ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Asad Almond A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

DareDevilKid Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)Rating: 2/5 starsThe first song in "Lingaa" shows Rajinikanth flouncing his long jacket in different parts of the world and at one point, if the subtitles are to be believed, he sings, "Pal, don't lose control of your sense." Too late, sir. This Pal lost that battle a long time ago.K.S. Ravikumar's film isn't quite bonkers enough to be hailed as one of the most enjoyable Rajinikanth films. It is, however, ridiculous enough to make you burst out in giggles every few minutes for the better part of its 175-minute runtime. Lingaa (Rajinikanth) is a petty thief and grandson of Raja Lingeswaran, who is revered in the village of Solaiyur because he built a dam and a temple back in 1939. When an engineer is stabbed to death with a deer antler in 2014, one of the elderly gents in the village says that it's imperative that Raja Lingeswaran's descendant be brought back to Solaiyur. Why? Because dude, it's Rajni. The problem is that Lingaa hates his grandfather because the king left his descendants with nothing but poverty. This is why he calls himself Lingaa instead of Lingeswara, which is his original name. Personally, I'd wonder about any person who voluntarily chose to call himself Lingaa, given its phallic connotations, but that's just me trying to not lose control of my sense. In order to get Lingaa to Solaiyur, KS Ravikumar's screenplay neatly and studiously copies the central trick of William Wyler's "How to Steal a Million". The scene has Rajinikanth plays Peter O'Toole — and that there, ladies and gentlemen, sums up so much of the tragedy that encircles being an Indian man, woman and/or screenwriter. Our Audrey Hepburn is Anushka Shetty, who plays Lakshmi, a Solaiyur resident who is determined to take Lingaa back to the village.After one heist and a few insane song sequences, one of which contains a mash-up of "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Mission Impossible", and "Star Trek", Lingaa along with his two buddies shows up in Solaiyur. There, he learns the truth about his grandfather.Insert: flashback to 1939. Raja Lingeswaran (Rajinikanth, again. Naturally.) is travelling by a train that looks like it has a steam engine and moves about as fast as the Shinkansen. He's reading Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". This is interesting for a number of reasons, prime among them being that Campbell's book was published in 1949, which suggests that the story of how Raja Lingeswaran came to be reading that book in 1939 could have been a sci-fi story that beats "Interstellar" and its wormholes hollow."Lingaa" is also irritatingly interspersed with an excruciating number of songs and dances, mostly in unbearable dream sequences! A.R. Rahman's music does not help either to stop Lingaa from stumbling on its plot track.Rajinikanth, yet again, remains a slave to his trademark mannerisms in the name of acting. Here he does not flick a cigarette in the air (that would be politically incorrect now, wouldn't it?), but twirls his hair and moustache for ideas. And there's hardly any difference between Raja Lingeswaran and Lingaa – not just in appearance but also in mannerisms, accent, body language, and dialogue delivery. Both Sonakshi Sinha, who abandons her home and village to be with the Raja as he is banished, and Anushka Shetty as a television anchor-girlfriend of Lingaa are characters on the periphery. But, that has to be expected, or so we're forced to believe, because a superstar like Rajinikanth simply must be present in ever frame, and the others around him simply have to shrink into inconsequential specks. Santhanam remains Lingaa's sidekick, portraying the same character for the zillionth time.For a film that takes almost three hours to tell its story, many of the crucial elements are conveyed through dialogues (for example, we never see Lingaa's steps to expose the corrupt MP but we see him narrating them in the climax), which takes away the heroism from the character. However, the biggest disappointment is the preposterous climax stunt piece (that includes Lingaa jumping on top of a hot-air balloon from a bike, and kicking a bomb away while dangling from the balloon) that seems to be a validation of all the Rajni jokes that flood the internet.For those watching "Lingaa" outside Tamil Nadu, there is actually someone who tops Rajinikanth, and that is Rekhs, the sub-titlist. His subtitles are guaranteed to spread more good cheer than a thousand Santas. Whether it's lyrics like, "With my domes, I invade your armor", or lines like, "What do you say, MP bro?", the translations of the original Tamil dialect are legendary. Wittingly or unwittingly, they confirm "Lingaa" to be a comedy."Lingaa" is not a good film. Rajni films rarely are. And like so many of them, it is entirely oblivious of how silly it is in its hackneyed portrayal of the deified superstar with all his pseudo- ideological, naively moral, do-gooder, larger-than-life traits intact. And as usual, the icing on top is Rajnisaar's crackling, trademark dialogue delivery of the most absurd lines, and his buffoon-like rendition of the most outlandish action scenes and stunts. But, all this combined is what makes these movies so much fun to watch. I for one am planning to watch the film again just for the subtitles. To quote the film, "Hey Lingaa, let's jinga-ling."

