There’s so much easiness around. Every moment is a delayed cakewalk. When your character is such a proclaimed supreme authority, unfettered by any difficulty thrown at him, why bother to have a baddie, which in most of the scenes is literally termed a fool? Srinu Vaitla, for a fact, does that better than many. The conflict in the tale is between the mass appealing and tailor-made natures. Lingaa is extremely strong when it doesn’t get into the little details and focuses on the moments. Something like the underplayed romance between the ‘star’ and Sonakshi. Something like the belief of the masses or the conviction in the man himself.
Like the in-between well written stretches for Kochadaiyaan, which KS Ravikumar wrote, he establishes the universal-connects like betrayal, sacrifice and brotherhood with mastery in the periodic era. Weren’t that exactly his strengths except for Ramya Krishnan’s villainous act in Narasimha (Padayappa) too? Sadly, he chases the enigma behind the success-formula here. He brings Anushka and her stint with sting journalism as tokens to show that the times have changed.
Do we watch Rajinikanth’s films because he’s intelligent in them? Lingaa is indeed effective, when it shows the actor, as more of a ‘human’ with his imperfections. To root for a character, don’t we at least need that one compromising instance? The limit is taken for granted here, as if a Superman is brought in place for the section of audiences that missed out on his bad online jokes.
We don’t care for the logical misspellings, such as the tricolored Indian flag in 1939? Fine, this is fiction, we know. But when you’re making the content, even the masala moments sound like fillers, aren’t you missing the very reasons that tick for a star-vehicle? We’re not questioning the necessities of Santhanam or Jagapati Babu here.
Had Lingaa stuck to a single period without the burden of catering to segments or looking advanced, we would’ve had a solid film in store, something more about the man who started it all, about the temple, its historical significance and the lifestyle transition of the lead couple. But, that’s not Lingaa for us. It’s a mockery-retelling of Narasimha, a low-scale Dhoom 2 and a Superman Returns?
Two stars