Co-titled as ‘A Venkat Prabhu Hero’, The Greatest Of All Time follows the story of a decorated member of the Special Anti-Terrorism Squad who returns to field action in the wake of a dangerous mission. Will he counter the bad guys? No spoilers there! Now, I have deliberately kept the story vague to avoid spoilers (if you could call them that), the writing here is generic while indulging in a whole lot of fan service. And the latter isn’t necessarily a bad thing when the drama chooses to be grounded even with the larger than life protagonist at its disposal. So there is a sense of coherence in the first hour, when one event leads to another while continuing to follow the standard tropes of a mass masala entertainer. There are genuine moments of laughter even as a random scene involving a character calling up the protagonist who is in the middle of a mission, only to remind him of the grocery list. Yes, this was fan service but done pretty well. The fault though lies with its screenplay of the second hour that absolutely goes at a tangent while contributing very little to the overall runtime of a whopping 3 hours!

After the standard introductory scene which ended with the screen reading ‘Thalapathy’ (and may I add that the filmmakers just know how to present their Heroes), the lighter tonality of the drama takes over wherein you are introduced to the protagonist and his friends who are a part of the anti-terrorism squad but lead secret lives as members of the tourism department. And while the comic gags begin to appear very early on in the film, I did find the portions of the screenplay seamless and nicely tied up even as it progressed from one scene to another. This was particularly true even as the setting of the drama changed from New Delhi to a foreign land wherein a new action set-piece kickstarted the campaign once again before throwing in a few minor twists while keeping the emotions of the film in check. In between, the meta-montages of Vijay’s previous films also add a nice little flavour to the events of the film.

The proceedings are enough to keep you engaged and entertained, a rare feat given that the protagonist is often larger than the writing in this case. But the grounded nature of the drama along with a few unexpected turns definitely manages to hold your interest. As a result, you are a little more forgiving even with a slightky more imaginative action set-piece even as a mysterious character rides his motorcycle inside an underground metro station. The action set-piece in itself was well choreographed and contributed towards a fun watch even as the stakes in the drama were raised leading to a predictable but decent enough twist at the halfway mark. And just when you thought that the second half has a golden opportunity to score, the curse of the second half sets in.

The second half gave me an impression that the writers were trying a little too even while utilizing the standard tropes of the masala entertainer. So you had a stereotypical villain to boast of, a throwback from the opening sequence, a simmering tempo of the drama that never quite settles in, and some mindless and over-the-top fan service. Now, while entering a Thalapathy Vijay film you do sign up for the extra tropes along the way and I would like to cite the example of Leo here that wonderfully worked towards the strengths of the protagonist. But here when the chain of a murder followed by a dance number and another murder and a dance number is repeated, you do realise that the writing isn’t going anywhere while also not allowing the viewers to settle into the drama.

At one point with the randomness of the twists, I had to double check whether this film was indeed GOAT or Race 3 in disguise (given that some twists were undone in the very next scene). The issue here wasn’t the twist in itself but the trivial nature of it coupled with its staging that just doesn’t leave a solid impact. As a result, even a couple of unexpected twists barely carry that knockout punch that would otherwise have elevated the drama. But the fan-service was pretty much evident that continued until its conclusion. I liked how a montage of CSK and a tribute to The Greatest Of All Time Captain Cool MS ‘Thala’ Dhoni was integrated in the narrative. But if at one point I was more interested in the cricket match, knowing fully well that the protagonist will find a way to save the day, then you knew that the writing was off. This again was not to say that the drama was a complete trainwreck in the second hour, in fact it was watchable but it simply resorted to fan service rather than integrating fan-service through a GOAT screenplay. A little mid-credit scene completely changed the dynamics of the drama and I wasn’t so sure that it was required in the first place.