Rajapattai has you gobsmacked as it shows you just how bad a mainstream Indian film can get. You actually wonder what were the makers thinking? Or were they even thinking at all?! The film could arguably be the worst film of 2011!
You cannot believe that the director of Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu, Naan Mahaan Alla and Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai is at the helm of this garish project. Or that the cinematographer of Paiyaa, Naan Mahaan Alla and Shaitan has photographed this junk. And that National Award Winning ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram is its star while the music director for the pitifully bad songs is Yuvan Shankar Raja… OK, enough to say it’s likely to be a nadir on the bio-datas of most associated with it. Nothing works in this film barring a few smile-inducing moments by veteran director K Vishwanath and just about the only interesting element in this film, looking at the land grabbing issue, is the fact that we have a woman politician villain! However, what hits you is not merely the idiotic story or the even worse screenplay and characterisations, the jerky narrative flow or the insipid romantic track, but the fact that there is even no semblance of any cinematic or technical craft in putting this lifeless travesty together. Again, you are compelled to ask – Did Suseendhiran really direct this film?
Vikram can do nothing with the role of the gym-boy (we don’t see a gym once!) who wants to be a villain in Tamil films – just having different get ups and a hunky body doesn’t automatically translate into a performance and even his clothes are far more colourful (dreadfully so) than his acting, Deeksha Seth is another on the list of embarrassingly bad heroines abounding in Indian cinema, K Vishwanath has you wondering more why he agreed to act in this film in the first place – though he gives it its only redeeming moments. Sana, playing the villain, acquits herself reasonably well but that could be more the novelty factor (at least in the context of this film) of her role.
Overall, rotten as hell – this would have been unendurable even in the 1980s. Oh and before I forget, there is even a sad, Z-grade item number as Vikram dances with Shriya and Reema Sen over the end credits.
Tamil, Action, Drama, Color
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_KBH7idJxM