Synccinema Quickie - Master

 Master -  The Catch -22 in the Star-Young Director duo is masterfully triumphed.

There is a delight in witnessing an aspiring filmmaker who has a distinguished vision and modern influences direct a slowly sludged star for whom “Crowd goes Crazy for”. The refreshing and innovative creativity in the rebirth of our star with a mix of signatures carried from the Star’s Mannerism and Director’s artistry works wonders on screen, but with a price (the very price which bombed Darbar last Pongal and averaged Petta the Pongal before).

Lokesh Kanagaraj relay’s his Structure from his past films Maa Nagaram and Kaithi, where the canvas of the story is first set in the initial 10-15 mins and then titles roll. Both of his earlier films were grim and dense in subjects, in contrast, Master has the grim slightly cut down (after all it’s for the commercial audience) whereas the density is intact.

 As a result, we get Sethupathy before Thalapathy as a juvenile, molested and grown to be a Stone-hearted goon with an immense forte for dry humour and a very casual and cool entry for Thalapathy ( excellently carried by him) – the casual tone has done right with beautiful country jazz of Vaathi Raid from Anirudh and eye-candy visualisation from Sathyan Sooran ( while he also creates a greyish, dusty and desaturated colour for the juvenile school). The Director’s credit is exactly placed at the mark of the entry scene strikingly similar to Petta.

Master isn’t a fanboy directorial like Petta was, but it is the Star-Young Director duo with the story having each other rendered in each of their respective worlds. The Structure-Screenplay-Story is from the Director ( Lokesh Kanagaraj) and Theme-Style-Message are from the Star ( Thalapathy Vijay ). At times, the inflexible and monotonous heroic characters played by a Star creates a wall of stereotypes of being too old, outdated or predictable. The best of such a combination of Star-Director demolishes this wall by a rendition in convincing us in the Hero feeling young than just being young.

Thalapathy’s performance has a gesturality alleviating the feeling young and vulnerable factor, making the biggest achievement of his and Lokesh’s conceit of Thalapathy. While Thalapathy is wearing a checked shirt and a sling bag, looking like an everyday college boy ( though he is the professor), Sethupathy is in his zone of witty and crassy element with his traditional satirical-yet-serious tyrannical villain from Vikram Vedha / Petta /CCV  with a punch.

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Lokesh very smartly design’s his screenplay to show the equality of machoism by symmetrically cross-cutting stylish and amazingly meta-stated fights paralleling Sethupathy and Thalapthy, thereby creating a sense of exciting Clash of the Titans Climax and a like hero-like villain balance. This, along with Sethupathy as Villain, seamlessly avoids the problems of a weak and cartoonish villain. It’s as much a Sethupathy’s film as it is of Thalapathy’s for their Mass moments, Comedy, Dialogues and Action ( except for the romantic track and Andha Kanna Pathaka saved only for the hero).

Anirudh’s songs, which are of multiple genres in themselves, have a sense of verve further elevated from the storylines leading up to them. The Loving Verve of Songs extends, as Anirudh spreads his musical awareness to Background Score. Anirudh has scored for movies with mountainous emotions to light-hearted fun, but what always astonishes me is his refreshing, layered and definitely foot-tapping score that he gives for an out and out Commercial movie – be it PSPK’S Agnyathavasi or Dhanush’s Maari. Especially, Vaathi Coming, Kutti Story, Interval Scene and Kabaddi Scene ( with Gilli’s Kabaddi chant extraordinarily remixed) will have the papers flying in theatres for the paradise of Vijay Fans.

The unavoidable small price that Master had to pay for the Catch-22 of being a Thalapthy Film? Or a Lokesh Kanagaraj Film? Is the last half an hour of extensive Messaging. Master reaches this threshold limit of compromise on best of both people as it surrenders itself completely to bluntly go for “Thalapathy film” which led to ex-machines from Andrea Jeremiah ( who, for the rest was wasted) and age-old Character’s enlightenment from a powerful Hero’s speech. The romantic track, which hardly registers, also wears out after a point.

Tenet 

Nolan's Complex Enough Time Twist is both eye-popping and overstuffed even if you watch it in reverse.

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Watch Master this Pongal for its masterful triumph over the Catch-22 of Star-Young Director duo as it tactfully and seamlessly stitches Stardom with Storytelling and "mostly" satisfying all the expectations, and even those fulfilments filled with joy and surprise. That’s the best it can get for a Festive Release.

SYNCCINEMA TEAM WISHES OUR READERS 

HAPPY SANKRANTHI