One Line Review - "A Formulaic Vijay Film That Lacks Novelty In Presentation"
Rating - 2.5/5
Boxoffice Prediction- Hit
Detailed Analysis
______________
Vijay announcing his iconic '60th film' with writer-turned-director Bharathan was a total surprise as their previous joint-venture "Azhagiya Tamil Magan" [2007] was a boxoffice dud that put a full stop to the budding directorial career of Bharathan,forcing him to take a along hiatus from the industry that lasted for almost 10 years.
The mediocre posters,music and trailer of the movie failed to make much response among the netizens and normal audience,who were more interested in trolling Vijay for his 'strange wig' and the lack of chemistry between the lead pair.
Leaving aside a minuscule proportion,most of the Vijay films post 2000s follows a particular format where stage is all set for Vijay to entertain his fans with peppy dance numbers,powerful punch dialogues,energetic fight sequences and of-course fair bit of family sentiments and an inevitable social message.
The predictable formula has worked out well for quiet a long time and Bharathan too has tried to follow the same path that's tried and tested numerous times in the past.But what works against Bairvaa is the outdated narration and slow paced screenplay that fails to pack the punch that one usually associates with a mass masala entertainer.
Admittedly,the first hour of Bairavaa was pretty decent with IlayaThalapathy leading the proceedings with his unmatchable charisma that lifted the movie from sinking in quiet a few instances.The interval block too was set well for a thrilling cat and mouse chase between Vijay and antagonist played by Jagapathi Babu,which sadly didn't happen.The second half on contrary was a big letdown,especially the climax portions that looked unintentionally funny and silly to the core.
The pace of the second half was tiresome and made worst by wrongly paced songs that does nothing except for increasing the duration that was already too lengthy for a movie of this genre.The social issue that the movie deals with has big relevance in the present scenario,but the execution part was lackluster and uninspiring.
The title character 'Bairavaa' is a cakewalk for Ilaya Thalapathy Vijay who has portrayed n number of similar characters in his career and he does a commendable job taking the movie on his shoulders for the most part of the feature.Keerthy Suresh as Malarvizhi was adequate and gave a neat performance.Jagapathi Babu playing the antogonkist was too stereotypical as his character looked an extension of his villainous avatars in the recent past.Satish succeeded in evoking few laughs during the initial hour.Daniel Balaji was impressive as supporting antagonist.Among others,Sija Rose,Aparna Vinod,Vijayaraghavan,Thamb
Music by Santhosh Narayanan couldn't make much impact and the haphazard placement of the songs except for "Manjal veyil" added to the grief.The background score based on "Varlaam Varlaam Vaa" was very well-utilized throughout the movie.Frames by M.Sukumar were good.Praveen K.L could have done better with his editing as the movie could have been well trimmed by atleast 20-25 minutes of the duration.The CGI part in few sequences were pretty amateurish and could have been worked upon.
Overall,Bairavaa is a passable mass masala entertainer that's aimed at the fans of Ilaya Thalapathy.
Notable Positives
____________________
BGM , Fight Sequences , Neat First Half
Weak Links
__________
Pathetic Climax , Below Average , Second Half , Predictability
Final Verdict::
In a nutshell,'Bairavaa' is an uninspiring rework of Vijay's formulaic entertainers that's strictly recommended only for the fans of Ilaya Thalapathy.Watch it at your own risk.