Billa - The Don who played it safe .

Yep, that's Billa 2007 for you. A fantastically expected movie that almost matched the hype of Sivaji, Billa 2007 takes you in a cruise ride when you expected a roller coaster of some sorts. Can't blame anybody other than yourself for that, can you? (Or maybe a pure film critic, you can question the director for his lack of improvisation but hey, he is being professional about it as it's his first big break as a commercial film director! I'm staying on the fence for now with respect to this issue. )

I watched the 1st day 1st show of Billa in Satyam Theatres amidst many thala fans and the atmosphere was mildly electric for Satyam's standards. Other than Kamal and Rajini, only Ajit can boast of such a support in this complex. The film is basically a combination of the technical side of Don and narrative side of Billa. There has not been any experimentation from the director. He has adapted to the original Billa completely. His argument must be that any experimentation would have increased the risk factor for a movie that has immense expectations. That's something I won't buy because Vishnuvardhan is highly talented, especially with his way around the plots and dialogs of a movie.


The story of Billa is located in Malaysia and understandably so as it adds to the flavour and quality of the visuals. Anu Vardhan scores a centum with her costume designs. Matches the locales and the characters like a mirror image. The characterization of Billa, his allies, his enemies etc are a replica of what we ve seen in original Billa but in the clothes of Don. Prabu as the cop who helps Billa has once again has asked too much from the viewers because he does not convince you much, just like his role in Chandramukhi. Aditya is Prabhu’s right hand in the movie and he delivers what is expected from a seasoned performer. Vishnu has cleverly placed his shots in such a way that we would not suspect Rahman that much but if this were not a remake, our impact when realizing that Rahman was the mole in Billa’s camp would have surely doubled.

The extents of exaggeration and lack of logic is in the same levels as what we saw in Don and Billa the original. So any comments about the naïve policemen or the superman-esque Billa should be ignored for hypocrisy as Vishnu’s team have not attempted an exaggeration that we have not seen before in Tamil Cinema. Where Vishnu scored during such sequences where Billa (both the original and the fake one, Velu) shows his cinematic cleverness and bravery to get rid of a tough spot is in the gracefulness of his execution.

As always, I’m not going to bother revealing much story wise because I expect people to go watch the movie after reading my review and moreover, this is a safe remake which does not have any experimentation, so you pretty much know the story by now.I will settle my score with Vishnu later as the real heroes of this movie needs some appreciation now. Ultimate Star Ajith Kumar and Nirav Shah.


Let me start first with the worthy winner of number # 1 hero of this movie. Nope, not Thala, it’s NIRAV SHAH. Mind-blowing Cinematography that has taken this movie to Hollywood levels. The locations he chose were consistently rich and detailed. He has used the Super 35 mm brilliantly (much better than what K.V did with the same camera for Sivaji!). There is life in every frame and it brings out that life as a visual inside your mind. Nirav’s shot selections are top notch, perfectly by the grammar. The colour-saturated images have all come out as planned by the looks of it. It looks like Nirav was having a field day out there. Nirav’s amazing lighting sense (mainly pictorial) was a feather in his cap as in certain shots; he relied on his foot-candles! For example, the scene where Velu and Prabu speak in the night about how Velu has to act like Billa. Look close into Ajit’s facial lighting. It would be divided into two halves, one with dark blue and another with the yellow from the lamp in the house! I presume this signifies the transition that is going to happen! Velu to Billa, happiness to cynicism, bright to dark, Yellow to Blue! Superb Nirav!

Now, to Thala, The Ultimate Star . Ajith’s undoubted ability as a Hero, which makes up for his modest natural acting skills, has to be appreciated. Ajith as Billa in the movie would have made Rajnikanth praise and King Khan’s hair raise! Ajith as Velu, the Billa Dupe, on the other hand does not carry that much colour like how Rajnikanth and Shah Rukh entertained us with their dupe roles. That’s something both Ajit and Vishnu might regret in retrospect as they had a chance to entertain the masses consistently with the Velu role after the visual classy treat of Billa the Don! They only did so in few places like “Athu aaru thalai, Naan oru thalai “ and “ Enna Kodumai Sir ithu “ as on other occasions, Velu’s verses were pretty natural and stale. Anyways, Credit where it’s due, Ajith performed beautifully as the original Billa with the lack of long dialogues. His actions spoke louder than his words for once and the elegance he carried made us envy his walking-on-water attitude in the movie.


