Billa II Review - Incomplete

Ajith is an enigma. He can surprise and frustrate you at will. He commands a fan following that makes a lot of other actors jealous. Yet, you can say that he rarely lives up to his true potential as an actor par excellence. Billa-II is one of those movies where you feel incomplete when you come out of the theater. There is an overwhelming feeling that his movies must become a hit because you just love him both as an actor and as a person.

Billa II tracks the early life of David Billa from humble beginnings to a don. It is a one line that requires a lot of conviction to pull off as a successful script. I think this is where Ajith made the biggest mistake of going for an untried director who was a “Credits Only” pet dog director for Kamal Hassan in Unnaipol Oruvan. Sure Ajith had creative differences with Vishnuvardhan, but he could have gone for an experienced hand in a prequel of this magnitude. Overall, there was something missing in everything. Editing, casting, placement of songs, romance and even the stunts pleaded for better handling. Chakri Toleti’s inexperience showed in every frame.

With no disrespects to Superstar Rajnikanth, Ajith has made the character David Billa synonymous to him. He has made a successful franchise out of David Billa, a bit like James Bond I’d say with theme music, costumes, and women and of course style. He looks ravishing despite the generous waist line (I don’t understand why some people can’t accept slightly heavy dons). His screen presence is next only to the superstar himself. He has proved once again how he can single handedly carry a movie on his shoulders and is one of the best ever in doing roles with negative shades. He emotes well and as always is at home in action sequences. It is hard to be a critic of his acting because he is a bloody good actor. Some people question his rather tedious sounding dialogue delivery, but then I don’t think anybody expects a don to talk like Govinda either. There is one thing I have noticed in his recent movies. Be it Mankatha or Billa, there is glamour all around him and yet he is oblivious to it. I wonder if he does this intentionally.

Parvathy Omanakuttan makes me wonder how she got till the finals of the Miss World Pageant. Bruna Abdullah looks ravishing but hardly any scene to flaunt her curves or any conviction of her characterization. Sudhanshu Pandey is convincing as a cool and calculating don but the biggest surprise is Vidyut Jamwal. Neither does he fit in as an East European Don nor does he has screen time to make a serious impact. These are the sort of tactical blunders that gives you an incomplete feel.

RD Rajasekar and Yuvan Shankar Raja gives you two good reasons (Movie’s a bit short of it) to watch the movie. National Award winning editor Suresh Urs is a bit of a letdown. May be he didn’t have so much to play with. Stunt choreography is like the movie, incomplete with palpable logical holes. The much hyped climax helicopter stunt also failed to live up to the hype. But I liked the raw nature of action, the no holds barred style that is synonymous with ruthless dons. Also new to Tamil Cinema is the “Guy Ritchie” type of black & white scenes in the “Unakkul Mirugam” song. But a few flashes of brilliance cannot undermine a meteor hole that is the screenplay.

Overall, it is the same frustrating case of “What If?” that is getting synonymous with Ajith’s movies of late. It is watchable unlike his earlier duds like Aegon or Asal. Ajith won’t lose a fan out of this because Thala fans will have their money’s worth because he’s in almost every frame. But what could have been a tight action movie turned out be a laborious and out of direction, literally and otherwise.