The advent of David Billa marks the dawn of prequel making in Tamil/Telugu cinema. This is an age old phenomenon in Hollywood: Star Wars, X – Men and many more that went unnoticed amidst chaos. We have seen the previous version in 2007 and now its prequel is making waves. The director’s effort to give the viewers a refreshing ensemble got dampened with some haphazard and off-course journey in film-making. Ajith oozes style as David Billa and he nurtures the role to perfection. The way he carries his character with great poise and maturity should be a tight slap for all the aged heroes of Tollywood who still run after heroines donning lover boy, err, man roles!!
The movie opens with a strong Hollywoodish premise that sets the pace for the film. I can’t resist repeating the opening lines of Billa, "Naa jeevitham lo okko roju, okko nimisham, reeeeeeeyyyyyy, okko kshanam… Naaku nenu gaa maluchu kunnadi raa" followed by a typical “bang the goons” scene and the movie traverses into the opening credits where Billa’s childhood is depicting in the form of a pictorial. All praises to director Chakri Toleti, and his team, for their valiant effort to unleash some, hitherto unseen, creative gems.
Ajith’s David Billa is rich in character but poor in characterization. There are many loose ends that perplex the viewer and thwart his imagination. At the outset, the director made the character aimless and enigmatic; Billa always finds himself in onerous situations and at the verge of death, but emerges out effortlessly and his agility and spontaneity make things turn in his favor. In the opening scene Billa said that he carved every moment of his life, but I could not understand how chance happenings can be called premeditated ones.
If you remember, during our school days, we had this story of three fishes: Sumathi, Kaalamathi and Mandamathi. Billa is like Kalamathi, but we expect him to be Sumathi. Out-and-out display of brawn is shown and his brains always go for a toss. Director Sir, we adore our heroes, so please elevate them above fights, style and punch lines. Try to make them part of intelligentsia and show them chalking out some best laid plans for better execution of assignments like Farhan Akthar did in his Don franchisee.
Coming to the nerve centre of David Billa, the music, Yuvan Shankar Raja spreads the Godfatherish Hollywood aura with his background score. With this movie he joins the league of other international composers such as A R Rahman, Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore. The way he dabbles with serious and soulful music is worth mentioning. There will be a day we bid him adieu to start work on his Hollywood ventures. Though most of the scenes lack impact, the complimenting music makes a thumping impression on our minds. The signature tune of David Billa lingers in your mind even after the movie gets over. That's the magic of YUVAN.
Some questions that intrigue your mind:
1) When Vishnuvardhan, director of Billa (Tamil), made such a great piece of work, why the makers gave the baton to Chakri Toleti for its prequel? May be Vishnuvardhan is hibernating after the demise of Pawan Kalyan’s Panjaa.
2) How can they call it the prequel to “Billa”? Just by the tag line – "Every man has a past and every don has a HISTORY."
3) How can Billa always take hasty decisions without thinking and meticulous planning? Is it his "Never Say Die Attitude?"
4) When four screenwriters (one being a Hollywood one) work on a script, the outcome should be stupendous and not dismal. As fledgling screenwriters, our group has unearthed umpteen flaws in the script.
5) How can a person who made Eenadu (*ing Kamal Hasan and Venkatesh), and graduated from a reputed film-making school in USA, give emphasis only to style and throw the substance in drain?
Bottom-line: Watch David Billa for its aesthetic value, uber cool and stylish portrayal of Ajith. You love him for his style, looks, chutzpah and charisma. The movie shines and outsmarts other Telugu flicks in terms of acting, style, camera, exceptional use of CGI, and MUSIC. There are many creative touches in visual effects – the post interval graphics song with lots of brown color earns brownie points for the makers. But the director ran out of glue to stick different pieces of collage and failed to transform it into a seamless mosaic. If you have an ear for detail, you will enjoy the background music a lot and it leaves you wanting more. The film’s a novel effort to bring in the prequel-making culture in Kolly/Tollyland but nowhere in comparison to Hollywood flicks in terms of script, characterization and attention to detail.
P.S. Director Chakri Tholeti is the same guy who, as a child, played the role of comic photographer in K Viswanath's Sagara Sangamam.
My Rating: Expectation – 7/10; Reality – 5/10
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