Review for MASTER:
•Language: TAMIL.
•Duration: 02 Hour 59 Minutes.
•Genre: ACTION THRILLER
• REVIEW BY ARUNJYOTHI.R.VALIYAVEETIL.
• THEATRE: DHANYA KOLLAM (HOUSEFUL)
•POSITIVES:
1: PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS
2: CINEMATOGRAPHY
3: MUSIC
4: EDITING
5: ACTIONS.
•NEGATIVES:
1: MEDIOCRE DIRECTION
2: PREDICTABLE STORY
3: POOR SCREENPLAY
•ONE WORD: An average movie in all aspects but a celebration film for Vijay Fans.
•DETAIL REVIEW:
JD (Vijay) an alcoholic professor who is sent to juvenile school makes a clash with a gangster called Bhavani who uses the children of the school for conducting various crimes. JD teaches the students to follow the right way of the living path but some do and some do not. Rest of the story unfolds the fights between JD and Bhavani.
The movie is directed Lokesh Kanagaraj who is well known for his previous work such as Kaithi and Maanagaram and this time team up with Thalapathy Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi. He wrote the story and joins with Ratna Kumar and Pon Parthipan for the screenplay and dialogues. Like mentioned before his previous films such as Kaithi and Maanagaram was brilliant by his making and writing style and did that winning success worked let’s see how Master works, into the reviews.
To start with let’s roll into what I liked and what I disliked, it’s a movie of performance. Yes, both Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi performs brilliantly, it’s an in and out show and as a mass film both of them have predominantly given the best for their particular role. For Vijay he comes with new looks, has the scopes for showcasing his mass trend and he does do complete justice. The dances were amazing, the actions were terrific with his mode of unique dialogue delivery which is treat, and for his fans, they can have a full blast of celebration by seeing his energetic performance. Vijay Sethupathi as a villain steals the show, actually on my perspective I loved his performance than Vijay. With all his local goon looks and style he was perfectly matching to do the role. The screen presence and the mass he creates is absolutely top class, can be called a true villain. Whatever activities he does while portraying in the villain shade gives the moment to cherish and whenever he comes on the screen gives shock and surprises.
The next thing I liked is the technical aspects of the movie like Music, Cinematography, Action choreography and Editing. All those who had operated in these areas had made a wonderful job. The music and background score composed by Anirudh Ravichandran was remarkable till the end especially the background score. As we all know a mass movie surely need the presence of extraordinary background scores and the composer Anirudh had given his best effort to make that presence adequate. The scores for the hero was genuinely matching and also the scores for the villain was flawless, an extra feel and kind of mass appeal was given by the background score. Also, the songs were fabulous, among the soundtrack ’Vathi Coming’ and ’Kutti Story’ stood as my favourite. For the fans, Vathi coming was an absolute celebration and the rap mixed track Vathi Raid was terrific to hear by its lyrics and vocal. The cinematography by Sathyan Sooryan was stunning and glorious till the end. There are many kinds of unique frames and those were new in the viewing. The camera use of high angle shot deserves huge applause and the way of handling the lightning techniques was competently amazing. The various camera movement for the action scenes and the close-up shots and also the wide-angle shots in both day and night scenes were striking to the extreme level of best. The crisp and sharp editing of Philomin Raj was also at the top-notch, the cuts were made without any mismatches and also the sudden transition to the next was done without giving any mismatching feeling. So these we’re the good things which I found in the master.
Now let’s get into what I don’t like about Master, it’s simply the story and screenplay and by getting a mixed feel the direction was average. Firstly to begin with the direction Lokesh Kanagaraj disappoints, his previous films such as Kaithi and Maanagram was a movie with brilliant execution and making. But this time the making was typical like the usual kind of a Vijay film. His making average, the writing was so simple without getting deeper into the screenplay. All the incidents and circumstances leading in the plot is something we have witnessed before, that too numerous times. The character sketch was really good, the explanation on why the characters doing their particular activities was shown effectively without making any confusions. Also, he had done a good job of making the hero and villain sides perfectly both of them were treated equal. When the hero does something heroic usually the villain gets down but here he had changed that formula and had productively portrayed the villain factors thrillingly. What didn’t work was the actual plot, from the beginning till the end it’s all predictable, a normal viewer can realise and understand what is going to happen next and this way of predicting makes the movie and viewing experience dull also lead to poor execution. Some scenes in the prison were unrealistic, how the life of prisoners and what’s their life outside could have been shown better.
The biggest drawback I felt in the movie was the combo of Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi. Whatever the glimpse we had seen through teasers and promos, one will surely get a feeling that there will be scenes of the hero and villain conformation but sadly it can be only seen at the end. The sort of cat and mouse play done by the hero and villain through phone calls were nothing new, it’s we have seen in many mass movies. If their animosity and conformations were brought earlier from the beginning of the second half the movie would have been turned into a different level but their combinations are only at the climax like the usual typical mass kind of movies.
Lokesh the director is well known to execute the crime thrillers and we have seen it before but in Master, he is not at his best. Although there was nothing new in the story the narration was pretty good and he had used the stardom of both Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi but showcasing a different kind of something new like in Kaithi and Maanagram was missing in Master. Due to earlier mentioned stardom, I think he just focused only into it and automatically the screenplay went down. Due to the predictable way of moving the targeted thrilling scenes doesn’t give the proper impact also the lengthy duration gives lag and many could have been shortened.
The saddest part of the making was the portrayal of emotional scenes. The leading events and circumstances to those particular emotional scenes don’t give proper connection to set the right amount of impact. Hero seeing an emotional tragedy and quitting his bad habits and chasing the villain for vengeance and also making others to pursue the right life was felt overdramatic. It was like a usual cliche which we use to see in Vijay movies and the pattern of sadly not broken by a director like Lokesh.
So overall to conclude for me Master was like the same kind of Vijay movies, the expectations was high when Lokesh was teaming with Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi and expected a different type of Vijay movie but sadly nothing new for a surprise. Still for a time pass Master can be a time pass choice and better to watch with fewer expectations.
VERDICT: AVERAGE.
RATING: 2.5/5
