Puli Review – Puli is a Tamil fantasy adventure movie released in 2015. Many years ago a superior race known as Vedhalam had won wars over the human race in India and ruled them. The atrocities of their general in the kingdom caused misery to people’s life. Circumstances lead an adopted son of a village chief to take on the might of the Vedhalam race.
There has been enough negative trolling on Puli review on the social media. This increased my curiosity to watch Puli and understand why it could have gone so bad. This review is my take on Puli and an unbiased opinion.
Director Chimbu Deven had treated us with periodic movie Imsai Arasan 23 am Pulikesi. He has now experimented with periodic fantasy movie. Post the era of Vittalacharya there has not been any successful attempt in Tamil Cinema on any fantasy adventure. Even if it had been it has not become wildly successful. Most of the Tamil filmmakers stayed out of this genre for quite some time. The financial budget and relevance of such stories in the modern era should have been the fear.
Vijay and Chimbu Deven should be lauded for going beyond the usual mass masala movie to create a fantasy adventure. It is definitely a welcome change to Tamil Cinema. However where the movie has gone bad is in the script writing department. The plot was in place which has similarities to 1948 classic Vedhala Ulagam starring T.R Mahalingam directed by A.V Meiyappan, Pa. Neelakantan and M.V Raman. Many of the trollers in social media may not have been aware of such a movie which was a mass entertainer of its time and beats many of the fantasy movie stories that are out there in the west.
In the movie Puli the writers have fallen prey to push mass masala film elements which seem out of place. The dual between Sudeep and Viay is one of the important portions of the movie. Sudeep says, “Intha kottaikke Thalapathy naan thaan” and Vijay replies “Intha kottaikkuthane…” looks very cliched and out of place for the movie. The film is filled with such cliches throughout including the dance numbers that doesn’t fit the genre of the movie barring one song which happens in the Kingdom.
The first half of the movie is long and boring. I felt why did I come for this movie. The scenes were too disconnected, the artists eye line match was out of place in many occasions. This is sure to test your patience and by the time the interval block comes it would have disconnected the audience from the movie. The second half of the movie which seems to be the actual story which the director wanted to convey is sure to engage you in a much better fashion. Thanks to the characterisation of Sudeep and Sridevi who help in making the movie watchable. If someone walked into the movie hall just for the second half they might be wondering why people are upset about the movie. Shruthi Haasan and Hansika are just used for glamor quotient. The songs are more jarring to the years than being pleasant.
The big plus for the movie is the production design by T. Muthuraj. He has aesthetically created some of the sets which looks grand and help you connect to the movie. Also, the VFX department has worked hard to add more grandeur to Muthuraj’s set.
High Points: A fantasy adventure genre for Tamil Cinema, Sridevi’s performance, Muthuraj’s production design, Mannavane Mannavane song choreography, Talking birds, frog, Lilliputs would entice kids.
Low Points: Screenplay is a big let down, Cliched mass elements in the movie, Songs and choreography, Title of the movie doesn’t fit in well, There should have been much more creativity in differentiating Vedhalam race and human race, Long and boring first half.
In 2002 Rajinikanth tried a different genre in Baba and it failed when it released in theaters, but later the home audiences enjoyed watching the movie on their TV sets once it was edited and all expectations died down. Vijay’s Puli is one such movie. When it comes on TV hopefully with some of the cliches edited the home audience would like it.
Overall Puli is a wannabe fantasy adventure movie that works in parts in the second half. A better script writing would have helped it to appeal to the audience. Still it is not as bad a movie as it is being trolled about, it could be watched when played on TV.
Wait for DVD/TV
The fans were praising Ennu Ninte Moideen too much and degrading this movie around here. It actually happened as if they want to keep doing it till the end of the world, and I did feel that it was rather too much of a one-sided judgment because I have watched the former.
Ha… Puli has been promoted to be a pathbreaking movie which it is nowhere close to… Hence the reaction I guess… Now that Allu Arjun movie is out in the theaters I believe this case would be rested for Kerala fans 🙂
Ennu Ninte Moideen was also promoted as the greatest love movie of all time and it is still not close to being that 🙂
Yes, Rudramadevi has its negative reviews too!
hmmm… appaulse to you for this mature reveiw… First I am also glad this was a different movie compared to the usual masala movies that unfairly make a hit, I think the attempt to make such a film is noteworthy. Though I don’t watch tamil movie, I would love to watch good movies and well done fantasy movies… I watched plenty in English and believe me they make a hit because of the visuals more than bringing out the elements of the story but they make a hit… so it won’t be hard to make such a movie in tamil as well… also that Sasa Avataram had some fantasy right…science fiction atleast, I think it did ok, was entertaining enough… so loads of scope…. just Indians are not that good in making making in this genre or have a mental block.
Thank you… I would add that the current present generation Indians are not good at making fantasy movies… but there was an era where there were filmmakers and writers who have made very good fantasy movies