CAST: Vijay, Pooja Hegde, Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh

DIRECTOR: Nelson Dilipkumar

BLUF: A former RAW officer, who is among the hostages in a mall taken over by terrorists, has to foil their plans and prevent the government from releasing a dreaded terrorist, who he had helped put in prison at great personal cost.

THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES

Veera Raghava (Vijay), a RAW agent, suffers from trauma after facing betrayal from his own team. Months later, he meets Preethi (Pooja Hegde) in Chennai.

Surprisingly, she takes the initiative to propose on the spot and quickly helps him to get a job in a security force agency.

Veera Raghava, Preethi, and the boss of the security agency go to East Coast mall to get a contract for the security of the mall, they learn that it has been hijacked by terrorists.

The demand by the terrorists is that the government should release a dreaded terrorist from prison. How Veera Raghava foils their efforts forms the rest of the story.

IN THE KNOW

Vijay’s “Beast” has generated a lot of hype even in the Telugu market for various reasons. Vijay has lately gained popularity in Telugu, and two songs from this film have gone viral, and the film features Pooja Hegde as the heroine. “Beast” hit the theaters today amidst high expectations.

Vijay as a RAW agent looks leaner, meaner, and stylish. He is terrific in the first half, underplaying his character mostly and being part of the story. But he has also shown his dancing skills in the ‘Habibu’ song. 

Pooja Hegde gets a raw deal. Except for 15 minutes in the initial portions, she doesn’t have much to do.

VTV Ganesh’s certain comedy dialogues are good. Director Selva Raghavan plays a serious police officer’s role. Other actors don’t make a great impact.

Manoj Paramahamsa’s frames give the film a rich look. The film’s story mostly happens in a mall, and the set work looks perfect.

Anirudh Ravichander’s two songs (the film has only one song in the narrative, one at the end rolls) are catchy. His background score is effective.

Generally the formula is that the Indian directors package any action thriller with a regular mass element: four or five songs, a romantic track, and a comedy track when a superstar is in the lead role. .

Director Nelson does the same here. Despite having Vijay as the hero, he has focused on the main plot with little or no deviation from it and has avoided other elements. That is the notable positive part of the film.

The film has only two songs and the super hit “Habibu” song appears in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the film and the customary romantic sequences involving hero and heroine also end there. From there, the focus stays on the hijack, the hero’s attempts to rescue the hostages, and his clever plans.

Nearly 80% of the story happens inside the mall. 

But  “Beast” doesn’t engage us for three important reasons:

1) the hero has been established as a powerful ‘beast’ who can get his mission right at any cost so nothing makes him human or engaging

2) the villain looks too weak for a very powerful beasty Vijay, and

3) the convenient,predictible plot

The comedy dialogues by VTV Ganesh work in the beginning, but after a time, they becomes repetitive.We didnt get the humor in the later half of the movie. The motives of the terrorists and the government’s efforts were too predictable.So it was really diffilcult to focus on the movie after a bit.

The first half of the film is watchable for its setting, the “Habibu” song, and the initial quirky presentation. But the weak screenplay written by Nelson is the main problem. 

The director’s attempts to make the movie look ‘cool’ result in a bad kinda’ thanda.

Ultimately, Vijay rescues the hostages, but he fails to save the film as the writing and execution really fail it.