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anand review:3.5/5
Story
Sivaji (Rajnikant) is an NRI millionaire with an ambition of starting a hospital-cum-medical college for providing free education and medical help to the poor people in India. His ambition is foiled by a local kingpin (Suman). Sivaji gets questioned by the authorities and dragged onto the street because of the ruthless political system. That is when he realizes that a state like AP has around 46,000 crores as black money. He collects data and robs the black money from rich people and sends the money to USA through hawala route to get it distributed into small denominations by his NRI friends. The same amount is routed back to India in the form of donations to the charity foundation run by Sivaji. There by he virtually runs an alternate government by using the black money, helps the poor and develops infrastructure. However, the CBI is hell bent on getting evidence to arrest him for his economic violations. The rest of the story is all about how he evades the cops, eliminates the kingpin and continues serving the society.

Screenplay - direction: Shankar is always known for mixing entertainment with purposeful message. He also tried the same thing with this film. But he had to add some other aspect called heroism to his recipe. By concentrating more on the love thread between hero and heroine in the first half, he missed his commercial formula. The mechanism in which he makes hero convert black money into white is good. The ‘office’ treatment is also good. If you observe all Shankar’s films, there is always a strong motive for hero get the ultimate urge to help society (hero’s brother death in Gentleman, Hero’s daughter death in Bharateeyudu, hero’s sister death in Aparichitudu etc). But here we find no reason that prompted hero to develop the strong urge to help society. The following two points are unconvincing, more so because these two points are turning points to the movie -

1. Sivaji accepting that he bribed the officials to get permissions.
2. The CBI arresting Sivaji even without knowing what is there in the laptop (as the data in laptop is locked by a voice-recognition security system)

Other departments: The dialogues by Sri Rama Krishna are very good. Cinematography by KV Anand is an asset. Music by AR Rehman is adequate. On the picturization part, the second songs and the last song are extremely good. The main highlight of the film is Rajnikant dancing to Premabhishekam (ANR), Aaku Chatu (NTR) and Abba Nee Tiyyani (Chiranjeevi) with perfect body language. The fights of the film are adequate. The fight in music shop did not go well. Art work by Thota Tharani is good. The production values by AVM are lavish.

Analysis: First half of the film is little slow. There is momentum in the second half. The entire modus operandi of converting black money into white money is pretty intelligent. The plus points are Rajnikant and the main story concept of black money. On the flipside, director could not blend the story point uniformly into the story line. The screenplay should have been better. The much needed emotional impact is missing. The runtime of the film is pretty long (more than 3 hours). The name of Shankar itself is enough to get great openings and when a superstar like Rajnikant acting in Shankar’s film, the expectations are unprecedented. You might want to watch it without any expectations.

Tailpiece: Before starting of the film, there is a little animation that shows Rajnikant as ‘Sulthan’ by Adlabs.

news from Idlebrain

Chandra Babu Naidu watched the special preview of Rajnikant’s 15 June release ‘Sivaji’ at Prasad Labs preview theater today morning. Chandra Babu Naidu and Rajnikant spoke to the media after the preview is over. Here are the excepts -

Sivaji is about black money - Sivaji
Chandra Babu Naidu said, “Sivaji is going to create history in Inida. India has lot of talent and resources. But we are suffering with corruption and black money. Due to this black money, rich are becoming ultra rich and poor are becoming paupers. Sivaji film will be an eye-opener. Sivaji film combined entertainment with nice social message. Rajnikant is not only famous in india, he is an icon in japan. I would say without any hesitation that Rajni is the most stylist actor in the entire India. I am a fan and friend of Rajni. Shankar who has a thing for social message oriented films has done superb work as director.”

NTR wanted me to use the film media to full extent - Rajnikant
Hero Rajnikant said, “Chandra Babu Naidu is one of my best friends. I promised him to show Chandramukhi on the release date and I could not honor it. I met Chandra Babu Naidu during the shoot of Sivaji. This time I stuck to my promise and shown him a day ahead of the release. Tamilnadu CM Karunanidhi watched Sivaji 3 days back and was very much impressed with it. Jayalalitha will be watching the film today evening at 6 pm in Chennai. I am planning to have screenings to YSR and Chidambaram as well. NTR told me long back that film media is the most powerful media. He wanted me to use this media to full extent to convey good messages to the masses. I am following him. The entire credit of the success of this film goes to Shankar. He has a zeal to make films that educate masses by mixing entertainment. We had been contemplating on working together for the past 10 years and it worked with Sivaji film. There will be entertainment and social message in this film.”

When asked about the craze Sivaji film has got this time, Rajnikant humbly attributed it to the almighty.