Bheemaa

Movies with rowdies as hero have so far fallen into one of two categories - masala rowdy movies like Gemini and Red, which were primarily entertainers that offered a good mix of action, romance, comedy and sentiments; and realistic rowdy movies like Pudhuppettai and Naalai which treated the subject more seriously by focusing on its dark side and not sugarcoating it. Bheemaa hangs uneasily between these two categories for the most part. It finally decides the route it wants to take towards the end but the done-to-death story and action overload until then have already made us lose our patience by that time.

Chinna(Prakashraj) is a powerful dada who tries to do good even if his means are not always lawful. Sekhar(Vikram) has idolized Chinna ever since he was a young boy and finally gets the chance to join Chinna's gang. He quickly earns Chinna's trust and affection and becomes his right-hand man in his fight against Periyavar(Raghuvaran), the other dada in town. Meanwhile Charu(Trisha), who has taken a liking towards Sekhar, woos him but he has no intention of reciprocating her feelings.

The glorified heroism and the colorful song sequences make us look at Bheemaa as a masala flick. At the same time, its sober tone, lack of overt comedy and violence(there is not a lot of blood or gore since thankfully, hand-to-hand combat and guns, rather than aruvaals, dominate but there are a lot of broken arms and legs and the body count is pretty high) ask us to take it realistically. And that raises a lot of questions that one would usually overlook in a masala film. Why, for instance, do Prakashraj and Bheema go into the under-construction building without a gun when they seem to be able to draw out their guns at a moment's notice at other times? How exactly does Vikram manage to kidnap Raghuvaran from his own bedroom and transport him so far away? Such questions keep popping up at regular intervals, preventing us from taking the film seriously.

Bheemaa's story is almost shockingly unoriginal. The story of the hero becoming a dada's right-hand man and the two of them clashing with another dada has been told too many times already. There are not too many variations one can draw out of this story and Lingusamy doesn't even try. Instead, he just tries to add another dimension by building an emotionally symbiotic relationship between Vikram and Prakashraj(the film does do this right by making Vikram see Prakashraj as a role model and try to emulate him right from his childhood). Unfortunately, even this kind of a mentor-protege relation has been seen before in Mandhiran.

The downside of having this cliched, threadbare story is pretty clear in the first half. While fight sequences are usually inserted into the screenplay to make the action lovers happy, Bheemaa's first half feels like one long fight sequence with some dialogs and songs inserted to give the stunt master a break! The fights, especially the one in the market and the one in the under-construction building, are really good. They are well-staged, intense and convincing even if Vikram is made to look like a superhero swatting down the bad guys like flies. But there is such a thing as "too much of a good thing". As the gangs shoot at each other and Vikram single-handedly beats up the bad guys, we soon realize that the story gives us nothing new and barely moves forward.

It is only towards the end, after all the action, that the movie finally picks itself up, dusts itself off and gets down to involving us. Emotions are allowed to surface(sometimes a little too openly but after the lack of heart for so long, even that is welcome) and they lead to interesting conflicts and even more interesting decisions. The proceedings are very surprising and the tone the movie adopts is not what we expect at all. And at the end, we see the movie has developed not just a heart but also a soul as it even brings in a moral and after the recent turn of events, it is able to do so without seeming hypocritical.

Vikram saves the day with his star power though we do wish it had been put to better use. Looking beefy but well-toned, he makes the fight sequences work and looks convincing as he puts the bad guys down with little effort. Trisha appears in another of her usual roles. She looks good in the regular scenes but appears garishly made-up in the song sequences, especially Ragasiya Kavavugal.... Prakashraj is solid as usual while Raghuvaran isn't given much to do. Oru Mugamo... is picturized well but all the duets are disappointments, both in placement and in picturization. Only Enadhuyire... impresses as it plays in the background and finally gives Vikram and Trisha a chance to exhibit some chemistry. Rangu Rangamma... finds Sherin doing an item number and is unremarkable save for the fact that, since it was probably picturized when Sherin was actually popular, it gives us an indication of how long it has taken for the movie to hit the screens!

This Bheema is a weakling.