rajayogan If you think you are a Rajini fan and your standard for Rajinikanth film is Sivajii or Endhiran and if you think that Lingaa is bad, I can only feel sorry for that, you are not even as gifted as some Japanese and French people who started experiencing Rajini from Muthu and hope you u read this and understand that you are minority.There is a revolution taking place in criticism of films because of social network. I remember the old days when we wait 1 or 2 weeks to read the reviews of films in Kumudam or Ananda Vikatan and guessing what marks they will give, even getting 45 marks from Vikatan was considered prestigious, then came the internet age and we used to get reviews in one or two days, and then the raise of social networking sites and everyone became reviewers and there exists the biggest problem.There is nothing wrong in expressing your views about the film which might be that "you like it or hate it or its kind of average"; that kind of opinion is OK but reviewing a film is another new level.The reviews in magazines were used to be done by a professional group not by an individual, because an individual's opinion can be affected by expectations and personal mood swings but we all know that's not the case anymore; anyone can be reviewer of any film if they have internet and seen some French or Korean films to compare it with world cinema. And they also launch personal attacks against the director or hero of the movie they are reviewing. These reviewers are so intelligent that they will promote some films as world-class cinema just because there is no commercial scene in it and will dump Lingaa as garbage because it had some unbelievable scenes. And most of the new age fans are influenced by these reviews.I am a Rajini fan and usually I don't care about them because it's been always your choice to read those or not; I did that for Sivaji, Endhiran and for Lingaa too. I always have my judgment and check some authentic sites for reviews only after seeing the film or if I have a dilemma to watch a film, then I read a letter by a so-called Rajinikanth fan in which he says that Lingaa is bad and he hope that Rajini will come back. I was surprised to see that a Rajini fan can say that because I know for ardent Rajini fans it's kind of comeback film for him after Padayappa.Then I kind of understand that he probably became Rajini fan after seeing Sivaji, Endhiran and what I would call new age Rajini fans who don't realize that they are actually more of Shankar fans than Rajini fans and I am sure that they never experienced the magic of Rajini in theater before Sivaji and sorry guys Lingaa was never intended for you.I am one of the Rajini fans (also as a Shankar fan) who were disappointed to see Sivaji for the first time because it was neither a Rajini film nor a Shankar film; it's kind of half-baked but making and dialogs were awesome and gathered new age fans for Rajini and we were just happy about that.Then came Endhiran. I just loved it's an out-and-out Shankar film (I was expecting it to be) and Rajini took it to a whole new level and still sure this too never was a Rajini film and sure Rajini fans would have satisfied by that and I will leave Kochadaiyaan out of the equation (it's a good film nevertheless).Leave the fans, I am sure even Rajinikanth would not have been personally satisfied with that film and after his health issues he wanted to give a film that his fans were waiting for and story of Lingaa was perfect for that who other than K.S. Ravikumar to execute that and bang we got Lingaa a perfect Rajinikanth film completely satisfying his fans, women, children and moreover the THALAIVAR himself.The only disappointment we had was that rocking Rajini background score was missing (may be Rahman was busy with other things) which let down some mass scenes. And to the new age fans, I perfectly understand why you didn't like Lingaa; it's because you didn't get what you expected, hope you will be satisfied with "I" else you should wait for another Shankar-Rajini outing.

