Rajinikanth gets to play a dignified character in an action-drama that (mostly) hits the right notes. This is a star movie that respects the star, and does not resort to pandering. The rest of this review may contain spoilers.
Fifty years ago, almost exactly to this date, one of India’s biggest star-actors made his movie debut. I refer to Rajinikanth, of course. And now, as a golden-anniversary gift, Lokesh Kanagaraj has given Super Star a film named Coolie. When Siva, Rajinikanth’s last A-rated movie was released, a review in a Tamil magazine sighed and said this: “How long will they keep a tiger like Rajinikanth in a small cage?” They meant that the actor was being used by mainstream cinema for just a bunch of star mannerisms. When I interviewed Nagarjuna a little while ago, he smiled and said “Coolie is all whistle whistle whistle.” That was the complaint in that Tamil magazine. Everyone is using Rajinikanth as a whistle-producing audience magnet, and that may be fine for business, but what about the actor’s ability to act? Who’s going to use that?
Of course, a few films here and there have used Rajinikanth as an actor, but in the modern era, Lokesh has done something wonderful. He has made a movie that not only uses Rajinikanth. He has also made a movie that deserves Rajinikanth. He has given the Super Star something that has been lacking in a long while: dignity. Even the fantastic homage to the cigarette bits Rajinikanth was so famous for – it’s at the end – is done like a cool mass moment between a bunch of stars and not like a circus act with swish-swoosh music. I don’t know how Coolie will appeal to those who just want those swish-swoosh “mass” moments. But for those of us who have longed to see Rajinikanth in a properly packaged mainstream movie that is more masala than “mass”, this is it.
Except for a super scene that introduces the Rajinikanth character, named Deva, Lokesh does not go overboard on the elevation scenes. There are major whistle whistle whistle moments, sure – especially towards the end. But there is no pandering. There are no random punch dialogues. There is no audience-fear in the storytelling. The scenes and situations are allowed to breathe. Even that unnecessary Monica song doesn’t feel all that unnecessary because it goes so well with the flow. The signature scene, for me, is the way Lokesh stages his signature flashback, which, here, tells Deva’s story. It looks like a self-tribute, because it is a single-shot narration like the Karthi character’s flashback narration in Kaithi. And how beautifully Rajinikanth holds the frame, which is a little bigger than a close-up. There is a calmness to his acting, the words are measured, there is no needless emotion – we really have not seen this side of Rajinikanth in a long time. It is a performance that is perfectly in sync with the movie. It has dignity. As the lines of a song go: He has the looks of a mobster / He has the swag of a rockstar. True and true. But he also gets the meat that an actor needs to sink his teeth into, in order to deliver a warm and starry and utterly convincing performance.
As usual, Lokesh plunges us right into the story, with a narrator giving us information about a smuggling syndicate. But like in all his films, the crime angle is a kind of MacGuffin. (You could replace the smuggling with any other crime and it would not make a difference.) It is a flashy distraction, while the story is really about the action and the drama that happens around it. The first half plays out like Vikram. Someone dies, and Deva begins to investigate the reason behind this death. Shruti Haasan plays Preethi, who helps the hero. She nails her big dramatic scenes, though for a lot of the time, she is merely a damsel in distress. I wished she had been given a bigger emotional arc. But again, this doesn’t damage the screenplay, driven along by Philomin Raj’s silken editing. The film moves like a dream.
As a story, there isn’t much. It is our hero against a bunch of villains. We get Soubin Shahir, and above him, we get Nagarjuna, and above him, we get Aamir Khan. I felt Nagarjuna was a tad underused, but Soubin is brilliant in a role filled with twists (and an out-of-nowhere accomplice), and I completely did not expect the tonality of the scene with Aamir. This is all we ask for, really, in a big star movie. We know they cannot reinvent the wheel. We just want to be engaged. We just want the surprises to keep coming, and Coolie has that in ample supply. This is a terrific example of a generic story being elevated by a strong screenplay, even if some scenes feel rushed. As an example, let me give you a series of reveals involving the Sathyaraj character. At first, we just get the phrase “Power House”. After the interval, we get the full context leading to that phrase being uttered. And at the end, we get a throwback again.
The Lokesh-isms are still there. For instance, we get a hierarchy among the various villains. We get the retro songs. We get the fun throwbacks, like a reference to the old director duo, Robert-Rajasekar. We get an emotional blackmail angle. We get a lot of cool bloodletting. Lokesh even turns the Agent Tina bit from Vikram on its head with a surprise I did not see coming. We get the frames with the eyes. This is a director who likes to use the eyes of his stars. Think of Vijay’s introduction in Leo, where we see just his eyes in the rear-view mirror of his car. Or think of Fahadh Faasil’s introduction in Vikram, where, again, we see just the actor’s eyes. Here, in a profile shot of Rajinikanth, we see the actor’s eyes filled with tears that do not flow. It is a terrific frame, and also a terrific star moment, and also a terrific acting moment.
Cinematographer Girish Gangadharan saturates the frames with rich colours, like in Vikram. The de-aging scenes are done very well. The way Lokesh uses the other stars, especially Upendra, has that same quality: dignity. There is a scene where the characters played by Upendra, Rajinikanth, and Shruti hear an explosion. The woman ducks, closing her ears, but the men keep walking, as though it’s just another day at work. It’s pure “mass”, but done with dignity. None of this is terribly path-breaking, but the clean writing and making, the consistent tone and treatment, Anirudh’s pulsating heartbeat of a soundtrack, and the way Rajinikanth has been allowed to play a character appropriate to his age – all of this make Coolie a very satisfying big-screen watch. But what about those who want only whistle whistle whistle? I don’t know about that, but Coolie is a movie that is 100% Lokesh Kanagaraj, 100% Rajinikanth.
