The Vijay acted movie, Beast was so bad that I did not have the interest to write up a post until I read somewhere a Vijay diehard fan said those who said the movie was bad must be blind and another said entertainment is more important than logic. The movie was directed by Nelson who also directed poor taste subject in the Doctor and also starred Pooja Hegde, Selvaraghavan, VTV Ganesh & Yogi Babu. Poster source: IMDB
Read these first:-
- Tamil Movie Review: Enthiran 2010, Simply Dumb And Simply Illogical
- Tamil Movie Review: Arumugam 2009 & Peranmai 2009, Dumb Movies
- Indian Cinema 101: Blatant Mockery of Military Tactics in Wild Dog 2021
- Tamil Movie Review 101: Doctor 2021 – A Cheap Mockery Of Human Trafficking Issue
The Overall Plot
The plot of the movie is NOTHING new – there are elements of Money Heist, Die Hard, Inside Man and Under Siege written all over this movie. Perhaps one difference would be hijacking a mall because no sane hijackers would attempt this.
Veera Raghavan, an Indian RAW agent is assigned to capture the terrorist Umar Farooq. While he successfully manages to do so, a missile shot by him to prevent Farooq’s escape injures and kills a civilian child, traumatising Veera, who quits RAW. 11 Months later, Veera is still reeling from the after-effects of the child’s death and is suffering from PTSD.
Along with Preethi and her boss, Veera visits the East Coast mall, their last client. Veera observes a series of suspicious activities in the mall and deduces that someone else has taken over it. He is proven right, as terrorists dressed as Santa Claus open fire and hijack the mall. Veera, Preethi, and a few others hide unharmed inside an unopened restaurant.
The Government, led by Althaf Hussain, an ex-associate of Veera, try to negotiate with the terrorists, who demand the release of Umar Farooq. Althaf comes to know that Veera is also trapped inside the mall, and he manages to establish contact with him.
Althaf tries to convince Veera to help them. Veera, initially hesitant, gets convinced when he realises that the terrorists are here for Umar Farooq. He kills one of the terrorists, captures another one alive, and brings him to their hideout. He manages to infiltrate the terrorists and eliminates a few of them.
The Home Minister, who is in league with the terrorists, gets them to stage the execution of his wife and daughter, who are also in the mall, on live TV. The government succumbs to this and agrees to release Farooq. Enraged, Veera retaliates and kidnaps the Home minister’s wife and daughter by pretending to be a Bangladeshi militant to confuse the terrorists and he threatens to kill them if Farooq is released.
The leader of the terrorists, Umar Saif, senses his impending defeat and seemingly gives up, only to slip among the crowd pretending to be a hostage. He soon figures out Veera’s real identity and forces him and his aides to give up and captures all of them. With the help of the Home Minister’s daughter, Veera managers to escape, and he eliminates all the terrorists while making sure the hostages escape to safety.
The Home Minister is arrested for his involvement with the terrorists. Meanwhile, amidst all the negotiation, Umar Farooq was released. A few months later, Veera finds and captures him in Pakistan and after surviving a long air chase against Pakistan Air Force manages to bring him back to India to have him arrested. Veera, Preethi and the rest of his crew celebrate their escapades in Goa.
(Source: Wikipedia)
The plot seems simple enough but the filmmakers screwed up the execution and soon the serious action movie becomes comical. Vijay as an actor is in elements and so does VTV Ganesh and Yogi Babu but that’s about it when it comes to acting talents in the movie.
Wasted talents – you don’t need so many people in a movie about an ex-RAW agent wanting to rescue hostages in a shopping mall. Image source: IMDB
Illogical, Goofs and Factual Blunders
Let us run through the scenes that were not logical or dumb or goof that one was able to identify in the movie:-
01. In the first 5 minutes of the movie, Vijay enters a hotel that has been taken over by terrorists but no one checks him or his large bag. He is in fact left alone to open his bag and he proceeds to assemble a signal jammer.
02: 5-6 terrorists shooting at him but he does not get a bullet in his body because he magically ducks and shifts his body like a rubber man. He sticks a screwdriver into a barrel of a gun and the terrorist gets the bullets instead. Nothing happens to the screwdriver.
03: Vijay takes a bazooka but instead of aiming toward the terrorist leader, he aims toward the terrorist leader’s car and then asks if the perimeter is clear. Why does he wait for a long time before blowing the car up? Why he did not blow up immediately? How the terrorist leader is caught is not shown as Vijay is shown next standing by the dead girl instead.
