Battle of two Vijays disappoints

Ever since the pandemic wreaked havoc on the entertainment scene in India, especially its southern States where cinema is a way of life, the fate of one Tamil film – Master - has been discussed threadbare over all the media platforms. Ready for release from summer of 2020, the film finally hit the theatres worldwide on January 13, a dream come true for fans of Thalapathy Vijay who wanted to see him only on the big screen.

A three-hour long venture, keeping in mind the aching expectations of his well-wishers, the film is a thorough commercial product. Downgrading the usual Teflon status of the hero to one of an alcoholic do-gooder, who is a rage with his students, director Lokesh Kanagaraj, one of the rapid climbers in Tamil film industry with his recent hits attempts a different track of narration.

After introducing the villain, Vijay Sethupathy first, the hero is gradually and leisurely brought in into the mainstream screenplay when he decides to take up an offer of teaching students in a juvenile reformatory home. Here is where Sethupathy bases his entire criminal empire and has the adolescent students under his control with a generous supply of drugs and alcohol. The confrontation between the good and the evil forms the remaining portion of the running time.

Probably, with a done to death plot like this, what could have saved the film from degenerating into a drag of a movie could have been crisp action and imaginative treatment. Kanagaraj unwittingly gives a larger share of the retention value to Sethupathy, who steals the show effortlessly, as a menacing, chilling kind of a character.

Vijay, on his part, is cool, slim and very assured about his screen presence, the USP of all his recent films which have broken BO records. The story does not give him the cutting edge to dominate the villain, who is a popular name on his own right in Tamil and Indian cinema. His stunts during the climax too are predictable, even though engagingly shot.

A whole lot of known faces, including the heroine Malavika Mohanan have very less screen time in the combat between the two Vijays. An alpha male actioner, 'Master' is guilty of prolonging his classes too long for comfort. It would be interesting to know how it fares after the first week festival euphoria, which has given it a clear headstart.