Movie Review: ‘Petta’

Karthik Subbaraj has delivered what fans have wanted for a long time – a proper Rajini mass entertainer movie. ‘2.0’ was a success, it was more of a Shankar movie that relied heavily on special effects, and not the charisma of the superstar. While ‘Petta’ is by no means the best Rajini movie, it has done something important – it has revived the Rajini brand.

Right from the opening shots of the movie, it is clear that Karthik Subbaraj is a fanboy and has created a vehicle to show his reverence to his idol. The movie highlights everything that fans want in Rajini movies – punch dialogues, his excellent comic timing, and action sequences, to name a few. He stays true to the “formula”, and to Rajinikanth’s and Subbaraj’s credit, it works. This is a crowd pleaser from start to finish.

The story kicks off with Kaali (Rajinikanth) arriving as the warden of a boys’ hostel at a college in Darjeeling. As expected, he starts cleaning up the mess and taking on the college goon Michael (Bobby Simha) and his father Gnanam (Aadukalam Naren). He forms a close bond with a student Anwar (Sanath Reddy), and romances Mangalam (Simran). However, all is not hunky dory as Anwar is soon attacked in the college by goons of the villain Singaar Singh (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). A flashback reveals why, and Kaali and Anwar travel to Uttar Pradesh to take on Singaar Singh and his son Jithu (Vijay Sethupathi). The story is nothing too great, and the twist in the end is not really exceptional.

As expected with a Rajini movie, there is not much for the other actors to do. The towering presence of the superstar pretty much overshadows everyone else, and Rajinikanth is definitely enjoying himself here. Bobby Simha creates an impact with whatever he has to do. However, no one else really gets much to work with. Both Trisha and Simran have precious little screen time, and there is not much for them even in that. The real disappointment is to see Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vijay Sethupathi saddled with very generic roles with nothing special to offer. It is expected I guess, but sad nonetheless. ‘Petta’ could have used strong antagonists.

But; all said and done, this is a Rajini movie, and there it ticks pretty much all the boxes. Fans would have enjoyed this one for sure.