Annaatthe (Telugu: Peddanna) review: Same old Siva with the Rajini Touch
Rating: 2/5
It’s been a while since Rajinikanth had a release in theaters, and it’s been a while since Tamil cinema has had that big-budget blockbuster. Annaatthe has promised to be both as a family-friendly entertainer. It has released today on the occasion of Diwali, also dubbed in Telugu as Peddanna. Let’s see how it is.
Plot:
Kaalaiyyaan (Rajinikanth) is a village head who has a deep love for his sister Thangam Meenachi (Keerthy Suresh) and starts to develop a relationship with Pattu (Nayanathara). As his sister comes back after a break, Kaalaiyaan makes some decisions for his sister and just as everything is well, some conflict arises which throws everyone into turmoil. What will Kaalaiyyaan do? What will happen? This forms the story
Performances:
To say that Rajinikanth did well would be a severe understatement, even a disservice. What has happened is Rajinikanth shouldering of a movie that should have been absolutely abysmal in every way possible. Despite a good star cast, it’s only Rajini from frame one, be it the comedy or the emotion. The way he shoulders the half-decent comedy and the way he emotes in some of the scenes help the proceedings a long way. It’s a performance that isn’t anything new, yet lifts the movie to another level with both nostalgia and a killer act. Next, Keerthy Suresh does well in a role that is written very overdramatically with a lot of logical fallacies. She keeps emoting well despite it going over the top and ensures some sense in the emotions. Nayanathara is there just for namesake in many scenes; despite having a bit more screentime, she doesn’t make an impact. Kushboo and Meena don’t make any impact in roles that actually hurt the movie; their comedy lags out too much, and their performance doesn’t help. Jagapathi Babu is menacing in a role that fizzles out due to poor writing, while Abhimanyu Singh and Prakash Raj are very average. Soori is below par like other Siva movies, the rest don’t make an impact.
Writing/Direction:
Siva’s writing, especially his story, is stuck in the old age. Annaatthe is a remix of every 1990s-2000s story made in terms of tropes, with the same old things happening and more or less, a remix of every Siva movie in the past few years. The Kolkata angle is ripped from Vedalam (the location being used as a mere prop), while the village angle is Veeram and Viswasam reincarnated. The story is bare-bones predictable, but apart from this, it’s the same scene written over and over again, especially in the second half. The same scene happens with a different backdrop repeatedly, eventually diluting any freshness that could have come from the proceedings and leaving the viewer fatigued. The scenes end up ranging from cool to senseless very quickly; added with a routine backing, it doesn’t have much impact and ends up being a pile of scenes rather than a smoothed-out story. Additionally, Siva’s focus was clear from day one to be an unabashed tribute, but he starts and leaves so many arcs so conveniently, particularly Prakash Raj’s and Jagapathi Babu, that eventually even the tribute aspect of the movie ends up disappointing. Without a strong villain, the movie also becomes too repetitive. Overall, Siva’s writing and story are only lifted by Rajinikanth, but taking out the leading man at the core there is nothing there.
Siva’s screenplay is even worse. Despite the core story being routine and jaded, with a proper execution albeit Viswasam the movie could have been at least half enjoyable. Here, the screenplay is not only uneven but is heavily lagged out and choppy with events coming out of the middle of nowhere. It seems to be fight scene after fight scene and Thalaiva after Thalaiva, which is fine but with almost no flow to the story, the proceedings falter heavily. There isn’t a proper lead-up to most scenes; it is very random and comes out of the middle of nowhere, especially in the second half. The comedy written into the screenplay has its fair share of problems; for starters, it’s very lagged out and doesn’t have any impact half of the time. What should have remained as quick punches end up being extended to a full comedy block; added with the overaction of many of the actors, the comedy blocks end up being very tiresome. The screenplay, apart from being disjointed, is very stretched out, taking up unnecessary screentime and bringing more of a headache. Even as a Rajini tribute movie, the movie is below par at best as there is none of showing a 360 look at Rajinikanth; it is just the same thing over and over again. Nothing is fresh, nothing is new, and nothing brings the excitement to the table story and screenplay-wise; the only thing that keeps the movie afloat is Rajini and Imman, whose performance and BGM keep the movie somewhat engrossing. Siva’s narration and direction are tiresome, with the movie being narrated very unevenly, taking its own sweet time in the first half and not having any backing and rushing through scenes in the second half. As a result, there is plenty of lag generated, with scenes that could have been easily avoided. There is no flow or coherent string of events in the movie; Siva makes sure to just concentrate on Rajini, which even doesn’t work wholeheartedly and leads to almost every other element suffering.
