Beast Review: Lazy Writing And Weak Direction Of Vijay's Hyped Film Fail To Make The Right Impact!

After four back-to-back hits, Thalapathy Vijay collaborated with director Nelson Dilipkumar for Beast. Notably, Nelson was basking in the glory of his previous projects Kolamavu Kokila and Doctor, when the two decided to join hands. With the very stylish posters and glimpses, the film garnered a great deal of attention right from the beginning. The peppy, Arabic remix number 'Halamithi Habibo' added hugely to the excitement amongst fans. So, coming a day before KGF 2, Beast was giving very confident, superhit vibes all along.

The film overall turned out to be a concoction of Money Heist, Die Hard, with generous borrowings of many action elements from Terminator. The 'shopping mall heist thriller' is neither a thriller nor there is a heist, except for very stylized gun shooting and action sequences, the film falls flat in all stages of the narrative.

The dreaded Beast elements of RAW agent Veera Raghava (Vijay) never really come out in the story, except when many other characters yell it out loud. An agent who leaves his job because he caused the death of a child accidentally, can hardly be a beast. Starting from there, the beast never really wakes up except in hard-to-believe gun-toting sequences where the guns are mere toys in his hands.

What's Yay?

Music and Songs
Action Sequences

What's Nay?

Weak Story
Lazy Writing And Narration
Weak Direction
Weak Villain

Beast Analysis

In the coda sequence of the film, Vijay as the RAW agent even turns a MIG 21 into a toy with his hands. Another problem with the story is that this James Bond/ John Wick apparently has no opponent! For the most part, the villain/ terrorist (Ankur Ajith Vikal) hides behind a badly designed mask, and when he is finally revealed, he is nothing more than an unrecognized, almost comic character brought from a Bollywood film. The other villains in Beast, who Vijay confronts are another comic-looking Home Minister (Shaji Chen), and a dreaded terrorist who makes his presence in and as Lilliput (Lilliput Faruqui). On the flip side, VTV Ganesh and Redin Kingsley fail to deliver perfect comic content, courtesy low priority given to their characters. Selvaraghavan's Character too was not designed well. So, pardon us if we are searching for the Beast even after the movie is over!

The dark humor genre which Nelson had successfully executed in his previous two films turned out pale here. VTV Ganesh and others do manage to pull a few laughs. Yogi Babu tries hard in a haphazardly written role to draw some more laughs. Pooja Hegde looks ravishingly beautiful and managed some really good dancing. The sequence where the lead actors meet for the first time is quite entertaining, but sadly, after the story enters the shopping mall, Pooja becomes just another window shopper.

Technical Aspects

The music by Anirudh Ravichander, Manoj Paramahamsa's camera work, action sequences, and set design are top class. Sun TV production values are good but, not up to the banner's standards.

Verdict

Beast is a big let down. Director Nelson could have come up with his own content than sell concepts like Money Heist in India.