Venkat Prabhu’s ‘The Greatest of All Time’, starring Vijay, is a middling thriller with many high moments

One way to view G.O.A.T. is as a celebration of the star. That part works. But those of us who want more are left wanting.

The very first scene of G.O.A.T (The Greatest of All Time) has a train speeding across the Kenyan landscape, and Venkat Prabhu instantly lets us know that we are in for a Hollywood-style thriller. There is a fantastic homage to a star, thanks to one of the trademarks of the Mission:Impossible films. The casting is spot-on. The head of the covert-ops team is Gandhi (Vijay), and his teammates are played by Prashanth and Prabhu Deva. Given how long these actors have been part of our lives off-screen, we accept them as having a long history on screen, too. A bearded Mohan plays the villain, whose name is… Rajiv Menon. Is it a wink at the famous cinematographer? Who can tell in a Venkat Prabhu movie that advertises itself as a “Venkat Prabhu Hero”? But one thing we can tell. Despite being written by the same team of Maanaadu (the director, along with Ezhilarasu Gunasekaran, K Chandru), we know that this is not going to be as taut, as tense, as suspenseful an affair.

And how do we know this? Because fan service comes in the way. One way to view G.O.A.T. is as a celebration of Vijay, as the director has been saying in his interviews. And the actor is in good form as father Gandhi and son Jeevan. The de-ageing technique is pretty convincing, and the sight of father and son on a bike – in hindsight – should not have been given away in the pre-release publicity. It’s a “Theri”-fic theatre moment, and it would have been even better if it had caught us by surprise. Other terrific moments include a special appearance by one of Vijay’s female co-stars in a song sequence that plays beautifully on the big screen, and a male star towards the end. This is the very  definition of a crackling cameo. And Vijay himself walks away with moment after specially crafted moment, like the unexpected use of a line from Guna (with its hint of psycho-madness) and a super-effective use of Vijay’s own “I am waiting”.

Is fan service a bad thing? Certainly not – because that aspect is built into the very DNA of our big-star movies. So when I say that G.O.A.T. does not measure up to Maanaadu, I am also saying that it is probably silly to even have that expectation. You need the star to sing and dance. You need the star to wink at the audience. You need the star to reference his earlier work. But you wish these elements had been incorporated better, with more thoughtfulness. There is a fantastic bit, where Gandhi – in the middle of a dangerous mission – gets a call from his wife (Sneha). It’s a True Lies-kinda situation, where she does not know what he does, and Prashanth’s add-on in this scene is hilarious. But when you have a murder followed by a dance followed by another murder followed by another dance, we are never allowed to settle into a single mood.

So those of us who want the “celebration of Vijay” but also more are left wanting. The double-role story knot loosely reminds you of the Shammi Kapoor-starring China Town, which was remade with MGR as Kudiyirundha Koyil. The twist-filled screenplay is certainly clean, in that each scene (each event, each new twist) tumbles neatly into the next one. But the placement of songs and dances and winks detract from the thriller they were going for. The women characters are almost singularly there to be held hostage at various points. This is not about gender politics. This is about screenwriting. This is about how the heroine of True Lies became an integral part of the story, even when it was basically a hero-driven movie. This is about how we felt strongly about the Rebecca Ferguson character’s death in the last Mission: Impossible movie. Here, when a major character is killed off, we realise she hasn’t even been introduced probably.

Some of the humongous budget certainly shows. I liked the way Vijay’s voice was manipulated (at least, I think there was some technology involved) to a higher pitch to achieve an adolescent effect. But the salaries paid for underused actors like Laila and Ajmal could have gone towards better stunt work. How long are we going to keep seeing the same kinds of basic action? Compare the rooftop stunt here to the one in Fan or the train stunt here to the ones in the recent Kill, and you will see the difference. Also, Mohan as the villain does not create an impact. I kept wishing they had done the opposite of de-ageing (re-ageing?) to someone like SJ Suryah and brought some hammy personality to this sketchily defined character’s desire to blow up places.

Yuvan Shankar Raja fills up some of the gaps with his pulsing score. Prashanth registers well in his role. But with the casting of Premgi Amaren and Yogi Babu and VTV Ganesh in key parts, you are never sure how seriously to take all of this. (And if you are saying “just chill, don’t take any of this seriously”, then why have so many killings?) Oh well, let’s just say I had half a good time. The music videos are really nice to watch. Had the emotional scenes been written better, had they had more impact, the film would have benefited – and I also felt almost every sequence could have used some trimming. There’s no reason something this lightweight should go on and on for three hours. But yeah, all said, G.OA.T. is neither a crushing disappointment nor a memorable penultimate star vehicle. It’s middling, and we have one more Vijay movie to see how our biggest star today bows out of cinema.