Apparently, the film is turning out to be a good grosser but the critics aren't liking it. By critics I mean those who aren't kissing up (ala Sivaji hype) from sites like Behindwoods, Sify, Indiaglitz to an extent. Recently, I had stumbled upon Searchindia.com's blog (owned by Rekha) who reviews from New Jersey here in the States and this is what she had to say about Billa:
The worst piece of Billa was Ajith’s pathetic performance. Prancing about like a Korangu than a seasoned actor, Ajith looks wooden in most scenes. There’s absolutely no range in his emotions or his dialogue delivery.
One of the crucial scenes in the old Billa is when the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Balaji) convinces a street performer Rajappa (Rajnikanth) to impersonate the don after Billa’s death. That memorable scene was handled with great finesse by Rajnikanth but completely messed up by Ajith in the new Billa.
But wait, there's more...
While the story of the new Billa - filmed mostly in Malaysia - broadly follows that of the old Billa, the remake’s story is disjointed with a careless screenplay that is frequently jarring. To put it succinctly, Billa is the eponymous story of a ruthless criminal and the efforts of the police to capture him and his gang.
Although a movie belonging to the action genre, much of what passes for action in Billa, whether the car chases, the killings or the fight scenes, are downright pedestrian and have been beaten to death in other movies. Hardly anything to write home about let alone savor.
Even the opening scene in Billa in the airport hangar was nothing extraordinary.
Adding to viewers’ agony in Ajith’s Billa are the two so-called actresses Nayantara and Namitha.
For much of the movie, Nayantara goes around wearing skimpy black attire and an ugly frown. And she looks bad in both. Nayantara is worse than Sripriya (in the old Billa) who was worse than Zeenat Aman in that 1978 Hindi film Don, which inspired the original Billa in 1980.
As for Namitha, who plays Billa’s moll, will someone please tell this fat tramp that a gravity-defying bosom is no substitute for acting. Her song-dance scene Naan Meendum in Billa inflicted heavy pain on our eye-balls and ear-drums.
Yet, I loved this comment:
In the Seval Kodi song, Ajith looked ridiculous prancing about in jeans while everyone around him is dressed in religious garb. Is there no limit to nonsense?Now I can't comment on Billa since I haven't seen it. But for the most part, I would say that Rekha is on target when it comes to reviewing. Thanks to the leakage of the film from youtube and other video online sites, the new Billa looks good thanks to Ajith, but the rest leaves a lot to be desired. Take last year's Don 2006 for instance. SRK lived up the role. The casting was dead-on perfect. Nothing useless or anything of that sort. The highlights of that Don was the technical stuff and of course, the much-talked climax. Here, this Billa doesn't seem to have J.J nor the climax. So really, the film was predictable and can be termed as a "typical masala." From the footage that I saw from youtube, the casting was sort of good. The only apprehension I had was with the molls. For instance, why was Nayantara frowning for? Did she have a bad stomach-ache? Didn't really suit her well. Maybe she looked uncomfortable in those skin-spandex clothes (bikini footage, vethalaya song, etc.) Next is Namitha. The scene where she's half-naked while talking to Billa (Ajith) made no purpose. First and foremost, Namitha is a fat tramp as Rekha puts it. She's right. Get on the freaking treadmill fool!Rediff reviewers both gave Billa dismal remarks. Take a look:
Vishnu Vardhan's film suffers from stupidity. In the opening sequence, which is elaborately choreographed with the camera moving from behind a car and an airbus, Ajith throws a Coca Cola can in the air to distract not six men who have their guns trained on him. All six gape at the can as Ajith whips out two guns from his back (aka John Travolta [Images] in Face Off) and shoots them dead. The technique is impeccable. The camera is in all the right places. The special effects showing the can rotating in the air is believable. The guns look cool. After the shooting, there are even empty cartridges on the floor. Slight problem, though. Why do six men, all of them trained to kill, look up at a can when they have the most dangerous man in Malaysia in front of them?
Beacuse it's Tamil Cinema. The lack of intelligence in films have been evident. Films like Sivaji are well-known than intelligent films like Mozhi or Paruthiveeran or the recent, Evano Oruvan. Ask any tamilian, and they'll yell out "Sivaji than yenna namma thailvarkku padam than!"
Here's more:
Director Vishnuvardhan seems to have been in a dilemma as to whether to focus on Ajith or give the film well-etched characters. There are too many diversions in the form of female cleavages in the rain forests of Malaysia and garish sets.Again, this is the major problem in the recent tamil directors. While the story may seem wafer thin, half-baked, and illogical (read Sivaji and ATM) they "itemize" it with glamour dolls and molls in the form of Mumbai models or former Bollywood actresses. There you have it. Rajni's Sivaji was so wafer thin, they had to get the Rajasthan turned-Tollywood actress Shriya to shake her assets for Vaaji and go prancing half-naked for the rest of the song(s). Yet, the film makes money thanks to the hype surrounding it. Blame the actor's ego, the hype, or the glamour. Or you could blame the rasigan (fanbase). Fans LOVE to have repeat audiences. That's why crap masalas like Sivaji run so long that eventually, Shankar just gets more appreciation to dish out even more repetitive stuff. Hello Mr. Shankar. How about another "Boys". Give us a break from your "Vigilante turned hero turned matrix-rip-off guy?" It's really wearing thin.Frankly, Ajith has shown potential as an actor over the years. When we were in the kaadhal kathai age (mid 90s), films like Aasai and Kathal Mannan proved immensely for the "thala." Even the recent "Kireedom" was a relief to his mass image. I strongly believe that if Ajith ever wants to come up to the heights of Kamal or Mohanlal, he has to experiment more. The same can't be said for Vijay. He's been pretty much screwed with mocking the great telugu hits like Pokiri (Watch the TELUGU one people! The DVD's with subs are out!) Ghilli, and Aadi. The latter was a disaster while the other was a hit. Blame Prabhu Deva for spicing it up with Vadivelu's repetitive antics for the B/C audiences. For Vijay, mass is important, story takes a backseat ala Rajnikanth.
That's Tamil Cinema in a nutshell. Now I know why Mani Ratnam left Kollywood for good.
