Review Overview
Performances
Screenplay and Direction
Technical Aspects and BGM
A hugely wasted opportunity!
With an all-star cast and crew and a lavish budget, what director Chimbudevan has managed to accomplish with Puli is quite baffling, to say the least. The film reeks of clichés, which are definitely avoidable in a fantasy flick and suffers from narrative efficiency ever since it takes off from the first scene.
Cast: Vijay, Sridevi, Hansika, Shruti Haasan, Kicha Sudeep, Nandita Swetha, Prabhu, Robo Shankar, Thambi Ramaiah, Vijaya kumar, Imman Annachi, Vidyulekha, Sathyan, Ali & others
Cinematography: Natty aka Natrajan Subramaniam
Music: Devi Sri Prasad
Editing: Sreekar Prasad
Art Direction, Production Designer & Costumes : T Muthuraj
VFX: RC Kamalakanan
Stunts: Dhilip Subbarayan
Written & Directed by: Chimbudevan
Produced by: SKT Studios
Release Date: 01-10-2015
Run Time: 02:34:00
With an all-star cast and crew and a lavish budget, what director Chimbudevan has managed to accomplish with Puli is quite baffling, to say the least. The film reeks of clichés, which are definitely avoidable in a fantasy flick and suffers from narrative efficiency ever since it takes off from the first scene.
As we all know, Puli narrates the story of Marudheeran (played by Vijay), who travels to Vedhaladesam to rescue Pavalamalli (played by Shruti Haasan), the love of his life from the tyranous clutches of evil queen Yavanaraani (played by Sridevi).
The scene set-up in the first half leads quietly with sequences set in a green farmland which is led by Prabhu. However, over the next forty minutes or so, the movie never takes off and proceeds leisurely. In his effort to offer equal screen space to all the lead actors, Chimbudevan has found himself in a trap, which implicitly lets down the storytelling completely. This is very visible in the way the character arcs of Shruti Haasan and Hansika are developed. Both groove for two songs with eye-catching costumes, boasting their assets to the fullest capacity and appear in three mundane scenes.
On paper, the fantasy elements devised by Chimbudevan look quite interesting. A gigantic tortoise, a one-eyed monster, talking birds, the beautiful Lilliput world to name a few. However, they remain only as placeholders to showcase VFX wizardry and not even a single fantasy element is used creatively to push the narration forward. Instead, the director takes the done and dusted route of suffusing ‘Amman’ movie elements to demonstrate thrills and awe to the viewers and fails miserably in the process.
Both Muthuraj and cameraman Natty have put in commendable effort to transform Chimbudevan’s middling imaginations on screen. VFX specialist RC Kamalakannan has seamlessly delivered the required elements for the script and that’s about it.
With miscast leads and underutilized technical crew, Puli is one of the costly mistakes Vijay has made in his career. The only solacing aspect of the film is the occasional smiles comedians manage to bring on our faces.
Puli Movie Review Rating: 2.5/5
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