‘Coolie' movie review: Rajinikanth, Soubin Shahir shoulder Lokesh Kanagaraj's dull crime drama

The Hindu

a day ago

Very few moments in life match the excitement you see in the days ahead of a Rajinikanth film. In a career that has now reached the milestone of 50 years, the superstar is a brand that's as large as cinema itself. So when a Rajini film is arriving on screens, the anticipation is rarely for how Rajinikanth has performed — Helios never needed a torch to blaze — but whether the director at the helm has managed to achieve what less than a handful have in recent years: the difficult task of making a modern 'Superstar' film that is made with present-day filmmaking standards and yet with a star we are most familiar with. And now, in Coolie, the player in the game is Tamil mass action cinema's modern messiah, Lokesh Kanagaraj. This was a formula you could bet on. Lokesh, a filmmaker who dares to take on multi-starrers, is inching for a comeback to form after Leo.
Apart from the knack to marry mass with realism, he is also known for inventive fan service — a requisite for a 2020s Rajini film — which is why I had to visit Rajinikanth's 1981 Deewar remake, Thee, which found renewed interest since the trailer of Coolie tipped its hat to the R Krishnamoorthy directorial. Lokesh takes a leaf out of Thee and spruces it up to suit the star power of today's Rajikanth; the many flashbacks sprinkled throughout the 170-minute Coolie show Rajinikanth as a young Deva, a blue-collar worker at a port who stands up for his fellow labourers. This spares Lokesh the struggle to sell the character's backstory or use screen time to revive Rajinikanth as the hero of the proletariat. Now the weight of the film falls entirely on the story mounted over this fascinating backdrop, and unfortunately, Coolie ends up with a bag of mixed results. It neither matches Lokesh's standards nor would satisfy the Rajini fan hungry for appeasement.
Interestingly, this is easily the most plot-heavy first half we have seen in a Rajinikanth film in a long time, which is not necessarily a good thing, or bad. Coolie kickstarts with a sampling of the iron fist with which the ruthless Dayalan (Soubin Shahir) operates a port for his boss, Simon (Nagarjuna Akkineni), a crime kingpin who deals in luxury watches. A police infiltrator is hanged, and there's talk of more such sheep in the herd. Meanwhile, we are introduced to Deva, now the owner of a mansion. You can't help but stay glued to the superstar, who now looks tired. A close-up shot on a mirror shows his ageing, and it dawns how our 74-year-young superstar can no longer fight or dance like he used to — or that's what you thought! We get the hero introduction song, Chikutu, in which he performs a leg sweep with his back on the floor! And yet, there's this unmissable weariness in the close-ups, which thankfully here, adds to the pathos of his character Deva, who quickly learns that his best friend Rajasekhar (Sathyaraj; interestingly, Rajasekhar was Rajini's name in Thee) has passed in a heart attack.
Deva, learning that Raja's death wasn't natural, vows to find out who killed his friend and why, which entangles him with Dhayalan's crew, who had been doing business with Raja. Who killed Raja, and what business did watch smugglers have with Raja? Why is Rajasekhar's daughter Preethi (Shruti Haasan) so annoyed at Deva? Why did Rajasekhar do what he did? Coolie explores these questions in a grounded yet haphazard manner.
Coolie (Tamil)
Director: Lokesh Kanagaraj
Cast: Rajinikanth, Nagarjuna Akkineni, Soubin Shahir, Upendra
Runtime: 170 minutes
Storyline: A mansion owner investigates the death of his friend, which puts him in the cross hairs of a crime syndicate
The chief issue with the first half is how there is hardly a sense of urgency or impending danger in these proceedings, at least until the terrific pre-intermission sequence that begins at a graveyard. It's also largely bereft of the Rajinisms you expect in this phase of a Rajini film — there are, of course, reminders of it, like in a hilarious fight scene at a women's hostel. While the intermission sequence ends on a high note, the second half also finds Deva and Preethi in some very dull stretches, with Preethi pushed around like a pawn on the board. An arc that begins with Simon's son Arjun's (Kanna Ravi) romance with his girlfriend (Rachita Ram) seems interesting on paper, especially with how it helps tie the knots in the end, but it drags on, and the final effect is not worth the effort.
For much of the second half, Nagarjuna's character Simon recedes to the background as it is Dhayalan who pulls the weight. In fact, Soubin is easily the performer to watch out for in Coolie — even in a speed-breaker like the item-number 'Monica,' Soubin compels your attention with his eccentricities. His Dhayalan also ends up as the most well-rounded character in Coolie, all thanks to the many extremes his arc takes. Nagarjuna, on the other hand, appears menacing and quite convincing as the villain, but there isn't enough on paper to tap into his villainy. Also impressive is Shruti, who, despite bringing her A-game whenever required, doesn't get enough opportunities to shine.
A big drawback we feel in connecting to some of these characters is how we hardly get good scenes that feature them with Deva, which is a problem for a story mounted on his wide shoulders. This is also why, after their introduction shots, the characters in the cameos do not appear real. It's also time Lokesh understands that a mere cameo in the end can no longer work — yes, it worked in Vikram, but as we see in Coolie, merely foreshadowing a villain throughout the film and having an actor with a diametrically opposite image play him aren't enough. The logic behind Dahaa's (Aamir Khan's not-so-surprising cameo) equation with Deva goes for a toss, and you are left searching for the menacing flashback of Deva that everyone's talking about.
In fact, one feels compelled to say that perhaps it's time for Lokesh to renew most of his signature flourishes — the use of a '90s song feels off here, and can the Mocobot be finally put to rest? For all the hype that an 'A' certificate Rajini got pre-release, the violence in Coolie isn't the gratifying kind, nor shot with cinematic taste, nor manages to shock you — you wouldn't expect Lokesh to repeat shots, of a man hanging on a noose or a man bleeding out, to manufacture shock. The action set pieces too, for the second time in a Lokesh Kanagaraj film, feel bland. The technician who shines the most is ace composer Anirudh Ravichander, whose pulsating music keeps you engaged throughout.
Coolie, on paper, must have had the promised potential. It's a grounded crime action drama with Rajini moments to keep it going. But if Lokesh's previous films — like Kaithi, Master, and Vikram — say something that it is that a strong emotional core is the necessary ingredient to make a realistically-shot action drama feel real and present, and this core is what is missing in Coolie.
It's disappointing how so many underperforming star vehicles in Tamil lose out on the emotional quotient — Coolie is following up on Thug Life, which you are reminded of when you think of the many similarities between Thee and Nayakan. In the end, after a sobering Rajini film (consecutively after Vettaiyan), you are left asking one pertinent question — where is the Rajini-Lokesh film that was promised?
Coolie is running in theatres