Movie Review - Kabali

This 150.31 minutes much hyped movie is a big disaster. It is a hot air balloon blown beyond limits and pierced with a small pin in the theaters by the audience. There is no story in the first place and the screenplay gives the impression that bits and pieces have been added together to make a full length film especially for Telugu audience as the dubbing is so dismal. 

This movie released in Tamil,Hindi and Telugu is sure to disappoint movie lovers and Rajini fans equally. The cast selection is very inappropriate and the background score doesn't give the feeling that a gang war is indeed happening on the screen. 

Rajini, who played the lead Kabali ( Kabaaleeshwaran) was probably felt to be too frail for the role that the director had to cover him in a blazer/suit and try to justify the same in the storyline. The audience patience is tested to the hilt in the scene in which the graduation ceremony is shown where Kabali is asked questions about his personal life and past. That is when his flashback is narrated to the audience. That part looked more like a badly orchestrated TV show than a film. The bad guy character Tony Lee, played by Winston Chao looked during for first half of the film as Telugu screen comedian L.B.Sriram( does anyone remember the Boost related scene in one of the films in which LBS will be made to strip to show children how a person would look like if they didn't take Boost). There was basically no role for any other actor in the film with Rajini being the whole and sole in the entire length except to some extent Kabali's wife's character Kumudhavalli, played by Radhika Apte,the daughter's character played by Dhansika and Ameer character played by John Vijay. The screenplay which leads Kabali to meet his wife after a long gap of 25 years is shot in an amateurish manner. There was no emotion in any of the actors when the reunion happens. Other characters too over acted which is clearly visible in every shot. None of the elements like music,songs, comedy, action, drama, etc., that one would want in a film are there in Kabali. 

The entire film seems to have been shot in tune with the age of the hero as he had to sit and deliver his dialogues in most scenes including those that are supposed to be action. 

The film has nothing much to offer to the audience and Kabali may go down in the history of Indian cinema as the first and last movie to have created such unusual and never-seen-before hype.

Overall the film could be given a two star ** just for Rajini as he is the only one who is seen and known. Kabaleee.....ra - choodadhu ..........ra - pothaavu......ra.