Billa review without revealing its storyline

As it happens with all Ajith movies, the film “Billa 2007” has received a great opening. The tickets for the first few days were booked in a few hours. There has been heightened expectation from the movie, this being the remake of Rajni Kanth’s earlier flick. I happened to watch the movie on its second day of release. This review is a neutral perspective of the movie. I have not attempted to reveal the story line.

 

 

First the positives of the movie: The first thing that draws you towards Billa is its racy entertaining screenplay. The director has deviated himself from unrelated comedies, sentimental scenes etc. In fact, except for Prabu, there isn’t much dialogues delivered by the lead cast. The film proceeds at almost the same pace throughout which by itself is a commendable job. There are not much logical loopholes, atleast on a comparative basis with other Tamil films. The acting has been awesome, atleast from Ajith and Prabu. The other noticeable aspect of the movie is that it does not try to deviate from its original. In that sense, it has been a tribute to the original. Only the locations and some subtle changes to reflect the modern times like the use of a pen drive in place of a diary. The car chase scene has been superbly picturised. The suspense element has been well maintained, which would be great for the scanty numbers who might have missed out on the original Billa. Credits are due to Nirav Shah, the cinematographer of Dhoom-2 fame. Yuvan’s re- recording is praiseworthy, though he can focus more on delivering quality numbers(songs) than just making up the numbers.

Now, coming to the dampeners. Except for Prabu ,Ajith and to an extent Rahman, the other characters are not strongly carved out. Even Nayanthara’s character is not strong enough and her character doesnt do anything significant in the movie. There are some logical flaws like the underworld gang bothered more about retrieving a pen drive and not worrying about whether its contents had been already copied.  The 2 item numbers are needless when u have 2 glamorous heroines adorned in skimpy costumes all the way through. Nayanthara looks more glamorous and appealing than Namita. When Ajith shoots a dozen people before a coke can drops to the floor, there are numerous instances where people miss shooting him in point range. Afterall, he is the Billa. Also, it is hard to believe that the duplicate Billa replicates all mannerisms, gait and voice of the original Billa when you do not have video footages for the same. Seeing photos of Billa and then acting like Billa doesn’t sound logical 

Overall,it has to be said that Ajith, Nirav Shah and Vishnu Vardhan have combined to give a thorough entertainer. The film is worth a try for its cinematography, packaging and for Ajith’s wonderful on screen presence.