Rajinikant offers his best yet in ‘Petta’
A genuine sense of fun runs through the taut plot of this action film
In what seems like an unwanted political intrusion in formulaic entertainer Petta, actor Vijay Sethupathi’s character is attacked in a cowshed by goons who accuse him of being a beef carrier.
Well, Sethupathi does have quite a beefy role. In fact, it’s the most powerfully written secondary part I’ve seen in any recent Rajinikanth-led movie. Sethupathi plays Jeetu, a sleazy hit man in Uttar Pradesh who ends up being horribly confused about his parentage. In fact, the script turns his parentage into a bit of a savage joke.
But director Karthik Subbaraj knows when to pull back the punches. He lets the three-hour marathon masala fare move like a steamroller that knows exactly how to run its course without plundering any of the tropes in a Rajinikanth movie. Petta is a film that satiates both devotees and non-devotees. While it harks back to the actor’s most famous avatars it gives a flavourful twist to every manoeuvre that brings the plot closer to its nemesis.
To begin with, Rajinikant is a boisterous hostel warden who plays Uncle Cupid to a young couple.
While aiding the courtship, Rajinikant falls in love with a spiritual hero (Simran, looking lovely). This part of the film is light to the touch, frothy and tantalising in a cute kind of way.
In the second half, the plot takes off, creating a badland of bloodshed and retribution where bullets and bombs pelt down in a devastating tale of caste and communal wars. The clannish violence is cannily constructed to highlight Rajinikanth’s stage-capturing image. He has never looked so young in the past decade. He performs the action sequences and the dances with a disarming relish and his character doesn’t shy away from killing enemies.
It all adds up to a visually rich drama replete with twists and turns that are not only unforeseen but also deftly written to accentuate Rajinikanth’s image.
Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui makes a formidable adversary in his first South Indian movie. The confrontations between the two leading to a bloodied finale leaves no room for the audiences to exhale.
When was the last time I had so much fun watching a Rajinikanth film? The last few years, topped by the appalling 2.0 last month, have been pretty abysmal. Perhaps the Thalaiva, as he’s called by his devotees, had begun to take himself too seriously in his recent films.
In Petta, Rajinikant doesn’t allow his swagger to be weighed down by responsibilities. A genuine sense of fun runs through the taut plot.
Except for a few stretches where the director seems to lose grip (for instance the early scenes in the hostel are way too flighty) this tale of a father-figure fighting to save a young boy (Sananth Sethi) from murderous enemies is just what the Rajinikanth image needed at this juncture.