Here, Muthuvel Pandian, a.k.a Muthu (Rajinikanth), is a retired jailer who leads a simple life with his family. Muthu’s son Arjun (Vasanth Ravi) is a sincere police officer. Arjun gets into a tussle with Varma (Vinakayan), who smuggles antique pieces and idols of God. One day Arjun goes missing, which causes tension in the police department. Muthu gets to know that his son is murdered, and hence he goes on a killing spree. During this, Muthu learns a surprising fact which changes his path.
key Points: What is it? How did Muthu deal with it? This forms the suspense in the story?
Plot and Performance:
It is good to see Superstar Rajinikanth in a solid role after a long time. His characterization is well designed by Nelson. Rajinikanth underplays for the most part of the first half, and he transforms into a menacing force as the film progresses. This has been superbly shown, and the interval block is terrific.
Rajinikanth’s comedy timing has been nicely utilized in Jailer, and his scenes with Yogi Babu evoked good laughs. The dark comedy worked pretty well in the first hour. Especially the fun infused during the action set pieces was enjoyable.
Action and Entertainment:
Anirudh is the second pillar of Jailer after Rajinikanth. He elevated Superstar in an excellent manner with his thumping background score. Especially the Hukum song and the interval sequence looked stunning, thanks to the pulsating background score of Anirudh. Ramya Krishna, Mirnaa Menon, Vinayakan, and Vasanath Ravi were adequate in their roles.
Jailer suffers from a wafer-thin plot, and this resulted in a poor second half. The first half was engaging due to the humor and histrionics of Rajini, but the second half failed to carry the same momentum. The director ran out of ideas to keep the film engrossing in the second hour, and he resorted to a few comedy tracks, which didn’t work.
Sunil’s characterization and the portions involving Tamannaah don’t add much value to the film. As the story is weak, the action blocks didn’t bring the much-required adrenaline rush. The movie is also weak on the emotional front, and the twist over the end was also not great.
The movie is quite lengthy, and it is difficult to sit through the second hour due to dragged sequences. The much-hyped cameos of Shiv Rajkumar and Mohanlal didn’t have much impact and lacked that wow factor. Jackie Shroff is wasted in a small role.
Emotional Depth:
As said earlier, Anirudh did a fantastic job. His background score was instrumental in elevating a few scenes. The cinematography by Vijay Kartik was fair. The production values are solid. The editing team should have chopped off a few sequences in the second half.
Coming to the director, Nelson Dilipkumar, did a below-par job with the film. He showcased Rajini in a superb manner, but his script lacked enough meat. The first half was nicely handled, but the second half was a big letdown due to poor writing. Had the director concentrated more on the script, the film could have been way better.
Conclusion:
On the whole, Jailer is a partially engaging action drama that relies majorly on the performance and style of Rajinikanth. The superstar was stunning in his role, and the movie has a nice first half. But Jailer suffers from a wafer-thin plot, and the second half fell like a pack of cards. Hence Jailer ends up being just an okay watch, and it is suggested to keep your expectations in check.
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