Suriya, as an actor in terms of his film choices is more of a fascinated kid. With each of his works, you see that the seed of the film is exciting enough. But, when that apparently impressive idea stretches out into a full-fledged narrative, say something like a Maatran or a 7th Sense, you get to notice what he misses out, the totality. The desire to push himself into newer horizons has been persistent in all of these examples, but bad habits never go by without an evil glance.
Unfortunately, Rakshasudu is easily satisfied to be a tiresome addition to the same. Venkat Prabhu merely brings the horror element into play, only to add a Kanchana-like cushioning to an outdated revenge drama.
The film’s plot isn’t much of an issue, but it’s surprising to see how much the director fools around with the fillers. There’s Brahmanandam, a romantic track where the female counterpart is a nurse, more or less in place to just deal with the physical and the mental hassles of her man. You see a lot of self referencing in place, especially with Mankatha, easily one of his better films to date. The actor does his bit with Surya S/O Krishnan and Thuppakki.
With Venkat Prabhu, you can get what’s happening with him when he is gifted the scale, the budget, the actors and the lavish sets. Given the fact that the lead character is an orphan and comes across a child who is blind, there’s a mention from a sequence in Journey about eye donation. That’s an excuse for Jai to step in for a special appearance. One of them fights for the homeless, the other talks about old-age homes. Remember, Suriya runs a social foundation?
Yet again, there’s Brahmanandam trying hard to provide an occasional comic relief. There’s a girl being called Kung Fu Panda for her size. Then, at last, there’s revenge. The film is pointlessly all over the place.
It’s only for a brief phase that the horror-comedy acts provide the humour, they are intended to. An otherwise consistent Yuvan Shankar Raja is given toothless situations to bring his act. The score works, but the narrative hardly does. Suriya invests a wonderful amount of composure, even in the most clichéd of instances, and tries to inject some sense in the commercial mix of horror, humour, revenge, romance and emotion. But, how much can he really do to polish the jaded interiors? You really feel for such a firehouse performer, when he’s stuck in this situation.
Pranitha gets the more sensible role of the two ladies. She doesn’t do much to bring in her presence, but she’s better off than a Nayanthara and her convenient one-scene, one-song appearances. The drama in the film is packaged, all for the last 45 minutes that it ends up being an overdose. Samuthirakani’s baddie act doesn’t quite have a personality to it. Rakshasudu is an apt title, but not so much of an apt film for Suriya.
Two stars
By Srivathsan Nadadhur
