POPCORN REVIEWSS

There is a concept of Chekhov’s gun in cinema wherein every insignificant detail has a contributing factor to the screenplay. And Lokesh Kanagaraj mastered that in his film Kaithi (2019), that soon made him a poster boy of young filmmakers with a vision in Indian cinema. And such is the budget of Coolie, that even an insignificant character is essayed by a figure like Kaali Venkat, but sadly this concept of a Chekhov’s gun remains the least contributing factor in Coolie. What starts off in a good versus evil template – dedicating a ten minute sequence each while introducing Simon (Nagarjuna Akkineni) and his right hand man Dayal (Soubin Shahir), along with the entry of Deva (Rajinikanth) in another, almost laying down the ultimate face-off between these characters. But the ambitions are high filled with subplots and expositions that are backed by such flat storytelling, that this became a frustrating watch more than a rewarding one.

The drama here is like a subject in a semester that you often put on a backburner, delaying reading its chapters and the theory, before having to cram everything in a single night before the exam. This is because the exposition here is delayed for so long, that ultimately what you get is a spit-a-fire monologue about Deva and his backstory right at the end, but not before the audience are breathing their last with the film. And what you have before you get there is another topic of discussion in the hindsight – did everything make sense here? Were all questions answered here? Why do I have to put myself through this torture every week? Are you even laughing at me while reading my reviews?

It is all about world building in the first hour wherein the core of the film is about an investigation that unfurls, even as you see Deva getting connected with Preethi (Shruti Haasan), after the death of her father and Deva’s friebd Rajasekhar (Sathyaraj). There is enough doubt in the mind of Deva to question the reason of his death, that invariably brings him in touch with Simon and his gang. Now this is such a simple premise, but how do you make it complicated? You add an electric chair that Rajasekhar made for Simon, to dispose off dead bodies of coolies who worked at his port. This is a classic example of a chekhov’s gun, but the electric chair doesn’t circle back at all towards the end. There is another plot involving the gold smuggles on the port, and doesn’t add up, almost being an allegory of the rising gold prices that the common man cannot afford, making it disappear from their lives of people even watching the film (meta indeed, right?). So what happens to the gold? No idea, the makers do not deem it as important!

The issue is on how unfocused the screenplay is – a simple instance being that of a dance number that is randomly integrated in the narrative even as a character is on the lookout for a police mole, only to join the bandwagon and dance as if there is no tomorrow. The pre-interval portion also incorporates a twist after a twist after a twist, that made me raise my red-flags about the second hour too. More than the twists, the writing wasn’t content on building the characters or their emotional journeys. For instance, the emotional core of having to survive without a parent is absolutely missing in the character of Preethi. What was her relationship with her father Rajasekhar anyway? If you don’t show it, how do you expect the viewers to feel the emotions?

The second half of the drama has to be the most random-a*s sh*t that I have witnessed all here. It has the soul of the Race franchise directed by Abbas Mustan but on steroids, as it chooses to incorporate a twist every ten minutes. There is a vault involved filled with gold, a random heart-trafficking subplot, a betrayal sub-plot, a random love story gone rogue, another betrayal, a room filled with chaos and violence (where Rajini has his ‘Vikram’ moment to boast of), a murder, and a train journey ending in murder of the braincells. If the sentence is long, so was the frustrating second hour that refused to end while going on imploding, one brain cell at a time. Clearly less wasn’t more here but even more wasn’t more. The idea of infusing so many subplots had me lagging behind on who is after who, and what the end goal of this mess actually is. If you thought Leo’s second hour was middling, this takes the cake. It felt like the second innings of a test match wherein instead of rebuilding the innings, the batters literally went in helter-skelter mode, only to keep losing their wickets and their minds!

You remember how well Jailer (2023) infused the cameos of Mohanlal and Shiva Rajkumar? The cameos of Upendra and particularly Aamir Khan have zero merit here – one is used as a catalyst for an action set-piece as opposed to being an integral part of the plot. And the other is almost used as a caricature, unsure on his own identity, pitted against the protagonist in one minute and reversing his stand in the very next minute (with a further hint on how he could be the antagonist of the next film of this franchise too). Amidst all of this, the events leading to the wrap-up of the main plot is so lame, that it made me wonder on what the writers chose to do with the antagonists of the film. They are laughably laid back and almost a cardboard cutout of what villains should be. This made me realise one more fact – the entire screenplay remained a derivative of Loki’s own filmography that competed with a brilliant Thalaiva, as opposed to unfolding hand in hand! And that made the drama stand on a ‘Soolie’ (hanging rope)…….