3.5/5
I think it would be quite an understatement to say that I’ve been hyped for Leo. Just ask my roommates. They’ve been hearing me chirp these three letters since last month, spring wild plot theories, brainstorm connections to the LCU, blast Naa Ready, Bloody Sweet, and Badass on repeat, and be anxious as heck like I had a ticking time bomb under me. I was ready to skip classes, labs, drive as long as possible, and spend as much as possible for the perfect theatrical experience for this. For the past one month, I’ve been looking forward to October 18th like it was the birth of a baby. Leo, the “once-in-a-lifetime” movie.
And in some way, both of the statements above, although exaggerated hold true to an extent. Leo marks the birth of a new form of commercial storytelling, heralded by Lokesh Kanagaraj who, bolstered by his massive path-breaking successes, now has the courage to stick true to his unabashed and wicked style of telling the classic stories we grew up on. It’s why the word bloody sweet holds so much emphasis- because it is Kanagaraj. In the way, making a movie with Thalapathy Vijay, the biggest star of TN right now who already dunked his style in cold water once, changes the entire game. Having Anirudh on the album makes it that once in a lifetime movie. We don’t know as an audience whether we’re going to get this type of combination, potential, and content-oriented mainstream movie that screams freshness again. So, the hype increases, but with it, the expectations.
With all those expectations, I must say that Leo does a mighty fine job of trying to meet them. It was always going to be an impossible feat to match up to the expectations that was piled against Leo, for more people will watch and someone will find something wrong. To their credit, Leo also gets some elements wrong; the writing in the second half becomes under-developed and too broad, not giving the payoff that the audience craves.
But Kanagaraj isn’t a flawless filmmaker. He never pretends to be, openly admitting his blips and inspirations, and inherently his voice does have some roadblocks. What he is though, is exceedingly original. Its HIS movie. It’s HIS flaws. It’s HIS inspirations. The way he approaches a subject and executes it in the most creative and visceral way possible is commendable and cements his stance. And Leo, Leo just exemplifies that. Throughout the movie, Kanagaraj sets forward a brand of fresh storytelling with his courage to attempt a character study with multiple shades. When the writing is prime, Kanagaraj is at the top of his game, but even when the writing goes south, Kanagaraj the director infuses creativity at every stop he can to give the audience that epic movie in his voice. It’s a major success when he’s succeeded in bringing out the ACTOR Vijay. Ultimately, it creates a movie that doesn’t reach its sky-high potential, but is still very satisfying.
PLOT:
Parthiban (Thalapathy Vijay) is a calm, conflict-avoiding coffee shop owner in Himachal Pradesh with his wife Satya (Trisha) and his kids. When serial killers/robbers enter the area, Parthiban makes decisions that sends him down a brutal path, majorly in which Antony (Sanjay Dutt) and Harold (Arjun Sarja) claim him to be Leo, a ruthless killer, something Parthiban keeps denying. The journey of Parthiban throughout this tumultuous path makes up the rest of the story.
WRITING:
Lokesh Kanagaraj’s writing has mostly never bowed down to commercial elements, barring Master, and Leo is no different. He writes it in tandem with Rathna Kumar and Deeraj Vaidy, who according to Rathna Kumar wrote the emotional scenes and action respectively with Lokesh. Leo as a movie walks through a raw character study that examines the journey of the titular character and the struggles he has to go through. Lokesh’s previous venture, Vikram, was a seamlessly written effort that intertwined its screenplay quite brilliantly throughout, going back and forth with razor sharp precision before exploding onto the scene with payoff after payoff layered strategically. The subject hand here is different, but Kanagaraj almost does the exact same here; make sure to take us through the struggle of Parthiban in the first half and his present state of mind, establishing it through well written scenes, but where he fails to match up to the standards he has established before hand is with the payoffs and seamless transition. It’s a shame that his structure lends this all for the second half, so the writing throughout feels quick and underdeveloped, something that the director Kanagaraj has to make up for. But let’s delve into the writing deeper for now.
The plot itself, as Lokesh makes evidently from the first frame (literally, he credits it), is History of Violence. Where it differs is Lokesh adapting his style, which means taking out the raw exploration of the main character’s family and how they react to it, as well as the way violence FOLLOWS around the main character for the most part. Instead, Kanagaraj fashions the plot with the same on-paper beats as History of Violence, but reduces the character exploration part and replaces it with a more commercial exploration of the character’s life events.
That’s not to say Kanagaraj doesn’t do this at all; Kanagaraj’s writing does extremely well in setting up and alluding to the events, akin History of Violence, as well as has his fair share of character exploration and understanding through the proceedings. The first half does a great job of accentuating to us why Vijay feels the way he does the moment a crucial action block happens, highlighting his mental state of mind. But it doesn’t give us the payoff to this exploration, rather replacing it with action and plot-forwarding elements that dilute the character study angle of the source material.
