Jilla

Everything that is needed for a so called Mass movie is there for the latest movie Jilla starring Mohanlal and Vijay. It is supposed to be a festival entertainer to please the fans of the lead actors and in that sense the movie gets it bulls eye. With all the typical flavors we are used to in a Tamil movie comprising of larger than life characters and overdose of emotions, Jilla is a watchable entertainer that has its moments to please those eccentric fans of the actors.

The plot here revolves around the main characters Shiva and Shakthi. Shiva is that typical local don of Madhurai who has ample number of henchmen to do his business. Shakthi is the son of one of his own men who died in an incident while protecting Shiva and his wife. Since then Shakthi is like a son to him and they share a great chemistry. An ideological conflict gradually arises between Shiva who is basically on the negative shade and Shakthi who was slowly drifting towards the humane part after some forced up changes in his life. The movie’s soul is in the journey towards the solution of this ego clash between the  two biggies.

The story has some surprising deviations at some points but those were not that cool or innovative. First half of the movie is that usual number filled with fights to make us whistle, added up jokes and also some songs without much relevance. Seeing Mohanlal and Vijay sharing a cool relationship will definitely thrill the fan in you.  But the movie fizzles just before the interval with the attitude change of the characters. There after things are quite confusing as some people who were so powerful in the first half began to look resisted. The inspiring police station speech and making fun of it in the next minute really questions the attitude of the character. The usual ideas of hatred, cheating, kidnapping, brother-sister sentiments and many others are there in the script to restrict your expectations. But Neason manages to create an end punch with a climax fight that gives an equal share to both actors and that saves the movie from being a letdown.

On screen, its ultimately a Vijay movie and the actor has performed reasonably well. His comedy acts in the first half were really unconvincing but it showed an improvement as the film went on to the second half. His dialogue delivery in the usual style with full of comas is worth listening to. Mohanlal on the other hand scored mainly with his screen presence. The screenplay hasn’t really sidelined his character but it wasn’t that great to see him speak Tamil with that Malayalam diction (especially Mannankatti). He surprised me with the flexibility in those fight sequences. Soori was good as the quintessential comedian. Kajal Aggarwal was okay in her heroine avatar. Sampath played his part nicely.

In the making side Neason has partitioned the scenes of both actors quite smartly. But the lack of imagination in his writing part takes the charm away from the movie even though it got a dream star cast. At some points it reminded me of Veendum Chila Veetukaaryangal (Father-Son relationship and the sister’s wedding- Its not a comparison). Cinematography was nice. Songs were good. The editing of the fight sequences was also worth mentioning.

Overall Jilla is average for me. The experience of watching the movie with such an enthusiastic audience was great fun. But the movie is not that great to be remembered for a while. My rating is 2.5/5. If you have plans to watch it, make it happen quickly as it demands a full house theatrical watch to get entertained.