Petta (Movie review)

The Superstar is back. And how!

Semi-spoilers embedded. It takes an exceptional actor to convert even the little scope a script offers into a memorable performance. With Petta, Nawazuddin Siddique has cemented his position among the top acting talents of the country. The film offered him just one chance to prove himself - the scene where he reacts to the killings of the members of the opposite gang - and man! he has come out with  flying colours. Truly Siddique. And it takes an extraordinary level of stardom and mettle to raise above everyone else in the cast ensemble that includes stars like Vijay Sethupathi, Simran, Sasikumar and many more - and create waves of excitement among the fans. With Petta, Rajni has made it loud and clear he is still the Superstar of Kollywood. 

With a revenge drama core, Petta is about a college hostel warden, Kaali, whose smiles hide more than one mystery. Until about the interval the movie is mainly an enjoyable ride filled with many Rajni moments and some action. The star charms with his one liners (Nallavanaa iru, aanaa romba nallavanaa irukaatha), humour, style and stunts. But there is always an undercurrent similar to Baasha (1995) (just similar, but not intended to be anywhere near, though there is a smart dialogue reference to Baasha) about who Kaali was, and why he worked as a warden in a college atop the hills. The second half that has a sizeable flashback portion is terrific. 

There are a few scenes like the one where Rajni shoots and kills a person in a very odd setting (cannot reveal more here) and goes about it in a cool way, where the director sparkles. The scene recreates the magic of his earlier film Jigarthanda (2014). There is also episode that happens in a moving train where Rajni, the actor, shines. It is heart warming to see such moments on screen. And unlike the flashback portion in Kabali, where the age of the star shows on screen so much that even the director did not want us to see it as one full continuous episode, in Petta Rajni looks so fresh and fine as a young man. The swag is unmissable. The Superstar is back. And the good news is - he is all over.  

Trisha and Simran have roles that are just a bit longer than their portions revealed in the trailers. They have done justice to whatever they were doled out. The script does not bank very much even on Vijay Sethupathi. The motto seems to be - when you have Rajni, why do you really need anyone else? 

With wonderful support from the production design and costumes team, the DOP Thirunavukarasu not just captures beauty but also transports us to places wherever the story goes, be it a village or a hill station or an old town in Uttar Pradesh. Right from his initial years Rajni has blended humour with his stunts, the stunt director Peter Hein has kept the spirit alive. There are some 'mass' fights too. The script takes you into it so well that even when Rajni sprays hundreds of bullets in the second half you really do not feel odd. You know it is staged, it is definitely not real, may be implausible on screen too, but you enjoy it when Rajni does it in his way. 

Vijay Sethupathi (as Jithu) and Rajni have a few smart moments on screen as they get into a cat-and-mouse game towards the end of the movie. The climax is an amazing culmination of the game they play, and the moves they make. Topped with a peppy dance by Rajni for his song 'Raman aandaalum Ravanan aandalum...' (is it also a political statement?) from Mullum Malarum (1978), Petta's climax is among the best finishings we had seen in a Rajni film. It achieves what hundreds of crores of rupees could not achieve in 2.0: frenzy.

If I were to pick just one another person for creating the Petta magic, it is the music composer Anirudh Ravichander. Petta is a wholesome album and the songs have been trending. But the background score of the film is also a superstar in its own right. Hats off! The 'Kalyanam' song is so intelligently done and placed well, it cools down the temper before it builds again and there is blood all over, again.

Directed by Karthik Subburaj, the script is tailor-made for Rajni and fans, with full belief in the Superstar. The filmmaker clearly knows not only what a fan expects from Rajni - but also when s/he expects that. And this is where the success of the film gets defined, especially when compared to the Rajni outings post-Sivaji (2007). While Kuselan (2008) was passable, the iterations of Enthiran (2010 & 2018) were more of tech razzmatazz than a display of the star's aura and talent, Lingaa (2014) didn't even have a decent script to begin with, Kabali (2016) tried to launch Rajni in a new, old avatar, and well Kaala (2018) was Pa.Ranjith's and not Rajni's. All these films made in the past decade assumed either Rajni, the Superstar was a spent force or their scripts would take Rajni to the next level. Both the assumptions were broadly off-target. And immaterial of the claimed box office collections, the end result has always been a kind of let-down for the star as well as for his fans and fanatics. 

Now, Petta brings back to Rajni's fans what has been missing in the cinema halls during all these years: euphoria.