Cast: Vijay, Shruti Haasan, Sridevi, Sudeep, Hansika, Prabhu, Thambi Ramaiah, Sathyan.
Director: Chimbu Deven.
When the trailer released nearly a month ago, I was disappointed by its unworthiness. Still I gave Chimbu Deven the benefit of the doubt since the trailer raised horns with “There is only one ray of hope". I pinched myself every half hour into the movie to remind myself to look for that ray of hope. And all I found was rubble.
The central theme of the film is inspired by Super Mario Bros. Vijay rescues his lady love (wonderful Shruti Haasan) from an evil kingdom. The evil kingdom is where Sudeep grimaces and Sridevi laughs in a role that makes her look like she has walked out of an asylum just a week ago. Try blinking back a couple of years; she was brilliant in ‘English Vinglish’ as a mother who learns to pick her self-confidence up to wear it on her sleeve. Here, she is rewarded with a senseless aura for her return to Tamil cinema.
The story moves from a thatched house to a castle. But the film, overall, moves from one corner of fluff to another room of nothingness. A dialogue by Shruti Haasan perhaps makes you wonder if all the world’s courage is hiding in a man’s moustache. When a gang of men block her way to cause trouble while she’s with Vijay and his standard sidekicks, Shruti asks her party if there isn’t a man with a moustache to rough those trouble makers up. This is a hero’s fight. Nobody is going to step in to assist him. He finishes the task in no time and tells Shruti quite candidly that there are men with moustaches to set things right whenever needed. That’s a sort of self-praise, in a nutshell. Where’s feminism here? Sound the bugle, people! Also, what about courage in those who have no moustache?
When I thought nothing could get worse than Devi Sri Prasad’s music, ‘Puli’ surprised me with Sridevi’s antics. I thought it would be a hard job for one more long jump from this trash. Well, the surprise store hasn’t shut down yet. There’s a flashback segment that involves sentiments, killings, and Vijay in a gut-wrenching makeover (which means a wig and a half inch beard). That certainly ended my eagerness for the rest of the film.
Sudeep’s anger throughout the film seems to be directed at Chimbu Deven for giving him a role that doesn’t possess the mirth of villainy. Sridevi likewise is let down by everything from writing to execution. Creating a new world for ‘Puli’ is appreciable. That alone cannot give a hand to the drowning picture. The brilliance in giving a large turtle a speaking role is missing in making Hansika and the rest of the supporting cast a weak leg.
If adventure is your genre, and Sridevi your fantasy, I’ll wholeheartedly recommend K. Raghavendra Rao’s ‘Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari’ in which Sridevi is joined by Chiranjeevi on a whirlwind tour of fantasy, games, childish humor, action, and terrific music by Ilaiyaraaja. Coming to ‘Puli’, it’s clearly a case of misguided shot.
Rating: 1/5
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