Puli

Well the new movie Puli from writer director Chimbu Devan severely lacks one thing which was there in his other creations; uniqueness. With events unfolding in a dull way, this Vijay starrer fails to entice the viewer with its content and conception. With erratic mix of the humor in a predictably too simple story with the aid of not so good visual effects, Puli is a below average entertainer.

Maru Dheeran is sort of the leader of a group of people who are forced to live by giving money to the more powerful “Vethalar”. The life for these people were going smooth in this usual way until one day the rude Vethalar men decided to attack them and during the process they took Maru Dheeran’s love interest (character played by Shruti Haasan). The film basically is about the journey of Maru Dheeran to get her from the mighty Vethalar. How he accomplishes that and what all things he gets to know during the process is what Puli discussing. (I hope the names I used are correct.)

There was this troll once the teaser released about Vijay’s look in the film (Trimmed hair and French beard) and the reply was that it is a time travel film. Well it is not a time travel concept and with almost all the other characters having this typical period film look with long hair I haven’t found a genuine reason for presenting the hero in this fashion. Okay leave such silly issues and focus on the content. Well the content is pretty much a perfect film for the kids who aren’t that exposed to Hollywood flicks. For the elders there isn’t any layer of excitement or conflict that looks unpredictable or surprising. If somebody asks you to narrate the story of Puli, a minute or two would be more than enough. The spoof feel which was there in Chimbu Devan’s other films was missing here. With songs annoying with its unnecessary presence, Puli looks too stretched out.

On screen I wasn’t that impressed by Vijay’s performance. It is that typical style of his, but in this character it looks like what we call as overacting. Shruti Haasan and Hansika Motwani don’t have much of a performance oriented scenes in this movie. They were good in what they were expected to deliver; belly dancing. Sudeep and Sridevi delivered a good performance. The rest of the cast comprising of actors like Thambi Ramaiah, Aadukalam Naren and many others were okay in their respective roles.

Making wise this is an ambitious effort from Chimbu Devan and the lack of perfection in the visual side of the film affects it very harshly. The script which wasn’t having much of an original content needed a visual spectacle to work, but the overall tackiness in the visual effects department makes the film visually underwhelming. The way the visual effects team made the Black Leopard and the giant tortoise was impressive on a detailing level, but the dynamics of these CG creations was a letdown. The remaining visual effects of the film also failed to blend in. You could easily distinguish the scenes that had CG and the ones which didn’t have CG. The DI was also quite inconsistent. Natty’s visuals were fine. The edits were a bit dizzy towards the second half. The music department wasn’t that great and the placing of songs were awkward.

Overall Puli isn’t unbearable, but it is a completely unexciting narration. The rating for the film is a generous 2/5. Except for Thambi Ramaiah’s “licking” jokes there isn’t much that will entertain you in this two and a half hour long film.