04: Is it necessary for the “Northern Indian” wedding scene and waste everyone’s time? What is the significance of this scene? The director could have introduced Pooja Hedge in the Mall itself. Vijay, an ex-RAW agent have left the service due to a traumatised incident is then shown imagining himself dancing to the song Arabic Kutta.
05: VTV Ganesh’s security guards are all old men – what is necessary? Ok, it may have been a comedy scene on purpose but seriously? By the way, is it right for an ex-RAW agent to tell others openly that he is an ex-RAW agent?
06: Can a phone really be flushed down the toilet? The Home Minister speaks to the terrorist and then throws his phone into the toilet. RAW does not track the phone calls of known terrorist cells?
07: Vijay identifies that the mall has already been hijacked by the instances of escalator lift, and internet and phone lines are not working. How did he come to that conclusion?
08: The terrorist locks down the mall with explosives at all exits which are good but they are sweeping all places for hostages except at the place where Vijay is running around and even manages to gather his “close friends” and hide in the mall. How they could be missing this spot as the areas of the mall is quite open and you can see others from far?
09: Selvaraghavan’s hostage command centre looks impressive and he asks a lot of questions (right questions) as he enters but he acts like he does not have any information at all later. His assistants don’t update the movie viewers as well. It seems like they don’t even have eyes on the inside – can’t they tap into the CCTV network of the mall and size up the rescue mission?
10: Hijacker leader calls with his demands BUT does not tell what will happen if his demands are not met and what the deadline is. “I want this” and that’s it. Selvaraghavan openly says that he does not have the power and will escalate to higher authorities – mistake of hostage negotiations 101 as now the hijackers know that it is no point talking to Selvaraghavan to get things done. He is nobody there.
11: How did the Selvaraghavan team know that Vijay was inside the mall for them to get Israel to run through the jammers to get to Vijay’s phone? Perhaps they were keeping track of his movement as an ex-RAW agent? This question is not answered in the movie.
12: The Home Minister’s overacting is more than enough to get all agencies to suspect and connect the dots between the terrorists and the Home Minister. His link with the hijackers was way too obvious and yet everyone only consider him as a clown and not a collaborator with the hijackers.
13: Two of the hijackers were assigned to keep close watch over the mall’s CCTVs but they did not capture Vijay killing fellow hijackers or of him roaming around or when he gets a hold of the hijacker who will help him. Were they blind to Vijay or the CCTVs was not working? What were they watching then?
14: Hijackers get slaughtered (major bloody cut to the neck) in front of the hostages but none of the hostages screamed, and no one gets traumatised as if they have seen this many times and are immune to it.
15: Hostages are not tied up and blindfolded as a safety precaution – a fact that would be critical when Vijay is brought without being bounded to the hijacker’s command centre to identify the footage. Hijackers take things very lightly and remember that this after they found their dead comrades.
16: The hijacker leader asked if the Govt tries to do rescue and believes when Selvaraghavan says that they did not try rescues. Scout’s promise? The hijacker leader then assembles all his men in the command centre leaving Vijay alone to be free to take some hostages to escape via the air duct but the funny part is the only escape to another part of the mall and not outside. Most of the hostages are still in the mall.
17: Selvaraghavan tells the Home Minister that terrorists won’t kill women but when shown the Home Minister’s wife and daughter under the knifepoint, he makes a joke to the Home Minister. They then decide to release the terrorist leader from prison but do nothing to release anyone when the hostages hold 63 other hostages and could have blown any of their heads off.
18: The hijackers then release the Home Minister’s wife and daughter even though they cannot confirm that the terrorist leader has been released from prison. Do they release first on goodwill and hope the Indian Government will still go and release one of the most dangerous men around? How dumb is that?
Vijay easily kills the 2 hijackers who are escorting them and then takes Home Minister’s wife and daughter as prisoners. He then threatens to kill them if the terrorist leader is released from prison – what is the objective of this as the terrorist leader, in the end, is released?
19: Vijay drives a Mini Cooper out from one of the shops in the mall – how does he know where were the keys and if the car has enough fuel?
He backs up the car into the lift which seems to be bullet-proof whilst being shot all over by the armed hijackers. Whilst the lift is moving up slowly, the hijackers don’t get ready to blast him off from the lift. Vijay then drives off the 2nd floor of the mall and manages to escape back to his hiding place. How it is done is not shown because it would have been impossible to do so as the hijackers would have followed him from the ground level and you cannot hide a car under the carpet.
