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.
