A rare break at home/work on a Saturday morning, when I chanced upon the cafe fight sequence from ‘Leo’ released on the tube, with the evergreen ‘Thamarai Poovukkum’ playing in the background… probably to balance the violent atmosphere on screen. Definitely, I would say it did tone down the adrenalin inside that kept building up during the scene.
So then, I had thought of penning down something (not a review) on the latest Lokesh/Thalapathy offering… Seemed it may be the right time, what with we have its satellite premiere happening worldwide this Pongal.
So, where do we start… Guess the most talking point during the first few weeks of its release was whether it would reach 1000 crores at box office (BO). A fair expectation/dream given we just had a Tamilian direct SRK in Jawan which made wonders in BO and not to mention the successful run of Jailer just couple of months back. In hindsight, 1000 crores was surely more of a dream and there was one main reason why it wasn’t possible for it to touch it. It was definitely not publicized nor distributed other than in South India. Not sure why, but it was said that releasing in the multiplexes in north would delay the OTT release. May be the producer felt it was more profitable to play the South card only. Not sure if it makes sense though.
But, it clearly it drives home some facts… the numbers from South India alone cant make up the 1000 crore mark. It needs numbers from other parts as well. Its not as if we don’t have the people count but among them, theatre audience are few in numbers. And the advent of OTT has only further dented the numbers. While Jawan was miles ahead in BO, it was purely for this reason - it was distributed nationally. On the BO front, one other interest widely observed was to see if Leo would be able to beat Jailer…
While it did certainly, some may point out that the BO numbers weren’t believable. It was because the first few days (or almost a week) collection for Leo was record breaking at many levels. But the numbers started reducing as the days went by, unlike Jailer which had a steady average success throughout its run. A key difference to point out here is the number of screens allotted during the release for Leo, more probably to cash in on the festival mood coinciding with Navaratri. It isnt hard to acknowledge that the addressable market is limited and higher the screens, more would be the footfall in the initial few days itself. There is no denying that both movies were among the blockbusters of last year and they clicked for different reasons with the audience including Jawan.
On a whole, I would personally rate Leo higher than the latter two films on a pure ‘cinema as an art’ sense. Jailer was a classic example of how one man’s charisma can withstand a movie strongly on its legs, not to mention the power of background score from Rockstar Anirudh which even our Superstar acknowledged to have made the movie from average to a superhit. Jawan was also a testament to the swag style of SRK (the older one, particularly) but it also had the Shankar-esque social touch lifting it with similar contribution from Anirudh’s score. In contrast, unlike traditional films that rely more on thalapahty’s mass-appeal, Leo relied on the performer in him, helmed superbly within the LCU vision of Lokesh. Comparatively, there were more natural goosebump moments like Subramani in Leo than the other two.
Ofcourse, these movies had their fair share of negatives, not to mention loads of cinematic liberty taken to defy logic. In Jailer, the comic piece involving the temple crown appeared so naively conceived and handled (much like the director’s earlier attempt Beast as if he doesn’t have much to fill in for 150 minutes). Jawan was more of a rehash of several Shankar films, saved by some good overall execution. Leo did have its share of criticism, particularly the wacky reasons put together to cement the Himalayan rift between the father-son duo. But, personally I found it passable and more importantly, i didnt feel there was one moment which seemed out of context in the movie. Moreover, most would agree that the film succeeded effortlessly to make us fully believe in the words of Parthiban up until the last reel. I would say that if this was provided in 2 parts, it would have had a greater success, as there was clearly lot of substance tried to be cramped in few hours!
Before we wind up, i guess it wouldnt be wise to step aside the growing (unhealthy) trend of glorifying violence in movies. None of the three hits mentioned projected themselves otherwise. Not sure if thats what makers think would be a hit with the movie going audience. Dont have an answer for this. We dont hv material proof as well to state otherwise. I sincerely hope the talented filmmakers including Lokesh think aloud to bring socially responsible yet entertaining movies in the future. Action(violence) films not being my cup of tea, the only recent movie i watched without my kids in a 'theatre' was Leo! I did like it though than other LCUs purely because its violence was well toned down when compared to others. But, I like many prefer to watch movies with kids, sans these glorification of unsocial stuffs. After all, we are just an ordinary person... peace loving soul!
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