Most filmmakers, I imagine, would dread the thought of juggling too many characters and plot twists. Not Lokesh Kanagaraj. He gets a kick out of plot mechanics. He seems to relish stories packed to the brim with them, to the verge of causing an overflow. Maanagaram had it. Vikram had it. Master had it. Leo had it. Thankfully, Kaithi didn't. The minimalism worked in its favour. It's not that it didn't have multiple characters; it's just that it seemed more... focussed... unlike the others. It had time to give enough attention to each of its characters, starting with Karthi's protagonist Dilli, in such a way that you cared what happened to him and some of the supporting characters. It's one of the reasons why Kaithi still remains Lokesh's best film.
By now, you must’ve guessed how I felt about Coolie. Here's the thing. There's nothing wrong with having many characters and plot twists, as long as you're able to justify the inclusion of each one. Coolie, like Leo and Master, contains parts that fit awkwardly. The best analogy would be a vintage car retrofitted with counterfeit parts that was supposed to be added to some new vehicle. If this was an attempt to evoke the classic Rajini films — or the "working class" Rajini characters, for that matter — Coolie has failed miserably. (And if you, like me, are a huge fan of an iconic 90s Rajini film, you're most likely going to keep a straight face at what passes for a... "tribute".) Coolie seems to yearn for the validation of both boomers and Gen Zs, and in trying to do so, it ends up tasting like stale tea. And one of the biggest culprits here is Anirudh's music, with repetitive and tiresome beats and lyrics, trying its hardest to make the bland fight sequences come alive, but in vain.
I don't know about others, but for me, Coolie has more interesting things to do post-intermission, unlike what happened in, say, Leo. But, this is no Vikram either. I'm not saying it was perfect — maybe it is to a lot of people, especially Kamal Haasan fans — but that film, regardless of some of its superfluous portions that stretched everything a bit longer than necessary, generated more electricity by the time the interval card appeared than what the entirety of Coolie managed to do.
Speaking of electricity, Coolie almost borders on science fiction when it introduces a certain machine and an inventor. But, thankfully, we are spared something which would, in this film, seem outlandish, as, say, time travel! If you believed some of those fake theories about this film, and expected them to appear, you'll be disappointed. On second thought, maybe something outlandish, such as time travel, would've spiced things up, as we saw in Mark Antony. Maybe this film would’ve benefitted from some over-the-top quality throughout, instead of awkwardly trying to alternate between two tones, sober and loud.
How can a film that, despite having three of the country's biggest stars and numerous plot developments, feel so lifeless? Coolie is a simple case of star presence doing more talking than the writing. At least in the case of Jailer, the idea of bringing in two superstars of their respective industries did wonders for it. Besides, no matter what shortcomings it had, Rajni's character was better written, even though he had to rely on the antics of two superstars to salvage the movie's third act. There was also, of course, Nelson's dark humour and a strong antagonist in the form of Vinayakan's character.
One of Lokesh's primary strengths has always been his writing of the bad guys, even when the rest of the film fails to do justice to them. Kaithi had Arjun Das. Master had Vijay Sethupathi. Vikram had Vijay Sethupathi. Leo had... nothing. Thankfully, Coolie has Soubin Shahir, who seems to have had a lot of fun playing this character, Dhayalan, despite not all his — or his associates' — choices making much logical sense in retrospect. There are, of course, a few plot twists that one doesn't see coming, but they lack impact. You get the sense that Lokesh is aiming for something that balances both spectacle and character like The Dark Knight, but the presence of one interesting character alone — and I'm talking about Soubin's character — doesn't help when it's a three-hour movie that does a lot of things but ends up causing little to no excitement.
Rarely does a film do justice to its trailer. The trailer was ineffective, and so is the movie. Oh, well, at least I got the names of two retro songs thanks to Lokesh. And, of course, the reminder to have biryani (Coolie, too, features the filmmaker’s trademark) as soon as possible because many of us skipped breakfast to watch this movie.
Film: Coolie
Director: Lokesh Kanagaraj
Cast: Rajinikanth, Nagarjuna, Soubin Shahir, Shruti Haasan, Upendra, Aamir Khan
Rating: 2/5