“Higher the height, the greater the force of the fall.”
Even talented legendary directors fail in some phase of their career. But Nelson Dilip Kumar is one director who has seen the most impact when such a fall, or stumble, has occurred. Nelson is a director who has been celebrated for his entry into the film industry with his unique style and hands-on making. Having gained attention even in the early stage of his career with the success of Superstar Nayanthara’s Kolamaavu Kokila and Sivakarthikeyan starrer Doctor, next to those South India’s biggest superstar Ilaya Thalapathy Vijay has given him date for his third film.
But for some reason ‘Beast’ turns out to be a movie that does not live up to expectations. Naturally the trolls and such begin. But the truth is that the mockery was way above what Beast, a One Time Watchable, deserved. Either because it’s a Vijay movie, or because of the pre-release hype of the movie, social media saw scenes tearing apart the Beast and the director Nelson Dilip Kumar.
Many directors have been seen making bad films and receiving trolls, but it is in Nelson’s case that one has seen an emotional break down for him. Overall, the credit of the first two good films has gone down the drain. In Rajini’s speech in the Audio Launch of Jailer, there was talk of changing the director, from many parts of the Industry, you can understand how terrible the impact was made by Beast! After doing a worse film, Nelson Dilip Kumar came here with a negative image that many people do not get. It has also affected well in the film and his personal life.
So when the fourth film was announced with an even bigger superstar, nothing less than success could have been the thought of for Nelson. Whether Jailer gets a good report or not, it doesn’t seem to affect Rajini and Sun Pictures in a big way! They’re safe in Business as well as in Career aspects. But that was not the case with Nelson! So, if Jailer comes to change all that and work in a good way, it was Nelson who was going to get the best appreciation. A chance to change the negativity of the last movie on his own. Nelson seems to use it well. Or if it turns out like the beast or even worse, the teasing from the three industries was confirmed. All these things have been described to tell what makes Jailer special over a normal mass movie.
Coming to Jailer, it can be called a ‘massive entertainer’ in one word. A normal plot, that we’ve gone through in many mass movies before. But what makes Jailer special is some ingredients added to it. A character with an over-the-human setup seen in Annamalai and Padayappa or Enthiran. But here it’s executed terribly simply. Coming to that, the film is rich with Vinayakan’s villain role, violence scenes that are not so familiar in Rajini films, and elevation scenes that are perfectly placed in the middle of a fresh approach.
If a man who is into his age of 73 can create excitement in his walk, posture and even his smile and look, then that is something only a superstar named Rajini can do. Even when Nelson lifted the forgotten story with excellent dialogues and making and Anirudh lifted it with the magnificent music work at the beginning, Rajini and the senior Super stars from other Industries made 10 times the impact of it with the things mentioned above.
Nelson first introduced Rajini, who does not have the superstar image of playing and laughing with his grandchild in the starting of the Movie. Starting with his play and laughter, the film moves to the main theme very quickly and takes the last 15 minutes of the first half to another level. The last 15 minutes of the first half can be described as the top range of a commercial film. Nelson has caught the beginning of the second half almost in that range.
There was doubt as to what Nelson was doing by casting three senior super stars of the Mollywood, Sandalwood, Tollywood as well as from Sandalwood industries. But the way Shivraj Kumar portrayed Mohanlal and Jacky Shroff was simply superb. It must be said that Shivraj Kumar and Mohanlal are outstanding. While Shivraj Kumar had the same mass appeal as seen in films like Mufti, Mohanlal showed an impossible swag by completely stepping out of his comfort zone including costumes.
Vinayakan is a name that should never left while discussing about the cast. Unlike the usual Rajinikanth films, the villain stood shoulder to shoulder with the hero and sometimes scored higher than the hero. Unlike the usual villains, Vinayakan’s ability to handle humour has been used to great effect for the role of ‘Varman’ by Nelson. It goes without saying that it helped a lot with the methods used by Nelson to handle black humor well.
After Nelson, among the crew members, Anirudh becomes the backbone of the film; extraordinary talent. His background scores for each film are undoubtedly the best in India at present. In Jailer, Some lyrics and portions of the song ‘Tiger Ka Hakum’ were created exclusively for Rajinikanth. Really waiting to see Anirudh compose for the Greatest SRK in Bollywood, through Jawan. Jailer is rich with great lighting and gorgeous frames when it comes to photography. Needless to say, the editing department has excelled.
It is doubtful if there has been another director in the last several years who has been blamed as much as Nelson, who has been sidelined from many quarters because of a failed film. But he still faced it all with his spontaneous smile. The news spread that even he would be dropped from the Super Star movie. But the faith reposed by Rajinikanth and Kalanidhi Maran in the man directed by Kolama Kokila and Doctor has now been answered with applause and cheers filling the theater.
FF Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
By Devdath
