Coolie Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
Anytime you watch a Rajnikanth starrer action film, it becomes so evident that all every ageing actor in Hindi cinema wants right now is to have what this Padma Vibhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke award winner has. The loyalty, the fan following, the screen presence, the big budget cinema. So many actors in Hindi cinema desperately copy his mannerisms, his swag, in the hope that the magic will touch them too.
Does anyone else even come close?
I can try and explain the plot of this film to you, but the exercise would be futile. You see Coolie is ALL plot. The backdrop is Simon’s business empire in Vishakhapatnam. Played by a very good-looking, wonderfully dressed Nagarjuna, Simon is evil and sort of insane. His nefarious operations led by Dayal, played by Soubin Shaahir, involve killing a lot of people. Disposing of bodies is a growing issue that need a solution for. Toh, they go ahead and kidnap a scientist who has designed an electric chair capable of heating up to 1650 degrees Celsius, instantly incinerating humans. The scientist Rajasekhar, played by Sathyara,j comes with 3 daughters, one of whom is Shruti Haasan playing Preethi. Rajasekhar and Devaraj are old friends. Devaaraj is of cours,e Rajnikanth, also the titular Coolie, and when Preethi needs help, Devaraj enters this world.
Oh wow, look at that, I’ve managed somewhat to give you an outline of what happens. Distilling the film down to that paragraph took longer than I am comfortable admitting. That’s because it absolutely doesn’t not matter what is happening in the story when Rajnikanth is on the screen. Lokesh Kanagaraj takes his long, sweet time delaying that gratification. First you hear people talking about Deva, then you hear him doing something, then you see a silhouette, then a shadow, then a reflection in a knife he is using to pulverise some meat for no reason, and flecks of blood and sinew go flying by his visage appears, then and only then, when the viewer is hoarse from screaming in joy, giddy with anticipation does Thalaivar turn around and allow you to take him all in. The crowd goes wild, the screen lights up, and everything is good with the world in that moment.
Now, to actually get into the pesky business of MAKING a good film, that’s a whole different conversation that is separate from making a film with Rajnikanth in it. Coolie, while simultaneously being the macho, slashy and violent, is also riddled with plot holes in story and screenplay so simplistic, it would be unwatchable if it weren’t for the actors. Are we still okay with action sequences where Rajnikanth touching a man with his elbow is enough to have them go flying?
A de-aged Rajnikath in the flashback sequences caused more excitement in the crowd than should be normally acceptable in the world today. The cult of personality is the only driving factor in Coolie being any kind of engaging cinema. Painstakingly choreographed action sequences, all the slow motion shots reminding you of the larger than life stature of the lead actor, everyone fighting using machetes exclusively, allowing foley artists to truly shine, allowing that manliness to be asserted further.
As I watched this in a packed theatre on opening night, I wondered why Coolie exists the way it does — the people involved with making this film clearly would know most of it is cuckoo-bananas and deeply unserious. Is it enough to just remind fans that an actor they’ve loved and admired for 50 years has still got it? Does no one care that Shruti Hassan is seen crying more than she is talking throughout this film? I counted at least 6 different times Preethi is held hostage, each time by a different set of people. She keeps crying, like a lost woodland creature, as men around her laugh and slash. Deva yells at a man, “how dare you touch her scarf’, proceeding to annihilate the offender. And if not hysterical, women in this film are mad as hatters.
For a long time, nothing happens in the screenplay, then suddenly everything begins to occur all together, plot points landing pell-mell on top of each other- all of them involving men slashing men as Anirudh Ravichander’s phenomenally catchy music goads everyone one. Side note- that track Kokki is SUCH a banger. The over-the-top hyper violence, deployed to titillate, is on occasion heard saying VERY feebly that the path of violence never ends in peace, and even when it ends in prosperity, the results aren’t long lived. The violence, though it never feels earned, it’s just always on. When the stakes are low, men are slashing, when they’re high, men are slashing; when not much is happening, men are still slashing, only pausing long enough to allow Pooja Hegde to get in a dance number, which also allows Soubin Shahir stop the murdering to shake shake leg. Aamir Khan shows up right at the very end, dressed like a bite-sized baddie, in frankly one of the more interesting things one has seen him do of late.
I fear a film like Coolie adds little to culture and conversations, working largely only to encourage idolization. And that, to me, considering the important place in the zeitgeist nearly everyone involved with this film occupies, is a waste.
