: ***
After watching Lingaa you will understand why producer Rockline Venkatesh didn’t object depositing `10 crore as security – the film is a worthy watch and that money wouldn’t really count now.
The story opens with younger Rajini, a smart thief with his sidekicks, who is the grandson of Raja Lingeshwar Rao, king of Gadwal. Anushka comes down to take him back to his grandfather’s village. The rest of the story unfolds from there.
With a good set of supporting actors, well written dialogues delivered in superstar style, technically sound cinematography and of course, all the ‘Rajini’ness – the movie definitely is made for Rajini fans.
The Good – The impressive bit of the story is the flash back – older Rajini with Sonakshi. While the superstar keeps us glued to the screen with his style and heartfelt, true-to-life, philosophical dialogues, Sonakshi does her act of a village girl naturally – with the right amount of ease and innocence. Anushka is at her best, balancing the screen space with her glamour. Brahmanandam makes his presence felt for a small bit in the present part of the film. Santhanam along side younger Rajini provides good entertainment.
Scenic beauty is well captured. Applause to cinematographer Ratnavelu.
At one point in the story line, the director brings notice to the underlying casteist nature of people in the village and how Rajini uses it for the better is worth a mention.
The fight sequence on the train is something you should look out for, that precedes senior Rajini’s introduction. Rahman’s music is an obvious add on – with Mona Mona and Indian taking the cake.
The not so good – Jagapathi Babu with his negative shade gets wasted. His time on the screen is too short, making the character almost negligible. Next is the climax of the film. The point of reaching to climax is short and just when you are getting ready to make a move, it starts getting exaggerated. This is also a reason why Jagapathi Babu’s character will be forgotten.
The Silly – We all know Rajini can do anything and KS Ravi Kumar may have wanted to make all those jokes a reality. That one sequence where Rajini jumps onto a hot air balloon may fill you with surprise, shock and make you laugh at the same time.