As a result, the movie does become a bit predictable, but to his credit Kanagaraj never lets the movie feel routine and overdone. Arcs are connected fantastically, emotionally there is a very good conflict, the action comes at deserved times as Lokesh spins together a tale of an ordinary man in un-ordinary circumstances. We’ve seen it before but the writing is strong at the core. Kanagaraj chalks out a good plot that serves more as a twist on the classic Baasha template with excitingly written elements. It has the mass elements, just in a new angle. All things said and done, Kanagaraj’s plot is simple, with an attempt to explore more but wholly never fulfilled.
The screenplay starts off very strongly, as the plot itself has provided, but ends up becoming too rushed and too commercially centric as it goes on; nonetheless entertaining, but just a bit disappointing. Kanagaraj’s screenplay is raw and visceral from the first frame; no strings held back, no shortcuts, just pure violence to achieve the central themes highlighted throughout the screenplay. Violence is a big one and Kanagaraj does not shy back. Necks are cut, legs are severed, hands are displaced, mouths are shoved into tissue holders, and needless to say, loads of bullets are fired. With the violence shown so viscerally, Kanagaraj highlights violence as a premiering theme throughout and centers Parthiban’s character around it, creating contrasts but also a fashioning character study the moment Parthiban also lends himself to the violence. Once audiences rewatch, hopefully they understand the gravity of the “I’m Scared” scenes; it shows crucial plot elements that are executed well and written amazingly.
Throughout the first half, the screenplay does not miss many beats. Sure, it would have been nice to have a bit more tidily written scenes around the serial killers, who start off with a lot of creepy promise but eventually disappear from the scene into a fading thread. But Kanagaraj knows his focus and keeps the screenplay tight as ever. From the first scene, he writes it with precision that is focused at establishign Parthiban and his surroundings before delving into the man he is now.
Perhaps a very good scene is when Parthiban describes a “picture yourself” scenario of shooting a killer, interspersed with actual killers killing their next victim. The dialogue and construction of that scene works in the moment, but it works so much better when Parthiban himself is thrown into that situation and has to make a decision that he advised against. Contrasts are always used in. themovie, especially with the editor’s split frame, but the writing has it too. Kanagaraj’s screenplay maintains layers to it but the focus never wavers; everything. is to highlight Parthiban and his struggles, mental, societal and physical.
It’s what makes it so compelling, especially when the coffee bar scene happens, the best scene in the movie. The screenplay raises important questions, and with the setup of the family, drives forward the point of Parthiban and who he is emotionally. The name “Leo” is not even introduced until 5 minutes before the interval, done purposefully to help us understand who Parthiban is BEFORE introducing this Leo to us in a interval bang that goes back and forth; weaker than other Lokesh interval bangs but still amazing.
The second half’s screenplay is where it goes wrong. Kanagaraj fails to create writing that develops the antagonists abundantly while the emotional beats that serve as the core to this emotional story are rushed through. Particularly, the flashback is where it’s evident that there are different writers. Styles clash, and it’s very unevenly presented from a writing point of view. Kanagaraj’s writing does become messy here as the focus of the story becomes diluted, and thats largely with the way Kanagaraj’s story and HOV is set up. The source material introduces its main antagonist late, but Kanagaraj goes through the antagonists development too quickly. It ends up creating a very undercooked feel.
It seems very rushed in the way Lokesh’s writing team approaches the second half, evidently something that is becoming his weakness to an extent. All of the events go through very quickly, and although are entertaining due to execution, at the end have no substance, becoming very repetitive soon. There is no development of any of the secondary characters as well, including characters that make or break the conflict at a point. A cameo from Madonna Sebastian comes in confusion and leaves in confusion, but she is central to the story inherently. Why wasn’t more time spent? Yes, there is a lot of content, but when the explanation of the character your movie is named after and the antagonists is underway, it’s important to let it marinate with the audience.
It still maintains coherency because the screenplay in the second, for its flaws, maintains its event to event flow; it never deviates from the main story at hand and goes across each event methodically to still unravel the story. The events themselves are not too convincing, but the screenplay manages to go across each one. Naa Ready is also a smart choice; juxtaposing celebration with imminent doom increases the stakes of the song and sets the motions in order. It also, amidst the lack of clarity, hits it emotional peak with a scene from Vijay and Trisha (written beautifully) while having action sets that look good. I especially love the way it was concluded, the last 5 minutes. It represents the theme in its most central light, something that isnt something we see often with commercial movies. Because of these, the movie is still enjoyable in the second despite flaws.
