Shankar Shanmugh is credited as the first director to be in the mainstream but have daring sensibilities to make art meet commerce with his innovations. His list of achievements is so high that we need a separate forum to discuss in detail. For now, let’s discuss about his latest film, 2.0
Plot : A person (Akshay Kumar) hangs himself to death on a cell phone tower. After his death, he converts into a negative energy and attracts all the anger of the sparrows and becomes Sparrow Man. He starts killing those people who are responsible for bird extinction due to cell phone radiation.
Vaseegar (Rajnikanth) offers Chitti as the solution to attack such an evil and angry force. He takes a scientific way to kill the supernatural element. How could he do it? Was he successful? Did any of his enemies let him win? Watch the movie on screen to know more.
Performances : Rajnikanth is still the most charismatic hero on screen. He made a sincere effort to be active on screen even though his age is showing. As 2.0 and 3.0, he is a delight on screen.
Akshay Kumar did get a good character but as the evil he is left too monotonic and that could disappoint his fans. Amy Jackson is apt as Robot. Adil Hussain is good and rest all are just there to fill the screens.
Technicalities : Nirav Shah as a cinematographer did use the technology well. But the scenes don’t seem to be worthy of such technical advancement.
Anthony edited the movie well enough for the sequences to make sense but few portions seem just jumbled up. He could have made better choices there.
AR Rahman and Qutub-e-Kriba produced good soundtrack that supports the visuals. The promotional song could have been better.
Resul Pookutty’s sound design is the major plus for the film. He made sure that even slightest of the sounds heard by the audiences while a mayhem is going on on-screen.
Muthu Raj and Srinivas Mohan should be credited for the great production design, VFX. Taking up such complex subject and visuals, they delivered the necessary without fail.
Shankar delivered a good screenplay to a one-line story that gives him enough source material to play with the VFX. As the story doesn’t move much the movie feels like just a science vs myth war. He should have filled the movie with even more substance like he normally does.
Analysis : Few films have the mark of the creator and this one is such a film. Shankar did not think twice before going for a visual spectacle that will wow the audience but he needed a good story and grand sequences that really match his lavish vision and social responsibility. Even though he delivered on visual front, he did not have a compelling story to hold it all together.
The way he designed characters and tried hard to make it all believable shows that he still has it in him to deliver a grand spectacle. But his movies always manage to come up with a soul and this time we miss it much more than ever. Still, the ride is filled with enough Rajnikanth mannerisms that we can enjoy it thoroughly.
Rating : 3.5/5
