How do you give Superstar Rajinikanth’s Annaatthe a fair assessment without dismissing it completely? There isn’t much to say about it except that filmmaker Siva has taken old wine from an old bottle and poured it into another old bottle. This picture, unlike Pa Ranjith’s Kabali or Kala, lacks subtext with deeper implications to analyse, as subtlety and talking about real-world issues are not Siva’s strong suits. Annaatthe, like Karthik Subbaraj’s Petta, isn’t a brilliant and entertaining action film enhanced by nostalgia.
Annaatthe starts out by flooding Kolkata’s news outlets and social media debates. Annaatthe alias Kalaiayyan (Rajinikanth) is keeping one of Kolkata’s most powerful gangsters awake at night. As gang fights with firearms and machetes become more regular on Kolkata’s streets, cops are nowhere to be seen. The whole Kolkata police force and government appear to have taken an extended vacation, allowing Kalaiayyan, a man from a small Tamil Nadu hamlet, to purge the city of rotten apples.
It’s one of the story’s numerous logical flaws. Not to mention Siva’s rudimentary grasp of how love works. He can sit in a room and come up with some morally absurd excuses for why his film’s characters acted the way they did. However, it is unlikely that many people would buy it.
Emotions and relationships work differently in Siva’s cosmos than they do in ours. The excellent siblings betray each other unexpectedly. And the siblings, who have been arch-enemies their entire lives, develop feelings for each other at the drop of a hat. Consider the character of Prakash Raj. He portrays the village’s wealthiest and meanest man.
However, after meeting Kalaiayyan, he changes into a noble and knowledgeable guy. Jagapathi Babu is the epitome of evil. And one evening, owing to Kalaiayyan, he starts to feel feelings he’s never felt before.
Siddhartha Gautama, too, required 49 days of profound meditation before achieving enlightenment and transforming into Buddha. Siva’s characters, on the other hand, are capable of untangling decades of emotional baggage in a matter of minutes. And it’s because of this that the characters in this picture are unrelatable, despite the fact that they all appear to be extremely familiar.
The film highlights a worrying trend in Tamil cinema. Some directors appear to assume that as long as Rajinikanth is in the lead, they may relax in the director’s chair. Simply create a few punchlines and connect a few scenes in between combat sequences and songs to provide the impression of a continuous tale flow. Rajinikanth is the one who has to perform all of the heavy lifting. He must use every ounce of his strength and energy to compensate for the failings of his directors.
Annaatthe is a one-dimensional character. Kalaiayyan is so wise that he doesn’t require any additional knowledge of the world. He has an opinion on just about everything. He’s also never wrong. It costs something to make Kalaiayyan the wisest man in the room. And the price is that it creates an unfavourable climate for the emergence of a number of interesting and significant secondary characters. Except for Kalaiayyan, none of the characters in the film are intelligent. Even Meenakshi, played by Keerthy Suresh, and Nayanthara’s lawyer role.
After only a few minutes of interaction with Kalaiayyan, Nayanthara’s character, a lawyer, is given a crash course in justice. And that’s enough for her to defend her own client in court. Meenakshi is so disoriented that she can’t even see her own brother, who has been following her from a distance of 10 feet.
The audience adores Rajinikanth, as you can see. They can also appreciate and cheer when he lights a matchstick simply by staring at it ferociously. Or when he’s playing grenade catch. But, aside from exploiting the audience’s fondness for Rajinikanth, the film must have something to pique their interest. It was never expected of Annaatthe to follow reasoning.
However, it is a tremendous letdown when it comes to dealing with emotions, including comedy.
That begs the question: why make Annaatthe at all when there is nothing fresh to offer?
If you ask Siva, he’ll tell you that directing Rajinikanth in a film is a filmmaker’s dream, and he’s no exception. But what possible justification could Rajinikanth make for partnering with a director who doesn’t bring anything fresh to the table or promise to increase his star power and market share?
Annaatthe stars one of India’s top stars, and all it has to offer is a lot of dubious advice on love and relationships. Something is seriously wrong with what we consider to be major motion pictures.
