Shankar, with I has attempted his darkest film date. He is nowhere close to his past best when it comes to narrative precision, but like Robot or most of his films, he pushes the visual envelope, his trademark beyond reworked stories, so high that you can't account it for laziness. Like K V Anand did it for Maatraan and Murugadoss for 7th Sense, I too looks like a small-scale sci-fi on hand, acting too smart. The villainy is better than the opulence with a weak and a toothless premise. But, is this what the director's brand promises? For those with predetermined ideas, I isn't your playing to the galleries film. Neither is it a wholesome result. It hovers around and gives up and unexpectedly recovers.
When you see the second track in the film, a guy fantasizing about his love, it's not a rosy duet of their future in New Zealand. It's in fact, as 'local' as you can imagine it to be. The click of her in his mobile transforms into an Amy Jackson whose costumes resemble that of the parts in the piece. Then you take turns. There comes a television set, a bubble next, followed by a fish and even a set of dumbbells. That's the most uncompromising part of I, the Shankar that you and I have known since Gentleman. These were supposed to be the bonuses, but, here these are the only bargains you get. The exotic locales in China notwithstanding, you need to please yourself with a half-hearted bodybuilding thread and a set of transgender jokes that Sajid Khan would've been proud of.
The second half of I is probably the part that you see the director getting back to some business. Santhanam appears once in a while to crack a satire, but the intensity is well up there. Forgetting the entire bid of underplaying the baddie till the last moment, Shankar pulls in a surprise when you see him spin a mini-lecture of how easily a human succumbs to visual legacies or anything that's merely aesthetic. He shows you what being monstrous is all about. The commentary is worth a watch. Vikram is especially the best catch in a situation like this, where he exaggerates and numbs down exactly when necessary.
This is done so meticulously to an extent that the bodybuilding, the modelling tracks in the first half starts making some sense. The pain of being ugly is put to utmost detail and with the rawness that only came about in his rare youthful indulgence, Boys. The revenge bids though, reminding you of Aparichitudu, just take a scientific turn. The ending is again a hotchpotch, some revenge, some love and some intelligence. Neither of them feels genuine.
Even if I is a film that deserves the big screen, it's the topping dominating the content. With the Situational music and an extremely surprising Suresh Gopi, I sadly does injustice to Vikram and the scale. You feel for the film for a while and peep into the screen to see if that was Shankar again.
Two stars Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.entOther Related Posts
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