Made on a budget of Rs.100 crores, director Shankar’s ‘I’ (Ai) may have been panned by critics for its wafer-thin storyline but the performance of the lead stars and technicians involved is laudable.
‘I’ is a very promising idea, and to some extent, it’s been sketched very beautifully, yet the predictability of the story in a three-hour-long tale certainly drags it down.
Shankar has made his mark in the Indian film industry with films like Gentleman, Indian, Nayak, and Robot (Enthiran) with different subjects, and this time, too, he is with a unique tale, a romantic thriller.
The story starts with a terrible-looking man kidnapping this stunning supermodel Diya (Amy Jackson) on her marriage day. In the next moment, we see the man set a bodybuilder on fire but then save him.
As we wonder what’s going to happen next, the hunchback goes on inflicting pain on a few others in the worst way possible while keeping Diya captive. The story then goes into flashback with Vikram on-screen as Lingesan, a promising bodybuilder competing for Mr. Tamil Nadu and with an eye on Mr. India’s title.
Although Lingesan doesn’t have a good flair in style and mannerism, he ends up with a modeling career alongside Diya for whom he had an extreme liking. The story then brings the darker side of many antagonists who come together to hurt Lingesan that later turned a good-looking bodybuilder into a hunchbacked man.
‘I’ (Ai) is a good film when you think of the performance of Vikram and P. C. Sreeram’s cinematography or to some extent A.R. Rahman’s music (although it had little impact). While I find the film overall entertaining, much could have been done on the editing table knowing the fact that the film has less to offer in the script, and thus there is no point making it lengthy.
Moreover, Shankar’s attempt to make a love triangle involving a gay character doesn’t make any sense to me. Finally, if anyone needs a reason to watch ‘I’ then we must say that Vikram has probably given a career-best performance.
Starring: Vikram, Amy Jackson, Santhanam, Suresh Gopi, Upen Patel, and Ramkumar Ganesan
Directed by: Shankar
Released date/year: 14 January/2015
Language: Tamil, Telugu, Hindi
