Thalaivi Review: A Lukewarm Attempt At Recreating A Magnanimous Story
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The film Thalaivii is a biopic based in the life of Jayalalithaa, popularly addressed as 'Amma', the film focuses on the journey of the celebrated and popular individual from her young days of acting her budding romance with mgr her introduction into politics urged by the love of her life the unfortunate demise of the political figure and acting legend the hurdles jaya faces in order to become the political heir of the party dealing with the vitriol of the gatekeepers mostly men that constantly protected the vested interests of ngr and finally her rise to prominence to become what we all know and remember her as.
Arvind Swamy has used prosthetics and makeup but it is uncanny how similar he looks to MGR being privy to vintage Tamil cinema and just through all the MGR footage that come across swami looks like an absolute spitting image of the legend. On the other hand, Kangana’s acting is over-the-top. She goes way overboard in her emotional scenes. Her close-up shots are cringe-worthy. But she does have some good moments during a dinner scene at her house when she talks about how much she loves MGR.It goes on to the extent that she is manhandled and as the scene takes place, she absurdly narrates about being treated like Draupadi in Mahabharata.
The film gets repetitive after a point. It constantly switches between acting, politics and the love story between Jaya and MGR. Apart from that, the film makes Krishna’s references when talking about love and medu vada in a petty fight. The latter reference actually gets pretty nasty. Raj Arjun, the villainous assistant to MGR, is powerful. His constant face-offs with “Jaya” or Kangana Ranaut are something to look forward to in "MS Dhoni: The Untold Story". And of course, he shines as an actor much more than Kangana.
Thalaivi was expected to do well at the box office, but it sank faster than expected after the inevitable death of its star. Kangana Ranaut as Jayalalitha tried her best to hold the film together, but her efforts were not enough. The second half of the film was chaotic and rushed; trying too hard to spread a message of The most absurd point of the movie is when Jaya gets plump out of nowhere. While she is seen as slim, trying to walk on her own in one scene, right in the next, she is seen standing with the bandage on her neck, a plump face and giving out orders to people.
While the film was already hard to follow because of its ridiculous and absurd scenes, Vijay and Kangana Ranaut had another surprise in store for the audience. The film ends on a random note, where Kangana practically threatens people to call her Amma or… if that is how Vijay wanted people to remember amma.
Verdict:
Avoid Thalaivii if you want to retain good memories of J. Jayalalithaa. The only reason to watch this film is Arvind Swami, without who, even Kangana Ranaut cannot stand out in the film.
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