Rajapattai Movie Review

**Spoiler-Free review**

It is difficult not to be disappointed in seeing Vikram play out such a routine masala movie like Rajapattai. It is a mystery why Director of Azhagarsamyin Kudhirai, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu and Naan Mahaan Alla had to resort to this pedestrian script. After Azhagarsamy not setting the Box Office on fire, looks like Suseendharan made this movie out of vengeance to prove it is easy to make formulaic commercial movie. The movie may have had some takers if it had been released before Dhool.

The story is simple and straightforward. The screen play is also uncomplicated. The first half of the movie is above average. The second half feels unrelated to the first half. The second half lets you down big time with long fight sequences that lack clear motives. One consolation is that the movie at 2 hours, 8 minutes and 12 seconds gets over before you feel the drag. 

After watching the movie, everybody would know why Sun Pictures walked out of this movie. The central villain/villie role is a re-enactment of "Sornaka" of Dhool fame. A number of people during the interval started talking about whether the story is hinting at Jayalalitha. It is a smart move by Kalanidhi Maran to walk out of this project. This could have landed them in trouble. 

Casting and Acting

Vikram sleepwalks the role with ease. It was refreshing to see Vikram in a commercial role after such a long time. His body language and looks justify the role of a Gym boy. Every scene involving Director K. Vishwanath and Vikram in the first half are the best ones in the movie. It is a delight to see the thespian Director who made classics such as Sankarabaranam, Salangai Oli and Sippikul Muthu providing the comic relief in this movie. When Viswanath says he was the one who taught Kamal Haasan how to act on a light-note, it is definitely believable.

On the downside, Dheeksha Seth is out of place and appeared clueless in many scenes. During the second half, her role is largely restricted to just appearing for songs. The main villie role of  "akka" character role is not convincing. Other side-kicks appearing through-out the movie sporting long curly hair locks will look all familiar.

Technical Department

As mentioned earlier, every department in the movie appears rushed. Production value feels low budget in many scenes. It was a disappointment to see that cinematographer Madhi was not given enough room to perform his role. Both songs in Italy were shot "yeno thaano" manner. One should see Shaitan(Hindi) to understand what Madhi is capable of. Madhi arguably did the best cinematography in 2011 from movies released all over India. Unfortunately, the DoP of Paiyaa, Veyil and Naan Mahaan Alla is highly under-utilized and was not given enough scope to showcase his talents.

Music

"Villathi Villain" is the only song that has been picturized well. Rest of the songs are just okay. "Laddu Laddu" song with Reema Sen and Shriya Saran appear in the end credits. Yuvan's re-recording is sufficient for this movie. One pattern with Yuvan's BGM is that whenever a muslim character dies in the movie, Yuvan provides the sad islamic tune with urdu verses playing in the background. This was first observed in Mankatha and also again in this movie. It just feels odd that nobody plays religious music when characters belonging to other religion dies. It is high time Tamil movies stop reinforcing such stereotypes.

Bottomline

Overall, audience watching the movie during the first weekend will walk in with high expectations they have on Vikram and Suseendaran. But, when they walk out from theatre, the question in the mind will be which one is worse -- Rajapattai or Kandasamy?