A movie by a fan for the fans? — Petta Review

One thing I loved the most about this year’s Pongal releases was both the Stars Rajini and Ajith were having so much fun onscreen. We got to see both the actors' charm which we missed for a long time on screen that alone is enough for us to celebrate the success of both the movies. Now, jumping to KaSu’s (Karthi Subbaraj) Petta. The last time we got to see Rajini in a charming Robo avatar in Enthiran (2010) then there were few misfires and one relatively content heavy movie. People like me who loved the actor Rajini somewhere deep down were also looking for the Rajini who is charming and sets the screen on fire with his stunt scenes and comedy tracks, to an extent Petta brought this Rajini back to us with numerous other things on the plate. I actually watched the movie twice because I couldn’t come to a conclusion that did I love the movie or not? hence, this review comes out after the second viewing.

Director: Karthik Subbaraj
Cast: Rajini and your other favourite stars (Read: மற்றும் உங்கள் அபிமான நட்சத்திரங்கள்)
Crew: Anirudh Ravichandar (Music), S.Thiru (Cinematographer), Vivek Harshan (Editor)
Genre: Mass & Class

Image Source: https://www.trendsmap.com/twitter/tweet/1038786771071324161

Hits aka What worked for me?

1. Thalaivar — Of course, he is the face of this movie and when a fanboy who has created a universe of his own around his movie we get a new flavour of the old (Not his age) Rajini back. His fast walks, that scene where he keeps seeing his face in the mirror, that look of mixed feeling when Anwar asks Kaali to help for his love only in the later part of the film we realise the reason for that look (Even a commercial movie need a good acting skill to deliver such a mixed baggage of emotions) see for yourself to understand what I mean and much more of Rajini’s trademark comedy and charisma.
2. Anirudh — He is a pillar of strength for this movie. Every Rajini movies need a Music director to elevate the mass scene of the hero. Anirudh did a great job with that and also the BGM elevates many scenes well.
3. Karthik Subbaraj — As mentioned before the man has made a universe of his own and the people in his universe are mostly grey, we have seen Rajini as a person who talks straight on the face and does not do manoeuvres to achieve his goal (Oops! Spoilers!) but we see that here and thus for people who claim this movie to be just a Rajini movie, I would like to say this is partly a tribute to Rajini in the 90’s we loved and also KaSu brings Rajini into his universe.

Misses aka What didn’t work for me?

1. A large number of the cast who were left unused especially Women. Partly, I didn’t like this because of KaSu giving equal importance to Women characters in his movies has skipped that part in this movie.
2. Why Nawazudheen Siddhique? I read in one of the posts from Student Filmer compared him with a Hyena plotting for a Lion, well to an extent I could get that but the plotting itself is weak and we don’t need an actor like Nawazudheen for this. I wish they could have made Vijay Sethupathi the main villain which could have been even more fun to watch.
3. I always had a problem with jumping the Genres, I didn’t have trouble with Pizza and Jigarthanda but in Iraivi that was evident and it didn’t fit well and even with Petta that was a little hindrance in the flow of the movie.

Verdict:

A Rajini movie which is a tribute from a fanboy and the fanboy pulls the star into his Universe with the same old revenge sage in a new format nothing more. We can savour this movie for Thalaivar and it is definitely an entertaining movie.