Now here is an inside news that you won't get in any other blog , Ajith did the rope swinging scene from thousand feet high bridge with absolutely no cushion to fall on if things went wrong . He only had ropes catching hold of him and not very strong ones. Also , the car chase scene started out well with the drift but got a bit tired as it went on. Credit to Ajith again for doing the car sequences on his own.

At the end of the day , Ajith’s overall performance just makes you sub-consciously admire this guy and back him blindly as the ambassador for the post Rajni-Kamal generation . Herd mentality is human nature , we all carry it and eventually , we would have a thala fanatic/veriyan inside us if Ajith continues to do such quality movies. How could you possibly disagree with me? He has got the look, the backing, and affordable acting ability and do you want to be one against a million or one amongst a million? I prefer the latter, so Aijth Kumar IN!!


An unsung warrior of some sorts in this movie is Yuvan Shankar Raja . Excellent Background Music on all occasions. This has to rank amongst his best works. The guitar in the Billa Theme added electricity to Thala. Speaking of the songs, picturization of them have been a letdown of some sorts. “ Naan Meendum “ song was just uncalled for story-wise and it was pretty much the mundane beach video we ve seen many times. “ Sei Ethavathu Sei “ had some hot girls in it and some great lighting by Nirav but that was just about it. The above mentioned 2 songs are no match to the ones we saw in Don under the same scenario . “ Vethalaya Potendi “ was the biggest disappointment because it was my favourite of the album. Such a great foot tapping number that had life less shots , few inter cuts , poor steps and a very lazy effort in terms of visual ambience creativity ( blame it on Vishnu ! Refer to Khal Ke Paan song from Don for further proof). “ Seval Kodi “ on the other hand, had almost scored on all aspects for a wonderful song video except for Ajith dancing with a stiff face! Ajith is famous for his wonderful expressions and lipping during the songs but he lives up to it in “ My Name is Billa “ and saves us some grace if some Northy-walla compares it with “ Main Hoon Don “ . Absolute majestic body language from Ajith and Nirav once again, elevates him to esteemed position in our hearts with that song.

Now for the finishing touches! Namitha was a nobody once again . How many more meaningless roles is she going to do ? She is an obvious commodity for the B n C Centres in this film and they are sure going to gagaga over her attire. Nayanthara on the other hand has shown some faint promise with her role, though it’s nothing near the role Priyanka Chopra had! I keep reverting to Don because there are many places where it scores more than Billa . There was simply no chemistry between Ajith and Nayanthara because Vishnu avoided it due to resemblance to Don I suppose. Also , the transition from revenge to friendship for Nayanthara was not shown that well. But yeah , Nayanthara looked hot on the whole, dresses great and yes , I dropped my jaw for that bikini scene ( I’m a honest critic , admit it now !! Ha ha ) . These 2 ladies are there to add the gloss for the A centre and give the B n C centres something to chew about . Nothing more in my opinion.

The action sequences do deserve a lot of mention as Billa had exaggerated fight sequences but as I mentioned before , it had a grace and some homework behind it. Nirav Shah shot the fight sequences neatly. Last but not the least ,casting could have been better as Billa’s comrades didn’t look that fitting ( the costume and cinematography saved them ! ) and that’s just about it .

On the whole , Vishnu has taken a huge risk of entering into the market of the masses with Ajit and the yester year fame of Superstar . He has done his cause no harm you could say , even though he could have gone places with Billa ! He has Ajith and Nirav Shah to thank for because they really carry this film from start to finish . Billa is yet another dimension to commercial Tamil Cinema with less dialogue tracks , less melodrama and histrionics and more of of visual narration , technical beauty and a royal overall treatment. Vishnu failed to maximize his score in places where he went Mani Ratnam-ish ( the not so funny yet apparently smart one liners , the underplayed single word replies etc ) and gave me an incomplete feeling of some sorts with respect to my expectations from the director of Pattiyal. He made up for it with his overall sensible and safe handling of the screenplay. I’m a tad disappointed as a film critic with Billa as it could have been far more entertaining for the class it carried but as a common man (he is the one who counts eventually), I just can’t ask for more. Hope you could spot that difference in this review.

Cheers , have a good Billa December !