And the LCU references. As Udhay confirmed, Leo is an LCU movie. The first two work well, especially the first one to help with the universe feel. The last one does feel a bit forced but lights the theater on fire, excusing it to an extent.
All in all, the writing shows flashes of brilliance, maintains a solid tempo throughout, but also has its fair share of dips and messy structures, particularly in the second half where the flashback comes into play and an attempt to hurry throughout the story is evident in Kanagaraj’s writing.
DIRECTION:
Kanagaraj as a director is absolutely on fire. There isn’t many blips we come across as his staging is second to none, the action infuses creativity to separate out each one, and the way certain scenes are executed to maintain emotional or plot related points are supreme. It’s a reason that even in the second half, the movie is enjoyable. He presents the movie in a way that fans can explode, but also in a way that the craft is honored. His style juxtaposes both a more delicate approach to the scenes that demand us to observe every beat of the story, but accentuate a high octane speed throughout the moments that demand a intense action experience.
Firstly, it’s worth mentioning the execution and commitment to the vision that Kanagaraj pulled off. Leo was shot in 6 months, with not a day wasted in filmmaking, and although the rush can be told in the writing, the same cannot be said for the directing on any level. Kanagaraj narrates his story and stages scenes with a steel grip throughout, and in the time its a feat that he’s got this output on. One does wonder whether more time would have improved the quality of the film, but the vision, planning, and execution of Kanagaraj isn’t matched by many in Tamil cinema right now.
Not to mention that he doesn’t take any shortcuts and keeps true to his voice, a relief since their previous collaboration, a sore disappointment in my opinion, catered too much to the star rather than the actor of Thalapathy. From the first scene, we know what we’re in for; no-nonsense, visceral, and realistic violence wrapped into a convincing story, executed with the same realism. Kanagaraj holds no bounds to cater to the star and set up his world and the way he likes. Throughout the movie, there’s this sense of eerie unsettlement that causes one to always be very on edge, attributed solely to the tone that Kanagaraj has in his movies. It’s what arrests the audiences to the screens in movies like Kaithi, where the more the conflict reveals the more we feel gratified and even more hooked. It’s not the same precision, but it definitely is some of similar impact.
His biggest strength is his contrasts and the way he uses staging. Split frames work it’s way throughout the movie to represent duality of characters, one character, or many characters, but ultimately the focus remains to all develop one singular point: Who is Parthiban? It works to great effect and adds creativity into the movie, something that Kanagaraj does heavily. Kanagaraj’s staging has always remained something of great interest to me; one needs to look no further than the interval of Vikram, where everyone knows who is under the mask but Kanagaraj still manages to set the stage on fire with a great narrative style from the wedding scene. Here, his staging is equally insane; look to the diner scene where every single element of the diner is used to perfection with Paramahamsa and Anbariv helping on second fiddle with camerawork and fights respectively. By the end, we know the attachment Vijay has to the diner, how destructive the fight was, and how destructive it will be in his life. His lens on the story symbolizes great work throughout to breathe life into a tried and tested template.
The strength of Kaithi was the freshness of the concept. The strength of Vikram was the screenplay. The strength of Master was the characterizations. The strength of Leo is the sheer unbounded creativity. Adding onto the brutal style of Kanagaraj, as a director he ups his creativity to present very basic scenes in a stirringly fresh light. It works in the first half like an icing on the cake, but it quite literally saves the second half. In the first half, when the emotional connection pans out, the wickedly different introduction of the serial killers with ample Hollywood tributes hooks us from the get go. When Parthiban goes through his inner crisis, Kanagaraj and Anirudh combine to present a weirdly satisfying potpourri of shots and angles that gives us an aspect of the other dimension. All of this works when the writing is good, but when the writing weakens the creative direction saves the show. The execution of Naa Ready to juxtapose two completely different emotions followed the one-cut action scene with a moving camera is sheer brilliance as a director; the precision is there as Kanagaraj takes the movie with the most authenticity to still let the entertainment remain. When the movie needs to be serious, Kanagaraj gets true to core emotions showcased as raw as they can, adding spices of dark humor and staging camera angles fantastically. You can argue Leo doesn’t develop everything from a writing perspective, but you cannot deny it is bloody creative when it needs to be.
All of this combines to give us a very authentic experience at the movies for a action movie, something that Indian cinema has lost as its own. In the efforts to showcase cool and cutting-edge action, movies like Pathaan lose their voice and become cheap mimics of the Mission Impossible or Jason Bourne series. When a movie tries to bring up drama, it waters down its proceedings with commercial elements or copies half of its scenes with poor staging. Its a relief we have directors like Kanagaraj and Lokesh, who take their subject, good and bad, and produce it with the most faith in their vision. No matter the flaws, its that commitment to a unabashedly true experience that carries it through.
