K S Ravikumar’s Lingaa (2014) Movie Review
Movie: Lingaa
Cast: Rajinikanth, Jagapathi Babu, Sonakshi Sinha, Anushka Shetty, Kasi Vishwanath.
Director: K S Ravi Kumar
Music Director: A R Rahman
: Rockline Venkatesh
Released on: December 12th 2014
Censor Certificate: U
Runtime: 174.05 Minutes
Lingeswara (Rajinikanth) plays the scion of a royal family who returns to India after getting ICS studies in England. British appoint him as a collector to Singanoor. The drought situations and the water scarcity move him to the core and he plans to build a dam with the help of Britishers. But things turn around and he resigns his post as collector. Later, King of Gadwal Lingeswara plans to build Singanoor dam with his own expense and with the help of Singanoor villagers. With huge struggle and pressures he completes building the dam. Due to a major misunderstanding Lingeswara leaves the place and villagers lock the temple. After 70 years, Kasi Viswanath makes villagers realize the importance of reopening the Temple with the descendant of Lingeswara. Who is Lingeswara’s heir? Will he help the troubled villagers? forms the rest of the story.
Rajinikanth has given wondrous performance in a dual role with different get-ups. His mannerisms – vintage look in the pre-independence character is a good watch. Maximum Superstar energy is extracted from the choreographers. Anushka Shetty put on more weight for this film, in which her character is given less weight age. Debutant Sonakshi Sinha is fine her role, dubbing suited character well. Santhanam, Karunakaran and Brahmanandam failed to tickle some funny tunes. Kasi Viswanath, Vijay Kumar, Dev Gill, Ponvannan are okay in their limited roles. Jagapati Babu does not have much role to play in this film.
There is a lot of confusion as to what the director really had to portray in the film. The storyline has an uncanny resemblance to the Telugu film ‘Indra’.
The story of Lingaa, written by Pon Kumaran tries to talk about too many things at once. The story addresses linking of national rivers and have timeworn social angle. This film does a decent job of denoting the conflict, even mixing emotion with a bit of punches effectively, but after a while, when we are clearly aware of the strong message the filmmakers are resolute on conveying, it becomes a bit too repetitive. It treads a very thin line and often borders on being overtly preachy (I didn’t fail, I just postponed my success) rather than an entertainer. The screenplay, penned by K S Ravikumar and Pon Kumaran makes such a mingle-mangle of the whole story that the audience is left blasé and supremely disinterested by the end. Even the initial sequences in the film even remind us of robbery scene from How to steal a million.
On the music front, the arrangement part of A R Rahman’s music was better than his compositions. The track “Mona Mona Gasolina” best of the album. The background score is fine, aptly matches the gorgeous locations on the screen. Now about the best part of the movie which is its bedazing cinematography. The unexplored locations of Karnataka like Linganamakki dam in Shimoga district, Jog falls is something never seen before on the south screen. The visual appeal of the movie is simply spectacular and unique. The major disappointment of the film is its pace. It fails to grip the audience to the point of understanding what is going on and why. The story wins when audience wants to see dam gets completed. But the wait, the story takes a good 174 minutes to get to this point. Scenes near the end of the film feel too long and some editing scissors would have harmed this drama which rather stretches almost three hours. Fights in the film over the top and the final act just fail to excite the audience. Art work deserves a special mention for their work in the Pre-Independence era. The production values of Rockline Entertainment are fine.
All in all, Rajinikanth performance and great locales can only hold your attention for a while. The story doesn’t progress at a pace it needs to, you will find yourself shifting in your seat, waiting for the sobbing pre-independence flashback to end. Is Lingaa on your mind? Get rid of this pronto. This is a wreck of a movie strictly for Rajinikanth fans who might be looking for a helter-skelter three hours ride that is far more woozy than rash.
Survi Review: 1.5/5
Theatrical Trailer:
Recent Comments