Shivaji -The B-O-S-S

The movie that had theatres all around the world awaiting its release with bated breath, but did it live up to all that hype? Tamil Movies, today is ruled by formulae which state "one hero worship song", one "item" number (a must for action movies) , one "kuthu" paatu duet, one melody (again a duet with the poor heroine whose very existence is governed by the number of songs in the movie.) lets not forget a senti-mom-attack songs preferably in the case of "superheroes".Okay, so where does all this come in SHIVAJI “the BOSS"?!!
If not all, the movie is largely based on some of the above mentioned formulas, though the combination here has been treated well and presented in a different way, making it march a few inches ahead of the other movies made using similar formulae(Still marching in the wrong direction). Maybe I expected something less biased and practical keeping in mind Shankar's direction..
Firstly I apologise to all hard core Rajini fans. I suggest you don't read this article beyond this. Thank you!
Now, For the others who would like to know how the movie was, not considering the stardom of our Super Star. Read on.
SHIVAJI “ The Boss "(BOSS stands for Bachelor of Social Service). Rajini returns from the USA to his parents who stay in a bungalow bigger than an average summer palace. Well why not..?
Rajini is a Software Architect with eager parents looking for an alliance for their "young" son who wants to do a little bit of good to his mother land. So he comes with a plan that would cost him 200 crores where he plans to build hospitals, schools, colleges and so on, so that people can have free medication and education and so on. (now we know where the social service part of the abbreviation comes into the picture.) The theme is good, provided you close your eyes (and maybe ears too!) to the huge sum allotted for the project.
Speaking about the technical aspects of the movie there a lot things the film can boast about and one doesn't expect less from a Shankar film and so to say its evident that the budget would hike upto crores (absolutely no social service here, given the sur"price" of the tickets). The movie has some of the best camera work and sets. Being a Rajini starrer adds a "golden" feather to the cap. The first half of the movie is spent on the regular hero-going around-heroine scenes. Our hero is also baffled by the amount of bribery that had to be given from the lower to the higher level officers in various stages for his project for it to be approved. There were some scenes that spoke the hard truth about India and hats off to Shankar for portraying that sector. Shreya Saran is the heroine who has done her role well (if one has the generosity to consider it as a role). She is a picture perfect "formula" heroine.. The songs (most of them) exhibit her gorgeous looks (a little more than necessary) she dances and parades around the hero in costumes differing only in colour. All I could do was pity her, a superstar movie projects the "super" star and the heroine's role is just child's play.

The villain of the movie is worthy of appreciation. He is ruled by the simple logic of all villains - jealousy and greed. He decides to stop the hero from going ahead with the project. Rajini mortgages his "palace" and everything he had into the project. But all in vain, the work is hampered by the villain in a very shrewd manner.
Then comes the turning point of the movie. a scene at the tea shop where the "shankar touch" comes alive like a boomerang. The very scene after the interval becomes the most important scene in the movie. The effect increases with the superstars gimmicks and how he gets back at the villain a lot of thought goes into money laundering and making black money white. I think symbolically in the first half of the movie the director has thrown a hint of what was coming ahead with the sudden apparition of rajini changing in skin color (black to white..ah! now it makes sense ) brilliance!. Rajini then gets back what he lost and he finishes what he wanted to do,but how? That's for you to watch.
Overall the theme, story was good. Direction was highly directed towards projecting the superstar. That is where it looked biased, but then what is a superstar movie without all that??? The plus points of the movie were the amazing sets,crores spent on the location..( typical Shankar bonanza> The oru koodai sunlight portrays a totally graphically animated "fair" Rajini ..Very good choreography except for the shortage of wigs.
Viveks timely comedy is of worthy appreciation. With a little bit of sensibility and some more importance to the script than the Heroism could have taken the movie to even greater heights, even now it is at the apex "what is with the double rates for the tickets? Shivaji “THE BOSS" is bound to be the Boss as long as there are die hard fans working for the boss!