Beast: Slander, Callous and Shabby

Beast Review

Star Cast: Vijay, Pooja Hegde, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley, VTV Ganesh, Shine Tom Chacko, and Liliput Faruqui
Directed by Nelson
Cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa
Edited by Nirmal

Nelson Dilip Kumar started out as a comedy writer for TV shows and then worked his way up to becoming a director. Later, he turned into a director but that film got dropped mid-shoot. With the help of composer Anirudh, his close friend, he came into recognition as director of Kolamaavu Kokila. Doctor made him hugely popular as “Vera Maari” Nelson. This brief history about Nelson is to give you an idea about his background before entering into films. He thinks like a comedy writer first and then as a complete filmmaker. Any writer or filmmaker has a go-to trait in their art or craft. Nelson’s go-to is comedy. When that doesn’t work, his film also falls apart. Did Beast comedy work or not?

 Spoiler Alert

Let’s positively look at things in Nelson’s typical style.

Positives of Beast

101 Ways to write a video game…

When you want to make a video game, you design a scenario that seems probable in real life but improbable to win from. A soldier who is going through PTSD due to a mistake he was forced to commit, is found in a hostage situation. He lost his trust in his fellow agents and the Government. So what will he do as a one-man army? This is a nice scenario for a big hero action movie too, but then the imagination needed to be something different and very new.

Nelson made Vijay sleepwalk

When a person loses time to even sleep properly they tend to sleep anywhere. Here, Vijay slept through his role in every other scene except in action sequences. Why? He got to work out for hours together to look like million bucks, while achieving that body he forgot to sleep, and hence in scenes where he needed to emote, he just couldn’t. Atlee, Murugadoss worked hard to change the perception that Vijay cannot emote as well as his peers but Lokesh and Nelson brought vintage Vijay back. Lokesh Kanagaraj at least gave Vijay a few moments to not rest but Nelson gave him all the rest, he needed.

How to write a comedy that lacks punch

Beast gives a worthy lesson on how to write comedy that lacks punch. Few comedians who never perform well on shows like Jabardasth also perform better once in a while but a man who delivered comedy gold moments like “Ennaku Kalyana Vayasu”, Anbuthasan monologue in Kolamaavu Kokila and Yogi Babu, Rowdy duo punches in Doctor failed to even use them. He just helps you to learn how your comedy taste can go wrong when you create a scene just for the sake of comedy by using old guards for security services. You can use one or two old guards for jokes but the entire service is being run based on them, Vera Maari Nelson Vera level. When you have so many good comedians, using VTV Ganesh, that you are in bad form, is just an example of how imaginative Nelson thought for this screenplay. Bravo.

How can you collapse the entire screenplay structure

You can learn how you can collapse the entire screenplay structure that your film is based on by watching Beast. Bit by bit in each scene the film loses its audience and this kind of lethargic writing needs awards.

Dances in Songs

If you want to know how well a popular song can be damaged with gymnastics just tune into Halamathi Habibo song and watch the steps. Saridhana??

Great non-performers

In a film where Vijay sleepwalked, others tried to compensate by overacting. Mainly, the man who played the politician tried his best to do all the actors’ acting single-handedly. Well, the rest of the others just let him do his bit by not performing at all. Kind hearts.

Negatives of Beast

Decent to Good BGM

Anirudh Ravichander tried his heart out for his friend and fans of Vijay. But his friend never showed up.

Smart Selva

Selva Raghavan works as an actor in Nelson universe. And rightly, others tried to overshadow him.

This review is not to just say that a filmmaker has failed. Everyone does. I respect the hard work and hardships that the team might have gone through to finish Beast. But the effortlessness that Doctor or Kolamavu Kokila had come from efforts put in the script. Here, efforts are put in to show Vijay like a God. Fans shout “Vijay Ku Kumbiduvom enna Thalapathy ku usure kudupom” (We will worship to Vijay and if he asks we die for him too) and “Ajith Kadavul” (Ajith is My God), but if to take it seriously and try to represent it on screen and even take a one-man army to ridiculous extents that is when people will show the mirror. Take Doctor, film has a plot that is incomprehensible. But it doesn’t leave the practicality for jokes. It showcases what an Army-trained doctor can do using some untrained civilians. Jokes work because Nelson keeps them away from serious scenes. Here, jokes come in a very serious situation that too with non-actors trying hard. As a director, he cannot just hope that Vijay will carry on his shoulders everything. The jokes are so bad that you hope someone else wrote the entire script than the ones did. You don’t need songs but you need emotion to carry on properly like in Die Hard, Money Heist, or Vishwaroopam.

Vishwaroopam had a believable RAW agent and Kamal Haasan used the help of the army to complete one-man army missions. Some seriousness in handling those portions would have helped the film to shine. You can troll everyone when you take nothing seriously but give your work everything. If you lose that penchant to give it everything and rush to cash in on the popularity, it won’t take much time to lose it all too. Nelson is smart enough to learn this and if he doesn’t he will end up like that mad goose that thought people were giving it respect but actually were respecting it for the golden eggs it was producing. Once it stops, they will fry for lunch or dinner. Idu purinjukuna Beast Needane – Saridaana ( If you get it you’re the Beast – Issokay?)…

Beast Review