Somewhere in the second half of the film, Vikram has to emote a variety of feelings just with his eyes. First, a tinge of anticipation mixed with a fear that his lover wouldn’t  recognize/accept him, second, a disappointment due to his lover’s aversion, third, his heightened anticipation when she calls him near her car window, fourth, his inexplicable and sorrow and finally, his sense of utter defeat before the will of God. Vikram does it all.

One has to give it to Vikram for his outstanding performance in scenes like these in the movie and his effort to get into the skin of the character. In every scene that calls for his histrionics, he delivers like no other.

If only his presence had translated into something more meaningful in terms of a wholesome movie. Instead, Director Shankar, squanders away Vikram’s accomplishments and weaves an outdated revenge fare.’ I’ is poor cousin of Director Shankar’s previous films.

I found the basic premise of inflicting wrong and the revenge formula around it, not enough for the story to scale.

• What starts off an interesting aspect, that of an aspiring bodybuilder, doesn’t build into the next level.
• The enemies the hero make, don’t look menacing enough for the hero’s fight against them. They are cliched to say the least. Other than the wrong inflicted on the hero, rest of their villainy comes across as a charade.
• Shankar in his previous films used the cat and mouse game between hero and villain to good effect  (Gentleman, Anniyan, Indian etc). In ‘I’ the villains are more of brawn and less of brain. So, the duels between the hero and villain are less, less physical, given the deformity of hero. On top of that,  Shankar fills up the film with unnecessary stuff to make it a 3hour+ film.
• I guess, inspired by the brawny nature of the plot, Shankar decides for an exact amount for exacting revenge, and his ‘anthaku minchi’ ends up being too fleshy and gory on screen, and with little purpose.  It’s as if he tried a blend of ‘Jeffery Archer’s novel ‘Not a penny more, Not a penny less’ and the movie  ‘Inglorious Bastards’ or ‘Django Unchained’. (I was also reminded of Pran-Jeeven scenes of  ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’)

In the end, ‘I’ ends up a movie only for die hard fans of Vikram and Shankar . It does make you wonder about the 100+crore of the budget of the film. Where did it go? Make-up? Peter Jackson’s Weta? China footage?

Tailpiece : Shankar seems to have applied logic only to the ‘amount’ of revenge and nothing else. Budget included.

Related links:

Amar Akbar Anthony Scene 1: Jeevan – Pran – Robert Mocks Kishenlals Poverty

Amar Akbar Anthony Scene 2: Pran – Kishenlal Teaches Robert A Lesson