Akshat Sheth Story: Pon Kumaran and Cheiyyar Arun did fine work with the scripts and dialogues of Lingaa. The flow is visible during the movie. Lingaa (grandson) of Raja, is a petty thief in the present times, who spends his days plotting and looting valuables along with his gang, while Raja Lingeshwaran is from British period, who also happens to be a British collector and a civil engineer from Cambridge.Lakshmi (Anushka Shetty)'s grandfather asks her to hunt for Raja's grandson and bring him to fulfil the promise of his father, who died in Solaiyur. Before his death, he had sworn to god that, the temple of Lord Shiva constructed by Raja Lingeshwaran, will either be opened by the Raja himself or by his son or grandson. Lakshmi finally tracks the heir, who happens to be none other than Lingaa and convinces him to come to Solaiyur.Then follows the real story!Star Performances: No words for superstar Rajini. After all, he is the god of Tamil films. His highness again made wonders by the typical Rajini performance.For a change, Sonakshi Sinha actually did a good job. Playing the daughter of a farmer from Solaiyur, she did justice to her character. But, one thing I did miss about Sonakshi, was her original voice in the movie. Why dub her voice? Sometimes, it's better if the dialogues come in their original voices and tones, just like when other southern actors work in Bollywood movies.Anushka Shetty like always, was superb. Her beauty and charm is always appreciated.Given any character to play, Jagapathy Babu always does justice to it and comes out with shining colours.Santhanam, from being a friend during the theft, to the close buddy of Raja Lingaa… all was justified. No one can beat Santhanam for his comic timing.Direction & screenplay: Action, what to say, this is as much expected in Rajini movie, though some stunts shown during the climax of the movie were over exaggerated. But, I think that could be seen only in such movies, as it suits him. Direction was good by KS Ravikumar. It was a perfect gift for Thalaivaa on his 64th birthday.The Last Word: Go, watch it. If you need a break from your schedule, and you want it to be full of entertainment, then I guesss, Lingaa would be a perfect movie to go for. Watching the superstar Rajini is a real treat. Nothing can be soothing than watching Thalaivaa on a big screen in dual avatar. One should never give a miss to him.

Skanda Subramanian After Kochadaiyaan flopped Rajinikanth was under heavy pressure to deliver a hit. Hence for the first time in almost a decade he decided to do 2 films in a single year. The songs are a complete disaster and I personally did not like a single song. To pick the best among the worst, one had to pick Gasolina. When I watched the trailer I had a lot of expectations, and it created an impression that a lot of hard work has gone in, however on watching the movie one realizes that many shots shown in the trailer was from songs, especially Rajinikanth coming down from the roof, one expected it to be an action scene but the movies shows otherwise.Story: Typical Rajinikanth story where he is the only noble soul in the planet who becomes a pauper by doing good. Grandfather sells his property to build a dam only to lose money. If you expect Grandson will earn back the lost money then its a big No. Grandson merely opens a temple which was locked when his grandfather was thrown out of the village and saves the dam (and also the village) from a bomb which the villain wants to plant.The Good: Rajinikanth- He looks extremely young (25-30 years) and he is the only reason people will watch the movie. Rest everything is bad.The Bad: Story: Its a disaster. Consider the story like a mix Muthu flashback + many other Rajini Movie. Direction: Extremely bad - The director has simply banked on Rajinikanths star power. The way Jaggubai was directed clearly indicated that KS Ravikumar is way past his prime. Wondering why Rajini chose him.Maybe friendship was the reason. Costumes: Were good at many places however found it weird that in 1936 (flashback) the suits worn by the Englishmen looked like contemporary design. Overly dramatic: The scene where a few villages come to the city in search of the king and when they are hungry and Mr poor and noble Rajinikanth feeds them has been seen 1000 times in movies (Kandukondein Kandukondein is what I can recall instantly) Also the scene where the older Rajinikanth is asked to leave the village and it Rains has also been seen 1000 times (Baasha) makes one feel that the film industry has not grown since 20 years. Music & BGM: Seems like Rahman outsourced his work to some Z grade person due to time pressure. Easily his worst work in recent times.Verdict: Like Kochadaiyaan, this movie has flop written all over it. Die hard Rajini fans will try to watch it numerous times and praise the movie to make it seem like a hit but one has to face reality.Releasing the movie in Hindi will cause further embarrassment since I am sure Tamil speaking audience will themselves dislike the movie/Rating: 2/10 only for Rajinikanth.