20: Vijay cooks up the story of a Bangladesh terrorist holding the mall and Selvaraghavan casually tells off the real hijacker leader to take control of the mall first. Great, because this is one sure way to piss off the hijackers and make them shoot a couple of hostages to prove a point. Remember, they are still holding a bulk of the hostages at gunpoint.
21: Hijackers shoot in an alleyway at Vijay only to be blocked by Vijay’s men holding a couple of flimsy doors. Somehow the doors are bulletproof to high-velocity weapons but when Vijay shoots back, the hijackers get shot even though they are wearing a bulletproof vest. Once again these defeated hijackers are brought to the hidden place without other hijackers being aware.
22: The hijacker leader agrees to release some hostages to Vijay and include himself as one of the freed hostages and yet no hijackers keep track of the hidden place. Expectedly VTV Ganesh reveals all the information to the hijacker leader including the identity of the hijacker who is working with Vijay. The hijacker’s leader escapes and captures the man who is leaking information to Vijay and yet he does not storm or lobe a couple of grenades into the hidden place where Vijay and other hostages are taking refuge.
23: Vijay then surrenders himself and offers to return all hostages if the hijacker leader lets go of the one man that is working with Vijay. Does this even make any logical sense? 63 hostages plus Vijay”s friend for just one man. They take the lift and reach the ground floor surrounded by his armed men. What is his escape strategy? Or does he already knows that hijackers are too soft to kill?
24: Home Minister creates a dramatic scene and enters the mall to rescue his family and other hostages and this causes the PM to order the release of the terrorist leader. No one stops the Home Ministers and in fact, they make even more jokes in the command centre. No Einstein there to think of the worst-case scenario – the hijackers take the Home Minister hostage and don’t release others? Of course, this is part of the Minister’s plan but other is not aware.
25: In the meantime, Vijay is tied up and is tortured by one lone hijacker with the hostages sitting in front of him. Did they run out of place and men to torture Vijay who have killed so many of them? Why not the hijackers just shoot Vijay on the spot and end the risk of him spoiling the mission?
One of the hostages cleverly hands over spectacle glass for Vijay to use as a knife to cut the ropes that tie him. The hijackers do not notice this (it is so obvious if they had walked behind) and are busy giving speeches to the hostage (they did not give a speech when they took them hostage earlier?) – long enough for Vijay to escape. How nice!
26: Vijay escapes once again, gone missing and when other hijackers rush in just to see what has happened, Vijay roller-blades in and skates around to kill the hijackers amidst the hostages. Surprisingly no hostages die in the fight as the hijackers don’t bother to use their guns. But instead, give chase to Vijay like a small kid. Vijay escapes once again, many times in the movie.
27: Vijay plants a bomb under the hijackers armed with a machine gun but the ceiling is high – how did he know where the hijackers are exactly and keep the drilling sound without the knowledge of the hijackers?
The floor blows up, dropping the hijackers down the hole and the hostages escape through the front door with the special forces entering the mall to neutralise the remaining hijackers. In the meantime, the terrorist leader is released at the Indian border and safely driven away by his men. Why did no one call and stop the release? Walkie-talkie and the phone were not working in the hot desert?
28: The hijacker leader then switches on the bomb to blow up the mall, only to be stopped by Vijay who holds him at gunpoint and this scene finally reveals the Home Minister as part of the terrorist group, duh. The movie supposes to end there but the dumbest part of the movie then starts.
29: Terrorist recruit camp is shown with the terrorist leader walking around unhappy with Vijay. The camp is then suddenly attacked (cannot see who is attacking the surface) causing the terrorist leader to escape underground. Out of the blue, Vijay lies underground (how did he manage to go down a heavily guarded underground?) and captures the terrorist leader and brings him up to the surface in the MIDDLE of the day.
Why the Indian Government did not assign some Special Para to hunt the terrorist leader at night and in stealth and put a couple of bullets into the terrorist leader’s head like it was done in URI: The Surgical Strike?
30: Within walking distance from the exit of the underground tunnel, is a parked Sukhoi-30 (all fueled up, I guess) which Vijay boards with the terrorist leader. How do they have a Sukhoi-30 at the terrorist camp considering Pakistanis don’t operate Sukhoi-30? Did Vijay steal one of the Indian Air Force’s Sukhoi-30 MKI? If yes, how come the terrorists did not detect it considering it was parked in the open and barely 100 meters from the underground tunnel exit?
