| Published on 16-06-2007 In General |
| Viewed 2064 times |
| Gullible geek gets groggy goons, thank you Rajni-the BOSS |
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Written by
T. S. V. Hari |
"Shivaji: The Boss" is a "must see" for all those Tamil film buffs who have suspended their logical beliefs or are diehard fans of Rajnikant. Anybody else will find the fare too pat and so simple an answer for all the country's ills including corrupt cops, crooked politicians, crank astrology fanatics and crazy computer kids.
Further, others who have a fetish about figures will also find this interesting for all the wrong reasons since the movie is all about numbers.
Here is a list.
Rs. 200 crores: the amount spent by an initially gullible, goodly geek NRI (Rajnikant) for a number of free philanthropic educational and medical institutions; Rs. 2,45,000 crores: the extent of black economy prevailing in India; Rs.50 crores: the sum required to bribe a state minister to avoid demolition of a construction project; Rs.4 crores: the money required to grease the palms of bureaucrats to clear a massive construction project; Rs.100 crores: the fiscal spread that can bring down a ministry in Tamil Nadu; Rs. 25 crores: a mortgage with such stiff rules that a rich family can be brought to the streets virtually penniless; Rs.20 lakhs: the fees of a legal vulture who doesn't know to argue and finally Re.1: a coin (which virtually can buy nothing in real terms) but can sustain interest in the second half of a Rs.100 crore celluloid extravaganza for which every second fan has paid at least Rs.500 per ticket.
Director Shankar (also credited with the screenplay) hasn't wanted to change his staple fare of his previous jingoistic claptrap.
The is a story of a man who wants to do good for his country, but the goons will allow him to do so only if he morphs from a successful, yet gullible computer nerd NRI into an all-in-one sari-chasing, modern day Bruce Lee, blackmailer, hawala operator, avenging bald phoenix and a willing confessor to the authorities who didn't want him to succeed in the first place.
A nerd called "Shivaji" returns from the US (ironically called Chief Software Architect – rings a bell Bill Gates?) to distribute his largesse amongst the poor of his home state of Tamil Nadu. After harassment from a dhoti-clad plump pumpkin like baddie Adisheshan (Suman) in myriad ways with the assistance of a corrupt bureaucracy and political class and rendered penniless, the good Samaritan turns to blackmail to unearth unimaginable sums of black money by using a mere one rupee and the help of a wisecracking "uncle" (Vivek) looking younger than his "nephew" with enough one-liners that can prop up a dozen "Letterman" shows.
A Muslim hawala operator staying in a tenement manages to transfer the ill gotten wealth (all for a good cause) to US (delivered in sheaves of dollars that look so obviously counterfeit in what looks like a laundry van) and in turn all this Duddu is sent back to India so easily by other NRIs which implies that the Internal Revenue Service is manned by a set of nincompoops. The nerd stores all this information in a laptop which has an animated mouse that detects mimicry artists and self destructs the information stored in it before one can say password. A tribe of CBI officers dressed in tweed suits behaves as if it has nothing else to do other than crowding the man's wife Tamil Selvi (Shriya) who betrays her husband to "save" his life.
Crooked top brass amongst the local cops stage an encounter foiled easily foiled by the geek who rises back from the dead as a bald, bearded phoenix and avenges his earlier torture. The black economy plaguing India is trashed and we are told that we will be part of a newly constituted G9 within the next eight years as if the number of zeroes in the hundreds of crores of rupees can con the G8 powers easier than taking candy from a kid. In between all this, the computer-kid successfully stalks a silly woman who sells musical instruments for a living and believes in an astrologer who turns up like a bad penny with doomsday predictions in the unlikeliest of situations. Finally, the drip, who has foxed everybody (including the dreaded Enforcement Directorate), ends up spending a decade behind bars in spite of the fact that nobody could prove anything against him.
Shankar has packed enough gimmicks in the movie including invocations of Tamil thespians (past and present) to keep his catcalling frontbenchers happy. Sujata's dialogues, KV Anand's camera work, Thotta Tharani's massive sets and AR Rahman's music live up to expectations.
Rajnikant's garish costumes and wigs look outlandish but have been so designed to provide him with youthful (?) looks. He plays himself (remember Shivaji is his first name?) so one doesn't have to make any attempt to comment on his histrionic efforts. Shriya doesn't leave anything to imagination while flaunting her hourglass wares. Age seems to have caught up with Suman and appropriately grimaces in the necessary sequences.
AVM, the oldest studio in India, has dumped too much of its cash, credits and credibility into this caper. But, going by the roars of applause in the cinema, the frontbenchers will turn enough turnstiles to trigger a torrent of tender.
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