A_Shankinator

Coolie is probably Loki's weakest work, riding purely on star power and A-certificate hype. Surprisingly mediocre. It's visually rich, has good bgm, and camera work in action scenes impresses, but even with all this it turns out like a cold dish gone stale due to the story. The story makes no sense at all. For instance, Shoubin's role Dayaal is shown as cruel to the port workers, but then in next scene they dance with him on the song 'Monica'.

The storyline has too many changing sub plots and tiresome chase and action sequences that it bores us, especially in the second half. The BGM works fine. The vintage flashback scenes are handled well, and in fact felt like a relief from the already concocted story! But when will Loki understand that putting old songs isn't going to save the storyline nor work on a pan-Indian level. It's as if the film is made only for Tamil audiences and more specifically vintage Rajni fans.

The trio -- Rajnikanth, Nagarjuna, and Shoubin -- are important to the story, and other characters are reduced to just side roles, wasting a golden opportunity for an engaging multistarrer.

The direction is far behind Loki's previous films, let alone Kaithi. Without a single focus, it blends many different subplots without proper execution and the runtime makes it even harder to enjoy. At least if the songs weren't there and runtime was trimmed, it would have been decent.

One line review: It's a Loki's fan tribute to Rajnikant, in the most cliché way, with a decent first half and horrible second half.

Kingdom blends myth and legend, refugee drama, stylized action along with good visuals and standout BGM by Anirudh. It's the bgm, and screen presence of VD and Satyadev that carries the film more than the narration. The story is reminiscent of recent films like Retro and that's why it feels familiar. The first 15 minutes or so upto the title card is probably the best scene in the first half, or even in the entire movie. But the second half seems to falter a bit with more drama, and some predictable plot twists. The pre climax and climax scenes were well shot. In short, they've tried to make something memorable, but since it heavily borrowed from recent films, it's predictable, and yet partially satisfying for a one time watch. It's one more popcorn movie, don't expect something extraordinary from Kingdom, and it won't disappoint.

When I watched this film's trailer, I was confident that the film had some beautiful camera shots and an ambient soothing soundtrack. But after watching, I came to truly appreciate it.

Nilgiris doesn't try to be something it isn't, and delivers exactly what it promised : A memorable theatrical experience of a documentary film with a lesson for humanity.

Through the film I came to know about different animals that exist in that region, that the narrator claims many people didn't know they exist!

In this era of reels and binge scrolling, some audience may find it "slow", but I honestly found it comfortably paced. It strikes that perfect balance between short runtime and doing justice to a detailed content.

The visuals are a charm and the narrator's soothing voice is good for the theme of this film, and a theatrical experience is actually worth it when compared to TV screen due to surround sound experience making it feel like we were in the jungles and hills of Nilgiris as the scenes unfold.

All in all, it's complete and an enriching film. I hope this film gets the audience it deserves, because it's not just a film or a story, but reflection of what's happening around us.