Billa 2 - One Man Show

How difficult is to create hype on a movie and meet the expectations? It is easy said and done when its met convincingly and most of the times the fire power behind that effort would go unnoticed and taken for granted. Billa 2 is undoubtedly the most anticipated Tamil film of 2012 and that is only because of one name - Ajith. His huge fan following and some superb teasers/trailers created a hype that is even bigger than his last outing in Mankatha. Tainted as India's first prequel, the makers further boosted the expectations by depicting Ajith as an Lankan refugee. 


While the story unveils the rise of an ordinary refugee to a dreaded gansgter is a no brainer, Ajith perfectly fits the bill and sets up the platform nicely for the show. DASHING is one word to explain Ajith's looks and his screen presence. He simply carries the movie with his charisma and any other actor would have to struggle to match his looks and he has underplayed the role very well. 

Having picked by Kamal Hassan to direct his Unnai Pol Oruvan, Chakri Toleti promised a lot to be an exciting talent. He replaced Vishnuvardhan who could not accommodate dates to direct this flick as Vishnu was commited to complete Pawan Kalyan's Panjaa. He along with an american screenwriter Eric Felberg collaborated to form the story and the fairly engaging first half portraying Ajith's transformation to an established ganster were inspired from Al Pacino's all time classic Scarface. Billa 2 fairly engages audiences for good first half of the movie and loses it steam in the second part. Chakri Toleti has made a huge mess of it and lost a golden opportunity. I dont know what else he could ask for. 


The biggest strength next to Ajith is RD Rajashekar's cinematography which i think was his best after Kakha Kakha. Writer Era Murukan also scores with his apt, powerful and thoughtful punches which enhances Ajith's larger than life character. However, Chakri has inappropriately used them in places. Yuvan's background score is apt and songs are not properly utilized. 

Referring to my original question, this movie surely created a tremendous hype but i am afraid if it had lived up to it and that's where people like Shankar standout. If not for Ajith, the movie would have been a real dud, thanks to his fans and the opening he has. Unfortunately even he could not save the movie on the whole.

Positives -
1. "Thala" Ajith
2. RD Rajashekar's Cinematography.

 Negatives  -
1. Chakri Toleti's direction, story, screenplay, casting, song placement and everything.
2. Ajith's poor selection of director.
3. Heroine??

Verdict - 3/5. A Classic example of how a director can spoil a big star's movie despite having a good team. Chakri truly missed his chance to prove himself. Ajith, who was once known for his selection of directors especially the new comers, has to stop making poor choice of directors after opting out directors like Mani Ratnam, Gautham Menon, Bala etc in the past. 

Eega/Naan Ee

SS Rajamouli  - All the way!!!!

When most of the film makers aspire to cast protognists who boasts huge fan following, here is a director who chose to be different this time and chose a fly to play one despite having a tag of "King of Masala". He surely deserves huge rounds of applause just for trying to break the jinx of "Hero Worshiping" films. Eega/Naan Ee is a pucca commercial entertainer and stands out for its innovative visuals. So a clear statement to all the "punch dialogue", "thigh slapping" heroes - even a fly can do your role so relax!. It is high time we realize that they are just normal actors and not immortal demi-gods. 

While most of us already knew the story and the plot which is not entirely novel, Rajamouli  is still able to hook the audience to the movie for most of the part with his skillful screenplay backed up by some amazing visuals. The movie starts with a random conversation between a father and child where the father is trying to narrate a story about fly and that to me was a brilliant idea in preparing the audience and making a statement about the movie and its genre. So no other logical questions arise. The movie is fun and thoroughly enjoyable. Kudos to Rajamouli who made this crazy idea into reality. He thoroughly excelled in all departments of film making especially his command over narrating the story. His team members also should be equally appreciated for this effort. 

Eega is also a Bi- lingual and released as Naan Ee in Tamil. It is a good attempt for making it as a bilingual by roping in Crazy Mohan which i thought was a brilliant idea to provide nativity to tamil audiences unlike a regular dubbed movie. Santhanam is good as always. However it cannot be compared to a bi lingual like a Yuva or a VTV/YMC. "Naan Ee" does have dubbing and lip sync issues  in few scenes but it can be completely overlooked given the content and visuals. All the other languages(Malayalam and Kannada) will have dubbed version of Eega. This visual treat is sure to entice all the kids and has all the elements to become a blockbuster not only in Telugu but also in other languages including Hindi. However, the romance portions were not up to mark and could have had more emotional quotient and pain. I wish they revisit the first 30 minutes and may be remove the songs; trim a little bit more when they take it to Hindi audiences.

Positives -
1. Incredible visual effects.
2. Rajamouli's screenplay and direction.
3. Senthil's Cinematography.
4. Keeravani's Background Score.
5. Sudeep


Negatives -
1. First 30 minutes.
2. Songs except for the montage song. I thought the songs should have been much better. Infact "No- Songs" is a much better option.

Verdict - 3.75/5 Rajamouli has a clear winner and truly transformed his imagination to silver screen. This movie is sure to have huge impact in Telugu Film Industry. A Must Watch!!!