Lingaa

Cast	:	Rajinikanth Anushka Shetty, Sonakshi Sinha, Santhanam
Director	:	K.S. Ravikumar
Music	:	A R Rahman
Producer	:	Rockline Venkatesh
Release Date	:	12 December 2014
Length	:	2 Hours & 58 Minutes

My Thoughts

The movie begins in the routine Rajini style – A song with meaningful lyrics sung by S P Balasubramaniam. The lyrics seems to be directly addressing today’s generation and asking them to know their limits.

As you might have already heard, Rajini plays a double role, as the grandson and grandfather. Both are named as Lingeshwaran. Grandson is a thief whereas grandfather is a Maharaja. Most of the Movie is that of grandfather - a selfless Raja Lingeshwaran who gives up everything for the well-being of a village that is struck by drought. He sacrifices almost everything (in material terms) for the construction of a dam and yet gains several hearts and their good wishes.

The flashback is out of the world. Rajinikanth sizzles on screen with royal elegance. He steals our heart with his selflessness and great vision. Raja Lingeshwaran’s character will remain in our hearts forever.

Grandson Lingeshwaran aka Linga is at his funny best. There are several light moments in the film. He is spontaneous and proves once again why he is/will be the only superstar that Indian Cinema would ever see!

The screenplay is jam-packed with a few unexpected twists. There were not many punch dialogs; rather there are no such dialogs that stay in heart. Maybe the mannerism of twisting hair while thinking would soon become a style statement!

Gasolina songs is misplaced and the song sung by AR Rahman (Indiane Va) moves our heart. The stunt sequence in the flashback shot on a moving train is a marvel to watch and the climax is a disaster – superficial.

Sonakshi Sinha has done a fair job. Anoushka Shetty has very little screen time, yet she comes across as an intelligent woman and not as a typecast. Santhanam is good as always, more comfortable with the superstar than he was before.

I wish that the songs were better… more punch dialogs were included… Importantly, climax was more believable…

But, I can’t deny that Rajinikanth is at its best during the flashback (Which makes most of the movie) and come on… IT’s SUPERSTAR’S MOVIE…

Don’t miss it!!!!

Rating

3/5

PS: My appaji is a big Rajini fan. He is such an ardent fan that he watches only Rajini’s movies in theater off late. So, needless to say, after 4 years we went for a movie together as a family. My father was not very happy with the climax. When I asked if he liked the movie at all, he answered with a punch dialog – “Naan oru thadava paatha, marupadiyum paakka maatten” (If I have watched once, I will not watch again).