Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Release Date: 13th April, 2022
Cast: Thalapathy Vijay, Pooja Hegde, Ovais Singstar
Writer/Director: Nelson Dilipkumar
Plot:
Star cast: Thalapathy Vijay (& his swag), Pooja Hegde, Selvaraghavan, Shaji Chen, VTV Ganesh &Â Ankur Ajit Vikal
Director: Nelson
Producers: Kalanithi Maran (Sun Pictures)
Beast (Raw) Box Office Review: Expectations
Thalapathy Vijay is arguably the biggest star of Tamil cinema right now. I enjoyed his work in Master as it was a dose of wholesome entertainment. So when the posters, songs and trailer were of Beast (Raw in Hindi) unveiled, my excitement got to the next level. It got icing on the cake when the makers announced it to be Vijay’s first-ever pan Indian film. Till this point, I was damn excited!
Things went downhill (not just for me but for all Vijay fans in the Hindi belt) when no efforts were seen to promote the film in Hindi. It has been worse on distribution level as till yesterday night, shows were still getting listed on Bookmyshow for advance booking.
So, even though Thalapathy Vijay is a known phenomenon among a good chunk of the Hindi audience, no active promotions from the team and royal ignorance towards the Hindi belt has worsened things from the box office perspective as far as opening day or weekend is concerned. Honestly speaking, a majority of moviegoers in the Hindi belt isn’t even aware of this film’s arrival or its Hindi title.
All these things give vibes of a passable affair. But is it turning the game with its content and making its place to shine at the box office? Well, keep reading to know more.
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Beast (Raw) Box Office Review: Impact
As mentioned above, low awareness among the Hindi audience has definitely affected the film a lot as occupancy has been low today. But what’s good is that, for Thalapathy Vijay fans, the film is a true feast as it’s his one-man show. Thalapathy has delivered what his fans were expecting from him.
The word-of-mouth among audiences in mass belts is decent, so that’s good news for makers. But is it enough to make it another Pushpa at the box office? Definitely not!
Remember, there’s a monster awaiting to compete in the form of KGF Chapter 2, which also caters to the mass audience. Its advance booking is already on an exceptional level, and to fight such a phenomenon, the content needs to be extraordinary and not just decent.
In many theatres, as per Bookmyshow, shows for Beast have been lowered and replaced by KGF Chapter 2 from tomorrow onwards. Exhibitors are damn confident about KGF 2, and things aren’t looking that bright for Thalapathy Vijay’s film at the box office. Things could have been much different if there wasn’t any clash.
Beast (Raw) Box Office Review: Final Verdict
Beast is a decent mass entertainer and could have been a good success if arrived solo. But as of now, it is threatened by KGF Chapter 2. Considering the hype of Yash starrer, Vijay’s film will suffer badly even if the former turns out to be a decent product. And if KGF 2 manages to deliver more than expected, Vijay’s film will disappear just what Thanos’ snap did to half of the universe!
To sum it up, no marketing efforts and bad release timing has landed Beast in an unfortunate situation. The film will earn between 10-15 crores with its Hindi version, and a lot depends on how KGF Chapter 2 turns out to be.
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Beast Movie Review Rating:
Star Cast: Vijay, Pooja Hegde, Selvaraghavan, Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh
Director: Nelson
What’s Good: Vijay delivering the regular dose of entertainment to his fans, if movies were just about style this one would’ve won it all!
What’s Bad: Story never gets to be the ‘beast’ & it boils down to just being like a forgotten supporting character
Loo Break: If you’re in just for Vijay, you won’t need any break but if you’re here for something else, try to book a ticket near the audi’s entrance
Watch or Not?: I would’ve said just Vijay fans, but they’ll anyway watch it. So, for the remaining ones, read & decide! (Ninja technique of increasing session time)
Available On: Theatrical Release
Runtime: 155 Minutes
User Rating:
Flying through hundreds of bullets, we’re introduced to the ‘beast’ of the film, Veeraraghavan (Vijay), a R&AW who goes against the government to successfully execute a deadly mission but ends up emotionally scarring himself. Veera goes on to live a simple life leaving his job and tumbles into Preethi (Pooja Hegde) who is engaged, but of course, falls for Veera because he’s the lead.
On not so one fine day, a mall gets hijacked and Veera happens to be there with Preethi and a few of his people. You know if it’s a hijack, it’ll be terrorists, if there are terrorists, they’ll demand to release their leader who’s jailed for killing people, if there’s such leader he’ll befriend someone from a political party and all of this happens here. Towards the end, there are some air-wars as well, but by then it became too difficult for me to keep a track of what was actually going on.
Beast Movie Review: Script Analysis
Nelson tries to take the ‘Doctor’ route once again retaining the humour-thriller formula, but the mixed genres instead of complementing each other, they annihilate each other’s space. The thrilling story does intrigue you using its smart traps but it just loses momentum on switching between a pacy actioner, a lame love story and a moderate comedy. The extremely convenient love angle doesn’t help the script to create an emotional connect with the leading pair.
The story very clearly (and rightly so) keeps Vijay as the centre of attraction, but the problem starts when he’s the ‘only’ centre of attraction because there’s not much happening around him. Manoj Paramahamsa’s camera covers a 360° view around Vijay, as he leaves no corner vacant from which you can probably shoot Thalapathy. A scene involves the camera angle to do a cartwheel & Manoj achieves that with ultra-smoothness.
R. Nirmal’s edit is effortlessly delicious in the action sequences, but there’s a lot of clutter left behind for the final cut by Nelson. Certain comical sequences will be enjoyed by Tamil audiences, as certain jokes won’t work the same way for someone like me watching the film with subtitles.
Beast Movie Review: Star Performance
As one would expect from the director, he has designed scenes for Vijay to exhibit his machoism and that’s totally fine because he owns them all. From breaking the fourth wall by sucking a glass piece from his hand, staring into the camera while wiping blood from his face and many more such scenes allow Vijay to just speak to his crazy fans and these are the film’s best shots. We all know these kinda roles have become a cake-walk for him, and the problem is we’ve seen cake-walk too many times now.
First Radhe Shyam and now this, Pooja Hegde should start choosing scripts that justify the talent she possesses. We’ve seen she could be more than her looks but the makers, too, will have to understand this. Here too, she gets a flowerpot character who doesn’t add any substance to the script.
Selvaraghavan’s Althaf could’ve had a brilliant impact on the narrative if Nelson would’ve focused on the right things. His role had so much more unexplored meat but unfortunately remains underutilised till the end. If there’s someone who really nailed the funny portions, it has to be VTV Ganesh. He garners the maximum laughs and such a level of comedy throughout wouldn’t have hurt this much. Yogi Babu in his limited screen space enjoys a half-baked role that ranges from being extremely entertaining to ‘what the f*ck was that?’.
