Plot Summary
Annatthe film starts by showing a vigilante silently bashing criminals under the radar. We hear news of a person called Kaalayan, aka Annaatthe played by Rajinikanth, who is undermining a specific group of dons. After an exaggerated intro scene, we witness Annaatthe bashing criminals, followed by the Movie title card.
Annaatthe Rajinikanth
Then, we are shown a flashback scene, where Annaatthe is the president of the surrounding villages where people respect him very much. He is shown as a savior who brings justice to the townspeople with or without violence. He usually goes to the police station to sign papers as he is involved in many cases trying to save the general public from goons.
On one such occasion, when Rajinikanth (Annaatthe) is in the police station. Prakash Raj, who plays a goon in the film, shows up at the police station demanding the officers to release his men. But they refuse politely as FIR has already been filed. Thus, Prakash Raj and his men cause a ruckus in the police station. Rajinikanth (Annaatthe) gets mad at this sight.
Annaatthe movie review
He gets involved and bashes Prakash Raj’s men. He warns Prakash Raj and leaves the place. Following this, Rajinikanth (Annaatthe) hurries to the railway station, where he orders his relatives to make specific arrangements. Initially, the reason is unknown, but as the film unfolds, we get to know that Keerthy Suresh, who plays Thangameenatchi, Rajinikanth’s sister, is arriving after finishing her college degree. After that Rajinikanth celebrates her comeback on a grander scale.
Rajinikanth visits the police
Rajinikanth visits the police station where he meets Prakash Raj again along with Nayantara, who is Prakash Raj’s Lawyer. This time, Prakash Raj is trying to steal a plot of land from an older adult forcibly. Rajinikanth explains the injustice that occurred to the older adult to Nayantara. This convinces her. As a result, she wins the case for Rajinikanth. This ignites a romantic relationship between the two of them. After this, Rajinikanth decides to search for a groom for Keerthy Suresh.
Annaatthe Rajinikanth
Ultimately, they end up choosing Prakash Raj’s son. Prakash Raj is now a good man who Rajinikanth’s advice has rectified. On the wedding day, Keerthy Suresh goes missing mysteriously. Rajinikanth and his relatives search for her everywhere while one contrives to find her at the Railway station. Apparently, she is eloping with her boyfriend from college. This crushes Rajinikanth’s heart, and he chooses to let her leave since all he wants is for her to be happy. Prakash Raj accepts this with a low heart.
After some days pass by, Rajinikanth decides to look for her to see how she is doing in life, along with the help of Nayantara. But shockingly, he finds out that she is in a destitute state after losing her husband and her husband’s company after refusing to corporate with Manoj Parekar, a don in Kolkota. Consequent to this, we witness how Rajinikanth defeats his sister’s villain and how he brings justice to her husband.
Annaatthe
The Humor
Soori, who plays Pachakili, tries to convey jokes but is only successful at certain times, where at other times, we feel the humor is repetitive. This applies to all the other co-stars who try their best, but most of the attempts fail. Even though Annaatthe has some solid cast to pull an excellent comic film, they struggle to pull it off due to poor screenplay writing.
This is a pity, as Siva, the director of Annaatthe, is very well known for the humor in his films. The popular one would be Veeram which stars Ajith Kumar. Because of the nature of its humor, people may watch it indefinitely. Even his films after that did engage the audience with enjoyable and understandable humor from kids to Old people. But the desperate attempt in Annaatthe ended up as nothing but repetitive cinema that we have been witnessing all these years.
Annaatthe
Emotional Connect
Annaatthe film could be quoted as a film that tried so hard to connect to the audience emotionally but failed miserably. Siva was successful as a director because he was able to connect to the audience so quickly as his previous films did. We could mention his previous movie Viswasam as an example where the audience enjoyed both the humor and the emotion that dispersed throughout the film. But why Siva failed in this one is still questionable.
Other Pros and Cons
Pros :
The CG and the art direction were phenomenal in the movie. Certain explosion scenes were a wonder to watch with the VFX involved.
Cons :
The screenplay is very weak as it should be carrying the film, but it doesn’t due to the poor execution. We also feel as if the actors are a tad bit overacting when they try so hard to connect with the audience. Moreover, poorly written dialogues are a huge setback whereas they feel like they were written back in the ’90s. Poorly written punch dialogues are almost everywhere where we could deem it unnecessary. The viewers become fed of it after a point of time. In addition to that, we see a lot of money poured into the picture, but it does not improve it in any way.
Annaatthe Rajinikanth
Overall Verdict (2/5 Stars)
Annaatthe fails to convince people, even its target audience. It would have been more appropriate if it had been shot and released two decades earlier.
