Super fun movie! If you like Vijay movies, you will like this one. It is right in his usual wheelhouse. If you don’t like Vijay movies, you will not like it. Choose wisely!
IMPORTANT WARNING!!!! Jackie Shroff is naked but for underwear for 5 minutes! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Is there anyone reading this who is going “oh boy, naked Jacke Shroff! Sexy!”? Surely not. Surely we have all learned from Rangeela that a Jackie without long pants and a shirt is not a Jackie we want?
Beyond that one unfortunate eye searing sequence, this is a fun movie! Not as fun as it could be, I wanted more action sequences and more big song numbers and more love stories and more Vijay roles. Basically, I wanted Mersal over again. But of course I did not want Sarkar because I hate speechy self-satisfied Vijay. And this movie is far far closer to Mersal than Sarkar. So if you liked Mersal, watch it! It’s fun! And feel-good and happy and inspiring and so on and so forth.
Vijay plays Vijay, essentially. 3 different versions of Vijay, but all the same. Weird hand waving, bendy dancing, cocky romance. One of them stutters, but that’s really the only difference. He’s very good at playing himself, and it’s not an easy thing to do. Being a superstar is a skill that very few people have. I’ve seen loads of movies built around a male hero that made me go “bleh”, I was tired of seeing the same guy onscreen all the time, I couldn’t buy into how beloved he was and all the girls falling over themselves and so on. I still don’t find Vijay that attractive (although infinitely better than a naked Jackie Shroff), but I am never bored when watching him onscreen, he carries his films so effortlessly at this point that it is easy for me to say “he is just playing himself” and forget that “himself” is a role as well, a created star identity to please us.
Even when a star is very very good at being a star, there is a danger with a film being all and only about him. You need some kind of general message or theme that the star is supporting in order to give the film a backbone. In Tamil cinema in particular, politics and message movies have entered in so strongly that a message is as required for this kind of film as a romance or an action sequence. It’s how the whole big star film is structured, you have an overall issue that ties it together.
In this case, the issue is “women! They’re awesome!” In sort of a generalized everything-at-once-way. And they are so committed to this “Woman! They’re awesome!” message that Rahman wrote a whole female anthem, and even appeared as himself in the song video. Of course, women are only awesome in a very specific glory-to-Tamil-Land kind of role, with the permission and support of their families and the guidance of a man. But at least they get to be a little bit awesome all on their own for a few brief moments. And the heroine is strong and neat all the time, Nayanthara, definitely cast to be more than the regular heroine (picture Mersal if Nithya had been there the whole time). As always with these films, it’s the less obvious messages that I find more powerful. Forget all of Vijay’s speeches about woman and stuff, what I like is that he lives with a spunky naughty cute little niece, that the woman are first introduced not as “women” but as a sports team made up of the best players they could find who happen to be female, and most of all this one little moment in a song when the woman get to do the dance with Vijay. Not as delicate classical dancers, or as slow sensual dancers, but the same rowdy style dance he is doing, free hip thrusts and knee kicks and all the rest. That was GREAT. I wish it had gone on longer.
Oh right, don’t get too excited about the songs. One big Vijay song, the whole Woman Anthem song, and then everything else is kind of abbreviated. We don’t even get a “Tamil Land and Language is the Best in the World” song. I am left to assume that Tamil Land is not actually the best in the world, and their language is no great shakes.
dontcallitbollywood 
I don’t know, I thought his legs looked quite good still. And he got tortured almost naked! It’s like they knew I was watching.
Anyway, if you played shag/marry/kill with him and the two Vijays, you know you’d pick him for marry. (father Vijar for shag and normal Vijay for kill)
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I DON’T WANT TO SEE JACKIE SHROFF NAKED!!!!!!!!! Why does no one listen to me???? Why do filmmakers continue to assault my eyes?
I’d both marry and shag father Vijay. And if you won’t let me do that, I will marry father Vijay and shag the nice soccer coach. NEVER JACKIE.
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Football coach is out of bounds! Otherwise I would marry and shag him too. Now let’s see you get out of that one!
Also, I think it says a lot about either my film literacy or expectations of how masala films should be that I was totally convinced Vijay was playing a triple part until the incredibly obvious reveal. AFTER my friend had already told me it was not a triple part.
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Obviously in that case I kill Jackie, marry Old Vijay, and shag Young Vijay (gangster edition).
