Overall Rating 3.5/5

Concept                        4.0/5

Direction                      3.0/5

Music                            4.0/5

Visual Effects                4.5/5

The Ten characters:

1. A 12th century vaishnavite

2.A biotechnology scientist Govindrajan (The protagonist)

3.An American ex CIA agent Fletcher(The bad guy)

4.An Indian detective Balram Naidu

5.A social worker named Vincent Poovaragan

6.A Japanese sensei

7.A 8ft tall Muslim Khalifullah

8.US president George W Bush

9.A 95-yr old Iyengar lady

10.A punjabi pop singer Avatar Singh

THE TEAM

Directed by K. S. Ravikumar

Produced by Venu Ravichandran

Written by Kamal Haasan, Sujatha, Crazy Mohan

Starring Kamal Haasan, Asin Thottumkal, Mallika Sherawat, Jayaprada, Napolean

Music by Himesh Reshammiya, Devi Sri Prasad

Cinematography Ravi Varman

Editing by Ashmith Kunder

Run time - 166 MINUTES

Brief Intro and Concept :     Written by Kamal himself, his Magnum Opus has failed to live upto the hype given to it. The movie, loosely based on the ‘Chaos Theory’ starts off with Kamal’s narration and the story begins in the 12th century depicting conflicts between Shaivites and Vaishnavites with Kamal playing the role of a Vaishnavite, being made to drown tied along with a huge idol of the sleeping Vishnu, apparently for objecting against the Chola King(played by Napoleon) as the latter wanted the Vishnu idol to be drowned in the sea. Then the story zooms to the 21st century with our protagonist,Govindrajan, a biotechnology scientist working on a multibillion dollar project(The vial) which he then realizes can be a potential bio weapon capable of destroying nations, and after getting to know that certain people in his organization are going to use it for ‘other’ purposes, he decides to run off with the vial(to safer places). In the process, his friend and his  japanese wife get killed, the death caused by an American ex-CIA agent Fletcher. The death of the japanese wife makes the reason for the entry of a Japanese sensei which apparently hasn’t got anything to do with the main story. You will easily observe that many of the characters have got nothing to do with the main story and it rather becomes extremely boring and fails to keep the viewers entertained. Mallika Sherawat plays the aide of the American villain. Eventually, the story goes places from America to India following the journey of the vial and Govind comes across an orthodox Iyengar family where he meets Asin. The vial then ends up inside a Vishnu idol courtesy the 95 yr-old iyengar lady and the story moves at a snail’s pace from then on. Asin’s orthodox iyengar traits have come of well lest the train scene which could have been avoided. (Asin earlier capped the role of the 12th century Vaishnavite’s wife).

Synopsis: It can be eventually noticeable that the characters of Kamal with no relevance to the main story consume a lot of screen presence which is not only irritable but also makes one yawn. The 8ft tall muslim, the punjabi singer, the social worker to quote make up for a lot of screen presence and make the movie blah blah shit with no story connection at all. Kamal’s apparent disliking of George W Bush can be witnessed in the movie as he makes mockery of the latter throughout the movie. There are also some critical errors in the movie, like even though Bush speaks good American English at the start, his accent fails later and Kamal has reverted back to Indian style English. Ditto with the American villain. And we all know that no punjabi singer can speak Tamil as good as a normal Tamilian , which is another accent blunder. I do not know whether he spoke Japanese the way Japanese do either. The only saving grace was the telugu speaking Balram Naidu, who with his witty comic timing and dialogue entertains. Kamal has excelled superbly in this role and has spoken Tamil the way a telugu speaking person would normally speak. His humor goes a long way in providing relief to the otherwise horrendous pace which can be compared with the way a vehicle would move in Bangalore traffic. The peak of irritation was reached thanks to the song sequence of the punjabi singer and a parallel story of his suffering from cancer which makes up as a sorry excuse for the lack of emotional scenes in the movie. A movie could do without this pathetic emotion and this infact makes one wonder why this crap had to be tolerated at all in the first place.

All these drawbacks apart, a lot of appreciation has to be credited to the visual effects and the make-up team( the reputed make up team from the US). The background artwork and music have to be lauded and there has to be a special mention of the hospital scene where 4-5 Kamals share the screen. Great work. But all these positives do not make up for the essence, do they? Wasting tons of creative visual effects on characters with no meaning is one thing, and that at times Fletcher looks like his mask is going to fall off and the lighting effects of the ‘lighthouse’ Khalifullah seemed to have faltered at places. The Tsunami scene has been executed to a fairly good level. There is also a Karunanidhi look-alike and a clipping of the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha. Nagesh, unarguably the greatest supporting actor of Tamil cinema has been wasted in a small role. Occurences of a butterfly flying is funny. The reputed Chaos theory is better explained in the English movie ‘The butterfly effect’. Kamal has a very good concept but he fails to understand one keyword which is the defining factor-Entertainment. People have a feel-good factor only if they are entertained after watching 3 hours odd of moving images. And the movie fails to do just that. Mr.Kamal, if you are trying to base a movie on the Chaos theory, then just stick to that. Instead, it looks like this Chaos theory concept is just a lame excuse for the record of 10 characters,half of which can be rendered useless as they do not sync with the main plot. Everyone knows that you are a pioneer when it comes to acting, you do not have to don 10 roles to further assert on that fact. Not only have you ended up making the movie boring, but the movie fails to deliver on lines of Entertainment. And i feel that some peoples’ thinking that Kamals’ movies are way ahead of the times are rubbish. True, a few of his have really stuck a chord in the minds of critics and has received critical acclaim, but it is wrong to generalize on that by saying that he doesn’t compromise on certain facets for assurance of commercial success. This movie may not be sized measurably in the 2-time National award winner’s bandwagon. The K.S.Ravikumar-Kamal Hassan duo which worked very well for movies like Avvai Shanmughi,Tenali,Panchatantiram has failed for this movie. The movie would have fared a lot better if the focus wasn’t on the 10 roles and instead on the Chaos theory which could have been beautifully laid stress on. Kamal lacks the finesse of Mani Ratnam in putting the concept across and I am afraid that this movie will be perceived as a boring movie rather than an entertaining and concept-based one.

