Vijay’s GOAT Movie Review

Tamil star hero, Vijay teamed up with director, Venkat Prabhu for ‘The Greatest of All Time’, his penultimate movie before he is going step into full-time politics. The film was released today in theatres with the tagline ‘A Venkat Prabhu’s Hero’. Did the film live up to the expectations? Did Venkat Prabhu manage to give a memorable film to Vijay like he delivered a memorable film to Ajith with Mankatha? Let’s figure it out.

Story:

Gandhi(Vijay) along with three of his friends(Prashanth, Prabhu Deva & Ajmal Ameer) are the members of Special Anti-Tertorist Squad(SATS). During a mission in Pattaya, Thailand, Gandhi’s son, Jeevan(Vijay) gets kidnapped. Local police in Pattaya confirm that Jeevan is dead along with his kidnappers in a car accident. How did Jeevan’s death impact Gandhi’s personal & professional life? Did Jeevan really die? forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Thalapathy Vijay delivered a terrific performance both as Gandhi & Jeevan. His comedy timing, style, and swag are too good to watch. His performance during a couple of emotional outbreak sequences was just first-rate. Vijay’s dance moments along with Trisha in a dance number made the crowd erupt in the theatre.

Sneha as a mother who lost her son, delivered a good performance. Yogi Babu as ‘Diamond Babu’ in the second half was a show stealer. His timing as usual was just too good. Prashanth, Prabhu Deva & others were just adequate. Sivakarthikeyan in a cameo during the climax brought the roof down.

Meenakshi Chaudhary in a poorly written role is disappointing. Unfortunately for her, even the song which she danced with Vijay was disappointing.

Technicalities:

Undoubtedly, Yuvan Shankar Raja’s songs and background score are a big letdown. Even a few well-executed sequences did not get elevated properly due to his poor background score. Only during the Pre-Interval and a couple of sequences in the second half, his score was good. There’s nothing much to talk about songs. They are neither good at listening nor on-screen with visuals. The choreography in the SPARK song was very poor.

Venkat Raajen’s editing was equally poor. At least 20 minutes of the film could have been trimmed. Especially the climax was dragged a bit too much. Siddhartha Nuni’s cinematography was good. The much talked about De-ageing look of Vijay came out well. It seems like the team put enough effort into finetuning the De-ageing after receiving severe backlash post the SPARK song release.

Venkat Prabhu who is known for fun entertainers with a good dose of commercial elements did a decent job in GOAT. He packaged the film with enough fun, commercial elements & fan-pleasing moments but both the writing and execution could have been even better, especially in the second half. The CSK & M.S. Dhoni fanboy in him went overboard during the climax.

Thumbs Up:

First Half
Vijay’s Performance
Yogi Babu’s Comedy
Good Twists

Thumbs Down:

Music (Both Songs & BGM)
Editing
Dragged & Over The Top Climax

Analysis:

Thalapathy Vijay became a household name in Tamilnadu because of story-driven family entertainer films like Poove Unakkaga, Love Today, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, et al. He is a good actor and can pull off a movie without unnecessary songs, fights & other commercial elements. Unfortunately, the directors of this generation think that songs are a must in Vijay’s films even if they spoil the flow of the film. In GOAT, there are two songs that come out of nowhere right after two highly emotionally charged sequences. Both these songs worked as speed-breakers and could have been edited.

Director Venkat Prabhu did a good job in the first half with a good opening sequence, followed by a few fun sequences involving Gandhi’s family & friends and a predictable but interesting twist during the Pre-Interval. He took a lot of time before opening up the core plot but the first half of the film goes without any major complaints.

It is in the second half, that director Venkat Prabhu lost track. The cat-and-mouse sequences between Gandhi & Jeevan were not written well. Vijay’s terrific performance both as Gandhi & Jeevan made these not-so-well-written sequences watchable. There are a few twists in the second half but all those twists are very predictable & give a sense of Deja Vu feeling.

Venkat Prabhu used CSK & M.S. Dhoni as a screenplay backdrop during the climax but it did not give the desired impact because of the dragged face-off between Gandhi & Jeevan. Almost 30 minutes long ‘playing to the gallery’ climax tests patience after a point of time. But, CSK & M.S. Dhoni fans may like this part immensely. There were a lot of references to CSK & M.S. Dhoni throughout the film and during the climax, the fanboy in Venkat Prabhu made a statement by calling M.S. Dhoni, ‘The Greatest of All Time’.

A better output from Yuvan Shankar Raja would have changed the fortunes of the film completely but Yuvan disappointed big time. The songs were a big letdown and his background score was inconsistent. He gave a very good background score for very few sequences & subpar score for the remaining sequences. The SPARK song could have been edited completely. Not just the music but also the dance in that song was very bad.

Overall, GOAT is a decent one-time watch film for the good first half, Vijay’s terrific performance, Yogi Babu’s comedy sequences in the second half, cameo appearances of Trisha & Sivakarthikeyan and a couple of predictable yet good twists. It has a good chance of working well in Tamil due to Vijay’s stardom, CSK & Dhoni factor but in Telugu, it is difficult to sustain at the box office after the opening weekend.

Bottom Line – Not The Greatest. Just OK.

Rating – 2.5/5