'Coolie' turns out to be a gore fest

Review

Film: Coolie: The Powerhouse

Cast: Rajinikanth, Aamir Khan, Nagarjuna, Shruti Hasan, Soubin Shahir, Upendra, Sathyaraj

Director: Lokesh Kanakaraj

Rating  Two stars

In the 50th year of his acting career, Rajinikanth gets to relive his halcyon years in a Lokesh Kanakaraj masala potboiler that serves Manmohan Desai illogic with a stylish southern tadka. The story is a jumbled up series of images put together to serve up nostalgia without over-stressing the ageing Thalaiva. So, what you get here is a visibly aged superstar in a limited edition of action, stunts, comedy, song and dance. Deva (Rajinikanth) is first introduced as a teetotaler, butcher- cum-owner of a lodge/hostel called The Mansion. And slowly in stylised back-flips the back story emerges. Deva has been estranged from his best buddy-cum-brother-in-law Rajasekhar (Sathyaraj) for close to 30 years. Once he gets to know of Rajashekar’s untimely, unnatural demise, Deva sets out to find the reason for his best friend’s murder and to take revenge thereof.

Simon (Nagarjuna) and Dayal (Soubin Shahir) are partners in crime belonging to a syndicate that harvests hearts from live donors and they then get rid of those bodies (once the deed is done) by means of an instant mobile crematorium invented by Rajashekar. There’s a lot more convoluted masala attempting to fill up the huge gaps in this piecemeal telling.

For almost two-thirds of its runtime, the narrative makes no reference to the title. In fact, you even wonder why it is given such an innocuous moniker which has nothing to do with what is going on. Then suddenly in another blast of illogic, towards the climax, there’s a flurry of words trying to justify the title. It almost feels like it is an after-thought or maybe even two different story ideas patched together.

Coolie—The Power House plays like a best of Rajnikanth show reel. The story does not make sense. The stylised action happens to exist because it’s a selling point, the emotions are tweaked in cut-paste fashion, decently choreographed group dances happen whenever there’s a need for thrust, comic relief cuts through the action-drama at regular intervals and the Thalaivar struts his usual stuff with a nonchalance that has become customary.

Lokesh Kanagaraj is unapologetic about crafting a typical mass entertainer with ample doses of stylish action, silly dialogue, stroppy comedy, flighty emotion, faux suspense and smarmy sentiment.

The narrative moves at a brisk pace even with these showy elements weighing it down. The tone is over-the-top theatrical, so don’t expect any realism here. Rajinikanth is presented in a way that venerates his Thalaiva status and it’s mostly the director’s doing. Aamir Khan’s cameo is rather cockamamie and Nagarjuna’s villainy is too air-headed to be gravitating. Shruti Haasan as Preethi, one of the three daughters of Rajashekar, is positioned as the wall flower meant to be mouthy and brutalised from time to time. Shruti does well to imbue the role with some substance but it’s a lost cause given that her existence doesn’t make much sense. Kannada star Upendra marks his presence in some last minute action. Only Soubin Shahir is able to lend some earthy malevolence to Dayal and were it not for him and the energy pumping, pulse pounding, thumpimg background score and the eclectic mix of a variety of old numbers and new playing in accompaniment, this film would have degenerated into unappetising kitsch.

The script by Kanagaraj and Chandra Anbhazhagan contains a cluster of ideas that don’t generate a composite whole. It is cliché ridden, contrived and sounds far-fetched. The overdose of gory violence finds reprieve in flashy cuts and trite twists. At 168-minutes the film strains credibility and challenges your patience.

I watched the Hindi dubbed version, so most of the time the dialogue made little sense and the lyrics sounded ludicrous. Girish Gangadharan’s cinematography delivers crisp character elevating visuals while Philomin Raj’s editing makes a valiant effort to make sense of the jumbled up plot points though.

In making this film, Lokesh Kanakaraj appears to want to resurrect Rajinikanth’s heyday and he succeeds to some extent. It’s another matter that the superstar’s stylised antics don’t feel fresh anymore. There’s really nothing new here—only old tricks in a newer but stale, markedly riddled package. I was entertained by what transpired on screen, but then I was laughing at the absurdity of what transpired rather than with it.