145 minutes of Murugadoss is a
euphemism for hard core sadistic indulgence. Every ticket purchased is either a
salute to his repute, technical state of the art film making or simply
masochism. This long-drawn ordeal of the good vs right story of a superman
fighting the super evil is centric to this Mahesh Babu starrer that has huge
foot drops and little sense.
Therapeutic urgency to the collective social personality disorder that
celebrates grotesque violence and stays glued in the seats and enjoys gruesome
killing and destruction cannot be over emphasised and is not a minute too
early. Time to pause and wonder how this constitutes entertainment in a
reasonably healthy society is a bewildering query to the psychologist if not
the challenge of the psychiatrist.
Working for the police we, have the hero Shiva (Mahesh Babu) who propagates
with impunity the law of privacy in tapping private cell phone conversations.
His teammates in this law supporting illegality are friends Vinay
(Priyadarshin) and Madhu (RJ Balaji). They chance upon a bad guy Nameless Bro
(Bharat) who for a while is seen as the prime suspect who is lurking on the
streets indiscriminately killing people. He too (!) suffers a sadistic
personality disorder alongside his bother Bhairav (SJ Surya – please stick to
being behind the camera!!). The brothers are children of a father who makes a
living by burning pyres and thus the children develop an urge for wailing tears
at funerals and miss it badly when there are no corpses at the cemetery. When
the village sees the boy earn for the family by killing unsuspecting victims
and burn up the house the two run away from the village and their sadism is
escalated (like every Murugadoss hit at the BO). In an irrelevant romantic
dimension to this violent saga is the heroine a medical intern (Rakul Preet)
who is eager to go on a blind date and ends up with Shiva.
The entire film in detail deals with how the sadist brothers are at large
killing people in the most gruesome manner and how Shiva in matching style
stature and attitude meets the challenge and goes on a wild spree killing that
is supposedly aimed and targeted at keeping the gleeful audience engaged
entertained and happy. Time to take stock of this seriously. Would a successful
star have the guts to refuse the celebration of violence and say that he would
not endorse a film that advocates anarchy and high decibel violence?
Then comes the final hypocrisy when the protagonist gives a platitudinal
lecture on Being Human. Oh! What ambassadors the cause has!!
No one is the film is called upon to do anything substantial and worth
evaluating. As the villain Director SJ Surya is best suited behind the camera.
Mahesh Babu is like in every other outing – style and quick footed and quicker
fisted.
To me this Spyder is a Black Widow. Get to it at your expense.
L. Ravichander.