I would like to add that this review is not meant to offend any Kamal fans but myself being a Kamal fan, I could not digest my disappointment after seeing the movie. Not only has the movie failed to live up to its hype, it also made me yawn and my eyes were moist at the time of the Avatar Singh’s emotional cancer scene. Notwithstanding the other drawbacks, the biggest nonsense of the movie surfaced when the doctor tells Singh that the bullet wound caused blood loss cured him of his cancer. Oh! come on! everyone knows and we presume that even you, Kamal must know that cancer isn’t like a venomous snake-bite which can be cured by loss of certain amount of blood( I do not have to explain medical facts regarding this nonsense but I believe that I have a certain amount of common sense)

We all know that for a man of your stature, your movies are way better than those average dandanakka styled flicks and we, being your avid fans go to your movies with expectations befitting your capabilities. Please do not come up with disappointments such as this one again.

On a closing note, I would like to tell you that you can enjoy the movie if you go to see it without expectations of mammoth proportions( probably the mistake which I did). The fact that Dasavatharam received mixed reviews isn’t so surprising to me to say the least. Hope your next venture, Marmayogi, turns out to be promisingly different (which your movies are most of the time as always) and most importantly entertaining as well. All the best, Kamal

No matter what great reviews people write about this movie, it still cannot do full justice to this great combination which is surely going to make the cash registers ringing non-stop. I have had the privilege to watch Sivaji last week and i thought this would be an ideal way to pay my tribute to Thalaivar. Shankar, well known for his movies with a strong social message is not different with this one. The big budgeted movie is going to rake in huge amounts of money and there is no doubt, apart from setting records. It is a must-watch for any person who would like to see a good movie.

The story is mainly revolves around black-money and how the protagonist reveals this and does good to his land. Rajni, the undisputed master of style brings 2 new styles with his coin-flipping and gum popping. The number of times he says the word ‘cool’ is simply amazing. All songs are really superb needless to say with the magic of Rahman. Editing by Anthony is amazing. The first half has a good dose of comedy and the Rajni-Vivek duo is simply amazing. The first half might have little to do with the main story but nevertheless it is far from boring. Raghuvaran plays an important role that of a doctor. Shankar has tried not to overplay the image of the superstar and it has come out very well. All the stunts are executed very well and effective use of strings have been done unlike other tamil movies where heroes fly in air without proper physics. The no of hair styles that Rajni sports are simply astounding and the parts where he imitates MGR, Sivaji Ganesan and Kamal Hassan are worth mentioning. The film does not drag as one might have a fear. The villain’s role(Adiseshan) is played by a popular telugu actor Suman who has not overplayed his role. ‘Bose’ Venkat as his aide is good. The song Oru Kudai sunlight where Rajni appears white is yet another technological milestone in Indian cinema. The film has over 20 minutes of shooting at MSRIT, Bangalore and the climax has been shot there as well.
Sivaji might as well go down as one of the greatest movies ever made on indian soil and might as well be a feather in the cap for Rajni, Shankar and the others. Breaking all milestones and records not withstanding, one question still remains unanswered put by former Andhra Pradesh CM Mr.Chandrababu Naidu. The effect that it will have on indian society is still questionable. Surely Shankar has brought forward a very existent corruption in Indian democracy through Sivaji, but will be conceived by people as another Rajni-entertainer or a film with a strong social message? That perhaps reamins to be seen. IT raids on popular celebrities and former politicians have not been new, but what if the chief ministers of some states themselves have black money. The impact that this movie remains to be seen, nevertheless lets not forget the impact made by an earlier tamil movie Kannathil Muthamittal, a movie about the condition of Tamils in Sri lanka which initiated a dialogue between the Sri Lanka and India.

The range of this movie has certainly reached new heights, being the first tamil movie to be released in Britain. The depth of love that Rajni fans have for the demi-god cannot be described through words. While the whole of Tamilnadu celebrates like its just witnessing another diwali, the world admires and appreciates the movie. Sivaji is a movie which is free from flaws but the arrest of Rajni without even knowing what is in his laptop is a flaw which i hate to mention. Otherwise the movie is for most of the part flawless.

On the whole , SIVAJI-THE BOSS is a must watch regardless whether you are a tamilian or a teluguite if you are in India. Anyways the movie is doing well in other languages as well as seen from some of the movie websites it seems.. Truly SIVAJI is the boss indeed!!!