Have to admit, I was convinced it was a triple part too until Nayanthara was introduced. Then it clicked into place.
On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 1:55 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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At that point I thought it might be a love triangle with the gangster twin sacrificing himself. This is what happens when your formative period for Indian film was the 70s.
Anyway, that would have been great. Then they could have spent a whole entire other movie on only the women and their cute coach.
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See, my disappointment was that I thought we would get a double romance, the cute soccer twin gets together with one of the players while the tough gangster twin gets the other woman.
Also, I really need to put up a SPOILER review so we can discuss all of this in greater detail. And also how the Evil Coach fits in to it all.
On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 3:07 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, a double romance would have been cute too.
Yeah you do! Although these basically were most of my thoughts lol. It’s amazing how Vijay can be really annoyingly charming and engaging and yet deeply unattractive, whereas Jackie has a panthery sexuality that comes through even here.
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No, Jackie is disgusting and old. I am firm on this point!!!!
On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 3:28 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Lies! Anyway, the real question is how old Vijay is more attractive than young Vijay.
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Can’t wait for spoilers review now that I read your comments.
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Your Important Warning made me laugh out loud in public for a good five minutes. Although, I am not sure what is worse: Rangeela underwear Jackie or Aaina towel-scene Jackie. At least in Rangeela you aren’t worried about accidentally seeing the Shroff family jewels.
Also, just for Popka’s pleasure and your pain, I was going to share a link with all Jackie undie pics (yes it exists!), but I feel like that might grounds for being banned from DCIB community.
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I will allow it, I think, in hopes that exposure therapy might cure me. But why, out of alllllllllllllllll the actors in Hindi film, is it Jackie Shroff that does all the nude scenes? I don’t want that! NO ONE WANTS THAT!!!!
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I have no idea about South Indian movies but I saw something about Jackie being naked so I had to come ewwwww. Why does he get naked so much? Nobody wanted to see him naked even when he was young. I still have Rangeela nightmares.
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Yes! Does he ask to do it? Is it like a favor the director’s do for him?
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You know, you just reminded me that I’ve seen Jackie in one other Tamil movie and he was actually in his underwear in that too. Aranya Kaandam. Its kind of a thing with him maybe.
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I can confirm he was fully clothed for all of Saaho. So it’s not ALL southern roles, at least.
Is there some massive sexual fandom for Jackie in Tamil Nadu that I don’t know about? Did you see crowds of drooling aunties at your theater?
On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 10:10 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Okay – here’s a theory. Maybe he’s the only one that agrees to do these roles? In Aranya Kaandam and Bigil both, its not really meant to be look at how hot this character is kind of thing. In Bigil, its meant to be embarrassing and a punishment to put him in his place. In Aranya Kaandam, its about a old, impotent gangster that’s desperately trying to hold on to power. In both cases, you’re meant to see naked Jackie as a bad almost emasculating thing. I would think many actors of his age are probably like – nope. He might be the only one that’s like okay – I’ll do it.
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Besides the eye searing imagery effect, it was a good plot decision, to really drive home why Jackie hated Vijay 3 so much. And to show Vijay 3’s attitude towards the world, no fear of anyone.
On Mon, Oct 28, 2019 at 10:36 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I actually loved that scene-naked Jackie not withstanding. The way Jackie rushed to wash his hands after dad Vijay touched him, that look Vijay gives when he sees that. Its built up so well that the scene in the bathroom just feels so rewarding. And like you said, makes sense why it still stuck with Jackie so many years later.
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Yes! And this goes into what I say in my SPOILER review. Forget the women empowerment message, the real underlying message is the same as in every Tamil film, up with the poor and down with the rich.
On Tue, Oct 29, 2019 at 11:25 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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My wife is a big fan of Vijay movies.(&also kotthu parrotta)
Maybe we can plan for an outing with the kids once the crowd comes down after a few weeks
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It’s definitely a Vijay movie, that fun crowdpleasing type of film. Your kids should enjoy it.
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Subject children to disrobed Jackie? Risky!
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Haha, I haven’t seen this yet, but I’m so glad I came to read the comments for all the naked Jackie discussion. I don’t find Jackie sexy or pantherlike, but I don’t mind seeing him naked-ish either. He can do no wrong in my eyes. I just find him charming.
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It’s so gross! Old many floppy thigh! I don’t need that in my face.
On Wed, Nov 6, 2019 at 10:49 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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