Not quite the Greatest Of All Times, but Vijay’s new sidekick of film has plenty going for itself for those who crave for his antics. The screenplay doesn’t stop at being an out-and-out Vijay vehicle: it takes time to stop and actually punctuate the hagiography with inhouse references. For example, in the gripping if far-fetched climax, Vijay asks his screen daughter who her favourite is.
“Thalapathy,” she moans, and then serves a head bang to the villain who has her in his grips.
Oh yes, cricketer Dhoni also shows up for the baggy climax.
It would be no exaggeration to say that this movie about gross exaggerations leaves no stone unturned to ensure that Vijay fans go home satiated. As for the rest, do they really matter?
As a non-Vijay fan I must say the way Vijay plays the younger of his two roles, a terrorist-assassin-disruptor named Jeevan who gets into the wrong hands and grows up into a an overgrown child-monster named Sanjay, is remarkably stylized. He kills his victims with an air of mischievous apology, and he remains a unrepentant villain right till the end.
For Vijay, the superstar, this is a huge triumph of dedicated acting: he is a villain and he is not apologetic about his misdemeanours.
Wow, Thalapathy, take a bow!
And in case his fans get offended by his dedication to diabolism, there is the other Vijay, the upright country-loving father who fights the baddies like Bruce Lee and emotes in bereavement like Kamal Haasan.
The attempt here is to showcase Vijay’s multi-faceted talents, perhaps a preamble to his next project which if we are to believe his marketing team, will be his last, and hence more amped up in celebrating the star’s stardom.
The good new for Vijay’s fans is that G.O.A.T delivers what they seek in their hero. Some, though not all, of the action is splendid. Director Venkat Prabhu is no master storyteller. He gets by on the strength of star power and some effective action.
Though the opening train-bound action is terribly shot(even a comp-geek can do better on his phone)there is a long chase in Russia where father and son Vijay on a motorcycle elude the goons , a nod to James Bond that Bond may find mildly amusing.
Another chase in a metro train is potentially art-in-the-mouth stuff. But suffers due to excessive self-awareness.
The film, though nominally engaging in parts, is inconsistent, even in its colouring. Many portions specially in the initial stages of storytelling look colour-drained and anaemic. The first round of storytelling seems ripped off from the Manoj Bajpayee series The Family Man where the seemingly mundane householder is an undercover anti-terror agent. This preamble transmogrifies into a father-son dual in the sun that has its moments but gets drowned in the din.
It is not all a lost cause. But much of this is way too self-aware to be genuinely entertaining. The performances are all subsidiary to the star attraction. It is sad to see a talent like Prabhudheva given so little to do. Significantly, the film really comes alive when Vijay and Prabhudheva get on the dancefloor, though one suspects Prabhudheva has been instructed to under-dance to let the hero shine better.
As though two roles were not enough.
