Leo Review: Tested and tried plot!

LEO

Director- Lokesh Kanagaraj

Cast- Vijay, Trisha, Priya Anand, Sanjay Dutt, Mansoor Ali Khan, Anurag Kashyap, Arjun Sarja

Platform of Release- Theatres

Rating:

By Jyothi Venkatesh

Parthiban (Vijay) lives in a cocoon, which consists of his wife Sathya (Trisha) and two children. A slight crack lets in some air into his perfect world when his past catches up with him and what follows is a cyclone that completely shatters the globe, with brothers Anthony Das (Sanjay Dutt) and Harold Das (Arjun Sarja), who run a tobacco business as a front to their illegal drug business assume him to be Leo Das (Vijay), the former’s son. With guns blazing, they land in the tiny town to find out if Parthiban is Leo.

A harrowing incident causes fire in the tobacco factory, thus killing Leo. Cut to 20 years later, the Das brothers find out about Parthiban and his uncanny resemblance to Leo. Does Leo fake his own death to become Parthiban or are they two different people who simply look alike is what forms the crux of the story.

Right at the beginning of the film, the director Lokesh tells us that the story is inspired by David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, thus preparing the audience to be taken to an action-filled violent world. Lokesh’s previous films like LCU, Kaithi and Vikram, also were strictly out and out action films, in Tamil.

Though the plot has nothing new to offer as it borrows scenes from Rajnikant’s Baasha, the director has chosen a well-known and age-old and tried and tested ‘hero in exile’ story and has embellished it with creative as well as chilling action-packed sequences. Though the hyped Hyena scene fails to leave an impact in the first half, the blood-thirsty animal elicits applause for seeking a perfect revenge act in the second half.

Also read: Yaariyan 2 Review: A coming of age story!

As far as performances are concerned, I concede that though the writing is a bit inconsistent, Vijay’s charm and performance make it a believable outing. He has outperformed himself as he gets to be an out-and-out ‘badass’ Leo Das, a break from his casual, quirky, youthful as well as playful outings. Trisha is good as usual and the intimate lip to lip kiss between Vijay and Trisha has been shot very aesthetically. Despite having performers like Sanjay Dutt and Arjun Sarja, as the antagonists, the film lacks a good climax showdown between protagonist and the antagonists, with Vijay walking away with all the accolades. Anurag Kashyap is worse than a junior artist with just two scenes of his

To sum up with Vijay’s fans thronging Moviemax at Sion, where the press show was held, especially for the Tamil version, and clapping every time he enters the frame, it was a wee bit difficult for this critic to even listen to the dialogues