Lingaa Movie Review

Lingaa Movie Review

Cast: Rajanikanth, Anushka, Sonakshi Sinha, Jagapathi Babu and Others      

Directed by: K.S. Ravi Kumar

Produced by: Rockline Venkatesh

Banner: Rockline Entertainments

Music by: A.R. Rahman

Release Date: 2014-12-12                                                                                    Rating: 2/5

Lingaa Movie

Superstar Rajanikanth is back with Lingaa after a long gap after monstrous hit Robo. Director K.S. Ravi Kumar who directed super hits like Narasimha and Muthu with Rajani is the director of this film.

What is it about?

Raja Lingeswara (Rajani) gives away all his properties for the sake of building a dam for the village called Singanooru under British rule. He also builds a temple by the side of that dam, but the villagers misunderstand Lingeswara's intentions and send him away from Singanooru. His grandson Linga (Rajani) comes to that village after seventy years and opens that temple. Now Linga has to save that village and dam from a crooked politician (Jagapathi Babu).

Performances:

Rajanikanth: Rajanikanth is the biggest asset of this film that has nothing novel to offer. His screen presence and antics in comedy scenes are a treat. Rajanikanth is known for different mannerisms and stylish portrayal of any character. Director Ravi Kumar never made use of those unique features of Rajani in this film.  

Sonakshi Sinha: Sonakshi did a deglamorized role of a village girl. Her performance is okay. There is nothing spectacular or noteworthy about her south debut.

Anushka: Anushka is alright as another female lead. She has limited screen time.

Others: Jagapathi Babu is wasted in a miniscule role. Santhanam's comedy punches in the first few minutes of the film are nice. We wish he had more screen time in this film that is boring to the core as it moves forward. K. Vishwanadh and others appeared in stereotype characters.  

  Technicalities:

Direction: K.S. Ravi Kumar wrote a very weak script that is done to death on Indian Screen. Despite having superb technical team and high budget at his hands, he failed to make an entertaining and engaging movie. It is overlong and lacks the Rajani spark. We expect the film to get better after a point, but even Rajani couldn't save this. Only Ravi Kumar's writing and direction has to be blamed for wasting such a great opportunity.

Others: AR Rahman's music is not impressive at all. Ratnavelu's Cinematography takes the cake on the technical front. Editing is bad too. Production values are rich. Producer Rockline Venkatesh spent a fortune on this film.

Thumbs Up:

Rajanikanth

Thumbs Down:

 Screenplay

 Music

 Direction

Analysis:

Rajanikanth's fans will be utterly disappointed with Lingaa. It lacks energy and drags on and on to an extent that even Rajanikanth seemed helpless. It is a period drama where most part of the film is set in 1940s. We expect engaging drama with such setup. But the director failed miserably in making it an interesting movie.

Most of the scenes and situations are straight out of Rajanikanth's previous hits. Seems like Ravikumar tried to make this work by using scenes that have impressed Superstar fans in the past. But there isn't a single moment for the fans of Rajanikanth to cheer about. His trademark mannerisms and style is completely missing in this film.         

Lingaa starts on an entertaining note with Rajanikanth and Santhanam pulling off a heist. Everything takes U turn after the story shifts to Singanooru. Rajanikanth's King character is presented in a sophisticated manner and therefore there isn't any scope for hero elevation and mass friendly elements.         

Age old story, bad narration, weak sound track makes this three hour long film painfully boring to watch. Lingaa fails to please even the diehard fans of Rajanikanth.