The one drawback in all of this would be the pacing. Yes, Kanagaraj does take his time throughout the first half to flesh out such a realistic and grounded portrayal of Parthian and his world crashing around him, but when it gets to the meat of the conflict, he zooms through to hurt the weak writing even further. None of the antagonists are developed on paper, and there’s only so much staging a director can do when narratively, we as an audience have no time to actually understand the events, let alone connect to them. Angles are introduced seemingly from the middle of nowhere and goes through with it VERY quickly; ideas such as Leo Das abiding just by his family’s word through the killing of a friend don’t have the impact they should have in theory. From a narrative standpoint, for someone to narrate most of the story with so much grip and lose their grip when going through the flashback, arguably the most core element of the story, douses the movie down a little bit.
Lokesh as a director regains some of his mojo in the climax, but even that is a little bit dragged out. Apparently, there were also some different versions of Leo premiered around the world, so I got the version where the ending is not the final reveal but the climax is, so by the ending you know the reveal. The version I got wasn’t necessarily worse, but it did end up dragging out the climax as the suspense is gone to an extent. Regardless, as a audience member Lokesh’s direction saves the ship, especially in the latter half. The writing does go downhill but the direction is on point throughout.
PERFORMANCES:
THALAPATHY VIJAY THE ACTOR! Why have you come so late into your career and why do you not come about more often? The titular star is absolutely on fire with his act, correctly capturing every angle of the dual shaded characters he has to portray. Its evident Lokesh has centered his characterization of Thalapathy on fire and ice, and boy does Vijay portray it so well. As Parthiban he is like a sensitive flower, calm and emotionally so versatile. The diner scene and emotional breakdown with Trisha remains as highlights as Thalapathy showcases the grief and catastrophe of a man who turns to violence and has to deal with the world. As Leo, he is on another level of swag and attitude, although the character itself lends itself similar to what he’s done in the past. Regardless, after about 3 minutes into the movie you don’t see Vijay, you just see the characters. Top performance of his career. Special mention to the title card which is absolutely amazing. Trisha looks amazing, but past that she also puts in a very good act. In the scope she has, she matches Thalapathy’s commitment to the character. All of the characters do well, but don’t have the space to be standout. Sanjay Dutt does well in his space, Arjun looks menacing, and GVM is very composed in his role as well. Myskkin steals the show for a little with his dark comedy while Sandy master maintains the creepy vibe of the movie well. Madonna Sebastian feels wasted, while the surprise cameo from a LCU movie does well too.
TECHNICALITIES:
Regardless of the writing deficiencies, the technicalities are as always brilliant. Anirudh is classic Anirudh in this movie, lifting the movie with his tunes and BGM where it needs to be. Personally, it ranks lower than Master and Vikram for me because of how versatile and amazing each tune was, but is still good. The songs are as always amazing on screen, with Naa Ready picturized beautifully, and the BGM is good too. It is versatile but doesn’t have the punch of the previously mentioned movies. However it still packs an impact and remains as a positive; the Lokiverse 2.0 BGM at the end sets the screen on fire. Manoj Paramahamsa’s cinematography is superb. The camera movement, the lighting, the sheer visuals of the settings of Himachal Pradesh, everything is done very brilliantly to accentuate Lokesh’s vision. Watch out for the go-down action fight and the coffee bar scene. Editing by Philomin Raj is good for the most part; no exceedingly rough cuts but does drag in places. Dialogues are mixed; some hit very well, some are rudimentary. Production values are top-notch and mounted well.
SUMMARY:
Look, Leo was one of the most hyped projects of the year for me, and I cannot say for a minute that I was disappointed. Did I think it could be better? Sure, there were areas that the movie could have sharpened. But I am a fan of Lokesh and the creator he is, especially when he hits his stride. He did that for all of the first half, lacked a little bit in the second half, but overall produced an exceedingly original and rustic portrayal of a tried and tested script, something that I think is a victory in itself. Positives include Thalapathy Vijay’s career-best performance, the first half, creatively original direction from Lokesh, technicalities, the diner scene, and the screenplay analyzing the character of Parthiban. On the flipside, hurried writing, underdevelopment of the flashback and key characters, and predictable beats in the script throughout hurt the movie to an extent. Leo is a treat if you know what. to expect; not lower your expectations, but know that, good or bad, it’s a unabashed Kanagaraj film with the biggest star of TN right now. And that itself is a victory.
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