31: Both Vijay and the captured terrorist leader do not wear any G-Suit or a helmet (Vijay only wears only a T-shirt). Despite not wearing a G-Suit and taking tremendous g moves, Vijay did not blackout or lose his consciousness and crash his fighter jet.
32: Vijay dodges anti-aircraft guns and missiles without going blackout and then asks for air support as he is being chased by two Pakistan F-16s. Selvaraghavan instead of the Indian Air Force commanders answers and then refuses as it may cause war between India and Pakistan but Vijay says that it is good for the upcoming elections. So Vijay rather have World War 3 just for some politicians to keep their seats?
33: The selfish PM overrides the military advice and gives the instruction to all to simply follow Vijay’s dumb instructions. Asked what he needs, Vijay asks for support from Dassault Rafale in particular. I guess the IAF had a couple of them lying around to cross the border near Vijay and is able to rescue Vijay from his blunders. Note: Indian Air Force deploys Rafale to the West Bengal airbase to face off the Chinese. It is on the other side of India where Vijay is flying from.
34: Both fighter jets cross paths and Vijay in his Sukhoi takes out his breathing mask (and still alive) and drops down causing the missiles from both F-16 and Rafale to knock each other dead-on. They show one missile – what about others? Did they strike the pursuing F-16s and blew them up causing the next India-Pakistan war?
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Online Review
Reviews in India are rather mixed perhaps due to fear of backlash from Vijay’s fans considering how diplomatic some of them were in calling a crap, a crap. However, reviews over IMDB were not so forgiving with reviews titled:-
- Terrible
- Waste movie
- Thalapathy’s Swaggy Performance Went in Vein
- Only for Vijay fans in TN, not for everyone.
- Vijay should have said no to Nelson.
- Overhyped boring film
- Worst movie
- Disastrous Disappointment with a capital D for Dissatisfied.
- Trashy movie
- Absolutely disappointing
- This proves story is the most important element in a film
- Except Vijay nothing shining
- Felt like a low budget Hollywood film
- Rubbish
And one long review stood out:-
The screenplay here is very problematic. You have no clue about the number of terrorists in there, as Veer finishes them off easily and yet has many more left. Veer’s strategies are sometimes successful, while others fail, but he has counter-strategies for every terrorist move. There are a lot of surprises in store, and some are really interesting, but I just can’t spoil them here. What brings Beast down is the poor writing and illogical screenplay.
The film is hampered by unnecessary comedy because it ruins the importance of a damn serious event like the hijack. You can’t have any explanation for hostages having fun and cracking jokes during the hijack. The romance and jealousy parts were too cheesy to accept. Come on, you are the hostages under the attack of dangerous terrorists, so please show some little amount of fear.
The dialogues could’ve been better considering the swag of Vijay he had in Thupakki, Mersal, Sarkar and Master. I mean, this man is the darling of the masses, so he deserves better dialogues that can create mass hysteria in auditoriums. However, the action is pleasant. No matter how sordid the pre-action conditions are, the stylish action sequences are a sight for sore eyes.
After the poor writing, if any person is to be blamed, then it has to be director Nelson Dilipkumar. That awkward vision to carry forward a mediocre storyline is no less than a big mistake. Nelson makes mistakes, repetitively, and that’s what hurts the film the most. Those errors in illogical situations can be forgiven, but not the logical confirmation of the director.
(Source: IMDB)
Final Say
When AR Murugadoss came out with the storyline for Beast, one has to consider that it could have been a continuation of the 2012 movie Thuppakki acted by Vijay in the role of an Indian Army Intelligence officer. The movie Thuppakki had a slick storyline, screenplay, strategy, comedy and one hell of a villain in the form of Vidyut Jammwal.
In Beast, everything was missing and things were worse. Wonder if AR Murugadoss remained as the director, would the movie turn out to be better? One has to think so.
The problem with most Indian directors when it comes to the storyline that touches on police and military is that they don’t do enough homework or get real police or army officers as advisors. They probably get ideas watching other movies, put in their own version of strategy and end up messing the whole movie. This seems to be the case with Nelson as well considering that this is his 3rd movie and 1st relating to the subject of a RAW agent.
Nelson’s Beast has to be one of the dumbest movies of the year for 2022 and despite the big names, clearly shows that logic and a good storyline are important for it to be entertaining.
One has to stop treating the movie audience as idiots that will accept anything that a big star does in the movie. We need to stop giving a 5-star rating to movies that deserve 0-star ratings. Otherwise, filmmakers will not take the trouble to make quality movies that one day can easily win international awards.