Spy thriller belies expectations

The combination of A R Murugadoss and Mahesh Babu had raised a lot of expectations as soon as this mega project was announced. After a few release glitches, the long-awaited Spyder, the Rs 150-crore magnum opus of the duo has made it during the long Dasara weekend.

Reinventing the macho appeal of the Prince with a veneer of IT skills and at the same time dumbing down the heroine Rakul Preet Singh in a traditional commercial film style, Murugadoss displays his directorial expertise in a 145- minute action thriller.

Mahesh Babu is a low-key back-end intelligence department employee who is shown snooping in on private conversations and hacking into CCTV networks at will, if only he hears a SOS call from anywhere in the region.

Understandably, the film’s progress is hinged on the calls he hears – one from the heroine who wants a ‘blind date’ and yet another, which lets him in into the chilling background of a serial killer, S J Suryah a psycho type to boot. The chase begins from here in right earnest between the good and the evil.

Determined not to make his film a regular chase and action drama, Murugadoss uses all the modern gadgetry and social media references to connect to the new gen of the superstar’s fans.

He does a reasonably good job till the end, in which he involves the people too earning applause all around from the audience. This is how he combats the cold-blooded ruthlessness of the villain, who is a mean, cunning type, yet a shade below the hero when it comes to techno wizardry.

Concentrating on the action block totally, Murugadoss does not devote too much time for the other aspects of the hero like a romantic interlude or two, kept confined to a duet here and there.

One feels sad for Rakul who has a poorly written role and is not missed at all, as the film is all about Mahesh Babu’s one-point mission of tracking down the murderer. Harris Jayaraj’s BGM is more impressive than his songs while Priyadarshi plays the friend of the hero yet another time quite competently.

The climax is well-shot and is gripping enough for the tension it brings among the players onscreen which keeps the audience interested. The director, taking a leaf out of his senior pro Shankar indulges in a bit of message mongering in the end, which could be received favourably by the hero’s legion of fans. A watchable kind of a film is what ‘Spyder’ turns out to be, as the end titles roll out.

Film Name : Spyder

Cast : Mahesh Babu, Rakul Preeet Singh, S J Suryah, Bharath and RJ Balaji
Direction : A R Murugadoss
Genre : Action drama
Likes : Mahesh Babu, S J Suryah
Dislikes : Sluggish first half