Annaatthe’s first half is somewhat passable, but this is largely because of Rajini and the cinematography. Seeing Thalaivar that free on-screen after quite some time definitely set the viewers on a high, especially after an intriguing intro that takes place in a culturally rich land like Bengal. The movie then leads to the village portions in the form of a flashback, like most Siva movies; the title song here sets the spirits on an ultimate high to begin the movie. From here though, the movie lags out with unnecessary comedy and inspirational sermons, and no base to any of the proceedings. Despite Rajinikanth doing what he can to salvage these parts, the movie gives warning bells right off the bat as an amalgamation of incoherent ideas. Soori’s comedy doesn’t end up working, the comedy blocks are rather farcical, and the romantic track is insipid, with almost no backing like many masala movies. The emotions stay very melodramatic, especially after Keerthy Suresh’s entry. The movie solely remains somewhat interesting because of Rajinikanth’s earnest performance and the music by D. Imman, which keeps the movie on its feet at all times and gains some momentum. The movie gains some interest with Kushboo and Meena’s comedy, which brings some brief chuckles with punches and isn’t as unbearable as the previous comedies, but still overstays it’ welcome as it lags out entirely. Siva’s screenplay becomes very jumbled here, and it isn’t until after the Marudhaani song (shot very aesthetically) that the movie finally gets on track. The pre-interval emotional sequences are executed very nicely, with Rajinikanth’s acting swaying everything in the movie’s favor. The movie extends this momentum with Imman and the very good cinematography, and the interval is just mass defined, with Thalaiva swag on full display. Paired with the BGM, the interval bang setup up expectations for the second half quite well.
The second half of the movie goes completely awry, as the initial high isn’t there anymore to keep the interest of the viewers. So, when Siva’s story turns predictable and screenplay turns repetitive and outdated, there is nothing salvaging the movie at all and ends up dragging the movie along entirely. The second half starts with a flashback inside of a flashback, a very very routine one that halts some of the emotion, and from there the movie runs on very predictable lines with almost every scene following the next in a stale and routine manner. The proceedings turn senseless with some of the mass and warning scenes, which adds to the routine nature. Additionally, there is nothing fresh with any of the scenes or nothing light to help balance out the overt mass and repeated out blocks. Scene after scene, the same blocks come again and again to tire out the viewers. The action scenes that come with Rajinikanth are done well, particularly the motorcycle scene and the building scene, with Thalaivar’s swag taking over for the most part here and Imman’s pulsating BGM bringing whistles. But, excluding that, the movie completely misses its flow and ends up piling together all of the scenes together like a messy heap, not to mention that many scenes are directly lifted from Siva’s previous movies here such as Vedalam and Viswasam. There is no comedy or songs to balance out the serious tone of the movie, and when it keeps repeating the same thing over and over again with the same melodramatic emotions and unnecessarily inspirational sermons, the movie turns into an exhausting watch. Amidst this, random characters enter and leave in the most confusing of ways possible, adding new angles and bringing new dimensions into the movie not needed at all; all of this to eventually meet the same fate with Thalaiva. The climax, despite having some stylish action, has the same ideas as Vedalam’s climax and, with more melodrama, eventually ends the movie on an annoying note. Overall, with Rajini’s caliber, Siva could have done a lot more, but he ended up bringing a movie that, in one word, was disappointing.
Technicalities:
The tech department of this movie has saved the movie big time. D Imman has truly given his life for this movie, and it reflects, with songs that are absolutely fantastic and hair-raising and BGM that lifts even the most insipid scenes. I hope to see him in more big-budget mass cinema. Vetri’s cinematography perfectly encapsulates the mood of the movie, with colorful village aesthetics and dark city visuals, saving the movie sometimes. Editing by Ruben is very disappointing, with the lag not being chopped off leading to such an extended runtime and the good scenes being choppy. Dialogues by Chandran Pachaimuthu are ok, but get over the top. Production values by Sun Pictures are good as always.
Final Verdict:
Overall, Annaatthe is a movie that needed Rajini, but Rajini really did not need this movie. Positives are the Thalaivar Rajinikanth himself, amazing music and BGM, cinematography and production values, some action in the second half, and pre-interval and interval sequences. On the flip-side, predictable and age-old story lagged out and messy screenplay, repetitive tribute sequences, incoherent editing, melodramatic emotions and stale comedy, random arcs and weak characters, and stretched out lag hurt the movie severely. To sum it up, Annaatthe is a fan feast, but a bare morsel for normal viewers!
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