Ganesh_reviews_in_detail : LEO

Vijay steps out of his comfort zone! Spoiler free review!!

Oct 21, 2023

Unlike our esteemed censor board, I will give this article the rating it deserves and publish it without any unnecessary cuts/censors so that you, my reader, can get full essence of the article.
This is an A-rated review since swear words have been used liberally. Anyone below 15 years of age is definitely not the intended audience.

(Ilaya)Thalapathy Vijay has always been a very calculative person. His cinema career is a testimony to this fact (Who did these calculations is a discussion for another day :D). His filmography hardly had him doing experiments, playing negative roles or doing a film that is not family friendly. (Whether that was due to his father’s screening process is yet another discussion for another day!) He gave a Varisu just a few months ago and little did I expect he will make an absolute 180 degree turn to give us a Leo. The trailer told me what kind of Vijay to expect, and the film lived up to that aspect. It was so FUCKING great to see a star of his stature give no fucks about his “image” and surrender to the director’s vision! Hail Lokesh Kanagaraj who convinced Vijay to do this!!

Unfortunately, I can’t extend that admiration to Lokesh’s work in this film. I am still debating which one is Lokesh’s worst - Master or Leo. Man has definitely set the standard high for his films. So, even an above average film looks like a loss for Loki. Leo definitely has its moments but they are probably not enough to justify the expectations (and enormous hype?) it came with. Leo is the only film in Loki’s filmography until now to have a release date announced even before the shooting started. I mean Loki is (already) known for filming fast without inordinate delays and being very conscious about the producer’s money. With such a reputation, I wonder why he agreed to this “deadline” (which, by the way, is so unlike Kollywood. Were they trying to ape Bollywood here? - if yes, WHY?).

The deadline pressure showed up in the product in ways even Loki wouldn’t have expected. For starters, Loki’s trademark of well written antagonists has taken a massive beating. Both Arjun Sarja and Sanjay Dutt look terrific but their characters fall flat as the film progresses. Okay, that was an unintended metaphor for Leo, the film, as well. Shots are stylish, cuts are a feast to watch (loved the thalapathy title card and that cute tribute to the original format of History of Violence - comic strip kinda shots), color palette is probably the brightest we have seen in a Loki product, but the technicalities can only help so much when the story itself gets a little draggy and can’t hold the attention.

**Courtesy - Seven Screen Studio’s Release Day Tweet**

Leo also suffers from the first-half-nalla-pochu-second-half-mayira-pochu disease which many big-budget Tamil films suffer from. The heart of Loki’s writing - action scenes - also suffers from the same problem. Action scenes in the second half almost tires out the audience. Anirudh could not weave his magic either. Except Naa Ready (which the censor board ensured you don’t enjoy it completely), no song or background score hits the wotha podu! kola mass uh!! note - something that Vikram score did it in its sleep and something that is required for films like this. Some of Loki’s choices surprised us in pleasant and positive ways too. For instance, the casting and writing for the family portions is mostly good. Trisha, Mathew and that little girl nailed their roles perfectly. GVM’s role has worked for the most part, Mansoor is notable but Priya Anand is set property for most of the time. Sandy is terrific. This role is gonna open up more offers in acting for him for the way he has reinvented himself.

As much as Vijay wants to experiment, I think his stardom (and thus, his fans’ expectations) has always been and will continue to act as a golden cage for him. Vijay took upon a performance-oriented role and tried so hard, but he still seemed out of depth in some scenes. However, since his character is written in a certain way, we can give him some benefit of doubt here. Loki did give us the ithukku-munnadi-paakatha-vijay like he promised and despite ample scope (and temptation) to go the Baasha way with this film, Loki has tried out something new and original.

Last but not the least - LCU. I think social media has fucked the movie watching experience royally and it’s only going to get worse ahead. A generation ago, next work of an artist is usually influenced by the feedback he/she had received on his/her works up until that time. Nowadays, it seems like audience are influencing the product as it is being made. Yeah, I do like the democracy in this process, but the timing of this democracy is what we need to assess. LCU feels like the topping or last minute correction done on the dish just to meet the desperate customers’ (fans) expectations. Now the sad part here is - if those customers and other customers do not like the dish, the chef will be blamed. I mean, why can’t we first let the chef cook?

Post Scriptum - Parthi (played by Vijay) seemed like a character taken right out of Ajith Kumar’s real-life persona. Parthi wants the same things that AK wants in real life. Not to mention, there was a lot of backstabbing (figuratively) too XD. And no, this aint a spoiler. Action padam na sandai irukkum, sandai na sattai kizhiya thaan seiyum ;) Also this movie got promotions in AK style - no audio launch, late trailer release etc.
I don’t think we will ever be getting a bigger thala-thalapathy reference than this in Kollywood xD