Jailer (2023)

Jailer has been watched. First things first, the movie worked very well albeit the obvious flaws.

While Rajinikanth defies physics and logic, his films always have grammar, family friendly films that see the hero fighting and winning against the evil. Over the years, there have been directors who attempted to rewrite the grammar but ended up playing within the boundary. Jailer is a unique Rajini film where Nelson has attempted to rewrite the grammar. The attempt is not futile but not successful either.

Jailer is a Rajini film in Nelson universe. The films have a quirky setting with eccentric characters who behave in weird manner and Jailer is another film in that universe. While the setting Rajini in this universe is fresh, the story does remind you a lot of others as well as his previous works. Regardless, the movie doesn't bore you. Rajinikanth as Muthuvel Pandian was terrific with his swag, screen presence and mass who as well gets enough scenes to actually act. Vinayakan as the villain was the next and only other noteworthy character in the film. He was splendid for the "almost" maniacal villain role. Being a villain to Rajini ain't easy and he does that pretty handsomely.

The movie contains a whole bunch of renowned artists from across the industry but the second hero of the movie was Anirudh Ravichandar. I had a feeling that Anirudh is slacking after his recent songs being mid to poor but he proved me wrong with a rousing score which elevates the scenes very well. The movie travels across different states and the cinematography of Vijay Karthik Kannan captures the essence of the state perfectly.

Shivrajkumar and Mohanlal cameo was done well, wished there were more scenes. Tamannaah was unbelievably gorgeous in her cameo and the song. Yogi Babu fades away after a point, felt he could have been used more.

Coming back to Nelson, Jailer is a solid outing for him after the Beast debacle but the movie could have been so much more and it feels he limited himself to satisfy the mass audience. Nelson is not really good with emotions, be it CoCo or Doctor, albeit having mother and daughter sentiment in the mentioned movies, the movies work mainly because of the screenplay and not become of the emotions. The problem continues and is even bigger in this. The emotions are very much superficial and consequently we don't feel anything when things happen on the screen. The mass moments and the engaging screenplay make up for this as the climax is sure to bring the roof down.

𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗮𝗷𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗺 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘄𝘀.

#Jailer