For friends who might not be aware, I is one of the biggest films of the present times from Shankar, one of the most reputed and successful director of South Cinema, that was being awaited with huge expectations since its unusual trailer released a few months back. Made on a massive budget, it was speculated to be a surprising ‘out of the box’ venture with many firsts in Indian cinema as depicted in the trailer and it was indeed a very pleasant view to see the theatre almost full (in West Delhi on Thursday) in its first show despite it being a dubbed Hindi version of the Tamil original. However after witnessing the extravaganza, one is left with mixed reactions with much praises for its leading man for sure without any exception.
Revealing the positive features first, I has a huge colourful canvas featuring many virgin locations of China and more captured beautifully. It has few brilliantly conceived action sequences (particularly the one with the cycles), worth watching graphics and an exceptional make-up converting a hard working body builder into a hunchback so believingly. Moreover the effort put in by Vikram in both his unusual avatars on screen simply bowls you over leaving a lasting impact post the happy ending. And the actor deserves full marks for his visibly worked-upon performance, displaying an exemplary dedication towards the art without any doubts. Though for the Hindi film audience his lover-boy act might seem to be a bit over the top, but what he does as the disfigured victim later is simply mind blowing reminding you of veterans such as Sanjeev Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan (in Paa).
Apart from its cinematography, another major support to the film comes from its Background score that perfectly enhances the excitement level with the right punch delivered just at the right moment. The high volume arrangement makes you feel the power watching the disfigured person emerging as the winner at regular intervals and that’s exactly what lifts the movie till the end, particularly in its climax.
Mentioning the flaws I’s first half stretches a lot and Shankar takes a long time to establish his characters as usual. The romantic angle becomes repetitive after a while and the film starts losing its grip post the initial 40 minutes only. Thankfully the non-linear format adapted by the director, returning to the revealing flashbacks keeps the interest alive and one expects more surprises coming next remembering the path-breaking trailer. Post interval after another routine song as the basic plot gets revealed, Shankar returns with many entertaining sequences dealing with vengeance and the viewers enjoy justice being served to the evil souls quite deservingly. In other words the final 40 minutes of the film work as its major savior and one doesn’t feel entirely disappointed due to Vikram and his flawless performance alone.
In the supporting acts, Amy Jackson does what she was supposed to do, i.e. look beautiful besides the skin show and provide the glamour factor as an important commercial requirement of a big project. Whereas all the rest including Upen Patel, Santhanam, Suresh Gopi & others fail to make any major contribution in the film resulting in all childish kind of villains reducing the overall impact. In the technical department, editing comes out as the biggest culprit since the film is too long at more than 3 hours of duration and could have been trimmed by at least 20-25 minutes cutting out all the unrequired songs and sequences.
(Spoilers Ahead)
Elaborating on the disappointments further, the basic story plot of I is so thin and clichéd that it makes you wonder that how come one think of making such a big budget film with a big star on such a wafer thin plot of plain revenge (where the culprit can easily be guessed too). The money spent on the song picturisations are the next bizarre thing you notice while watching the lackluster songs. And this further forces you to ponder over the poor music composed by the maestro A. R. Rahman yet again in a biggie post LINGAA. But here along with Rahman, Shankar also needs to be questioned for having approved such tracks coming from the Oscar winning composer and not (demanding) asking him to deliver something bigger and better. For instance there was a time when every sad song from Rahman used to be a gem like ‘Tu Hi Re’ and more. But now even the rendition of a sad song seems to be so loud and odd putting too much effort into it in a silly manner.
Pointing out I’s major shortcomings, its screenplay is erratic, the romance lacks depth, humour doesn’t work, particularly the gay angle falls flat and so does the rich ‘fat millionaire’ acting weirdly. The final 40 minutes of the film where Vikram is taking his revenge resulting in more uglier disfigured bodies might be upsetting and distasteful for few. But ironically these are the only moments when entertainment is supposed to be there for the viewers leading to an emotional climax song reminding you of the traditional fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast.
For friends (in awe of its trailer) who were expecting a bit of horror, a bit of werewolf and a bit of terror in I as shown in those 3 minutes promotional cut, there is nothing of that sort in the film at all based on a simple plot of love and revenge. Specifically the werewolf getup and that roar is just there in a song that has nothing to do with the film’s actual storyline and I doesn’t deliver anything related to the horror element in its more than three hours, missing the magic promised in its trailer.
Yet the silver lining in the dark clouds is the enthralling, never before kind of rare performance by its lead actor and the film can and should be seen for Vikram alone instead of Shankar, Rahman or anything else.
Rating : 3 / 5 (including an additional 1 just for the effort and worth watching act of Vikram.)
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