Movie Review: Puli – Sloppily appropriated irredeemable Fantasy

Movie Review: Puli – Sloppily appropriated irredeemable Fantasy

BureauUpdated: Friday, May 31, 2019, 10:05 PM IST
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Cast: Vijay, Sudeep, Sridevi, Shruti Hassan, Hansika Motwani

Director: Chimbu Deven

Rating: * *

Runtime: 154 mins

Recent films from Hollywood and Indian cinema appear to be the unofficial source for this pulpy ungainly fantasy. Inspired by ‘Bahubali’s success, story elements and antics, spread thin by Gulliver’s adventures and unnecessarily elongated by ‘Maleficient’s’ negativity, this film, ‘Puli’, appears to believe in it’s misappropriated opportunism much more than it deservedly should. The film is being released in three versions-Hindi, Tamil and Telugu in an effort to help lead star Vijay gain a pan-Indian presence. Unfortunately there’s very little in the film and it’s choice of actors to make that expectation come true.

Puli attempts to be a fantasy adventure film but it’s really nowhere close. A blue eyed, canine toothed community with special powers, referred to as Vedhalam, rules over the common man. Their ferocious warriors often ransack the village in lieu of due taxes. The villagers who bring up an abandoned baby boy found floating in a bird’s nest alongside an egg, see him grow up as their savior. And he proves it too through some comic interludes (sic). The young man, Magadheeran (Vijay) falls in love with a local elder’s daughter (Shruti Hassan) and gets married to her on the sly. And just before their nuptials can get sanctified by the community, the bride gets abducted by the Vedhalam as a candidate for human sacrifice. Magadheeran is requested to go and rescue her from the evil forces but for that he will need special powers from a concoction made by the local healer. But once in the Vedhalam land, Magadheeran realizes there’s more to his story than what was previously told to him. How he reconciles to that and rescues his lady love forms the crux of the movie which also involves a witch like malevolent Queen(Sridevi) who is looking to acquire riches and power.  Hansika Motwani has a brief role as her princess daughter who also falls in love with Magadheeran.

The story throws up many filial complications that are never resolved. The excessive use of  lumpy and unattractive CGI is a downer for sure. Add to that the lead star’s looks and aptitude- that appears more suited for the south than a pan-Indian audience. This film’s ambitions may not be as high as that of ‘Bahubali’ but the amount spent to achieve this tacky demeanor is by no means small. Neither Shruti Hassan nor Hansika Motwani can justify their presence beyond that of being curvaceous attractions. Sridevi is the only one to save face here with a Jolie-good turn, making her character stick well above and beyond the poorly written and stymied orchestration of a role that shouldn’t have existed in the first place. Maybe there was some marketing ideology involved in that addition. At best Puli is a wannabe ‘Bahubali’ that doesn’t come up to snuff!

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