Two large movies, with a whole lot of crores driving on them, clashed on a wet Thursday morning as I braced myself for the big-screen battle earlier than dawn. I made it to a 6am present in Andheri as a result of there’s no higher feeling than watching a full home Rajinikanth movie first day, first present. Coolie, directed by crowd favorite Lokesh Kanagaraj, was launched on the event of the famous person finishing 50 years since he pushed open the gate in model in Apoorva Raagangal, a 1975 Tamil-language romantic movie.
The hype was large — second solely to the Kamal Haasan-Mani Ratnam-AR Rahman combo Thug Life.
And the morning performed out like déjà vu. Not simply because we’d been upset weeks in the past, however as a result of we’d seen the identical beats in both a Rajinikanth film or a Lokesh film.
Like Thug Life, Coolie is constructed for a pan-India viewers to make Tamil cinema proud. But how do you obtain greatness by strolling the identical paths?
The fatigue exhibits, the storytelling so spinoff, you wouldn’t be stunned if ChatGPT wrote it.
No particulars, all vibes — Anirudh carries a lot of the load, the music telling us all we have to know. The stars do TikTok reels to it, and Rajinism is lowered to rolling a cigarette throughout his tongue or consuming alcohol. Since the famous person stopped appearing on the flip of the century and Baba bombed, administrators wrote Rajini-template scripts for youthful stars like Vijay and Ajith, who stored the identical tropes alive.
A reproduction of the Rajinikanth model with a substitute star grew to become the components. Coolie appears like a reproduction of a reproduction — loud strokes, blurry particulars. Who is Preethi’s (Shruti Haasan) mom? Doesn’t matter. Alright, who precisely is our hero? Again, doesn’t matter. Lokesh assumes we’ve recognized him for 50 years and that what we miss most is how he smoked and drank with model. That’s the fanboy fantasy right here — Lokesh utilizing tech to indicate us the “baddy” aspect of the grandfather of Tamil cinema. Lokesh’s screenwriting is the largest casualty of his escalating scale. His scripts have gone from nice (Maanagaram), to good (Kaithi), to middling (Vikram), to unhealthy (Leo), to worse (Coolie).
The micro particulars, the ironies, the nuance — all sacrificed on the altar of the star. Storytelling feels post-story now: all tales instructed, the person is outdated, so let’s simply vibe to him and the music.
Adhik Ravichandran’s current Ajith starrer Good Bad Ugly does the identical however with out pretending to have surprises, which Lokesh promised. The solely shock was there was no shock. Just a Rajini film for the ADHD instances.
No winners on this conflict
A nonetheless from War 2
| Photo Credit:
Special association
War 2 doesn’t disappoint as a lot as a result of the trailers already instructed us what to count on — Hrithik Roshan in salt and pepper, ogled by way of a homoerotic male gaze, males stabbing one another with sharp objects, together with kebab skewers. It’s good-versus-bad cosplay on inexperienced screens, thrills VFXed in. Beautiful individuals dressed for a Spanish vacation for Insta reels, doing Tom Cruise stunts as a result of it’s the YRF Spyverse — the place Tiger, Pathaan, and Kabir would possibly meet for kebabs in a mid-credit scene.
But it’s onerous to remain until the top, after three hours of fairly wallpaper motion. Same plot because the final one — hero suspected rogue, hunted by the opposite hero, they share a previous, twist — they combat.
We can solely hope unimaginative massive movies bomb so producers suppose twice earlier than playing ₹400 crore.
Back to the OG
Sholay, now 50, knew the stakes needed to be insurmountable — therefore a couple of hero, a transparent aim, and essentially the most exhilarating path to it.
We meet a loopy bunch of characters, talking in punchlines. Ramesh Sippy, together with Salim–Javed, gave Indian cinema its jeans, doffing the hat to the American western whereas making it quintessentially Bollywood: intelligent, humorous dialogues alternating between drama, comedy and music.
A nonetheless from Sholay
| Photo Credit:
Special association
The cause it labored? It tried a brand new path. Inspired in elements, sure — however Sholay wasn’t about the place it got here from, it was about the place it took us. It took us to Ramgarh. It took us to the films.
Make motion pictures nice once more. May the duplicates bomb, and bomb massive.
From the most popular exhibits to hidden gems, ignored classics to responsible pleasures, FOMO Fix is a fortnightly compass by way of the chaos of content material.
Published – August 15, 2025 03:07 pm IST
