Kalanithi Maran and Sun Pictures’ Rajini The Jailer (dubbed from the Tamil film of the same name; UA) is an out-and-out action film.
‘Tiger’ Pandian (Rajinikanth) is a daring jailer who is a terror for the evil. His son, Arjun (Vasanth Ravi), grows up to become a police officer. Arjun is investigating the disappearance of a very costly idol of God. Varman (Vinayakan) fears that he will be caught by the police for stealing the idol and so he kidnaps Arjun. Tiger Pandian is led to believe that Arjun is dead. He swears revenge against Varman. A stage comes when Varman asks Tiger Pandian to steal for him the costly crown kept in safe custody. In spite of being a principled man, Tiger Pandian agrees to steal the crown. What happens thereafter? Does Tiger Pandian steal the crown? Does the crown reach Varman? Is Tiger Pandian’s son, Arjun, alive or dead?
Nelson has written a story with a lot of twists and turns. While some of the twists in the plot are interesting, there are others, especially post-interval, which are not just convoluted but also confusing. His screenplay keeps the audience engaged till interval but the same can’t be said of the second half. The entire portion after Tiger Pandian agrees to steal the crown seems so contrived that the viewers actually feel bored. The track of Arjun and Varman is also not appealing at all. The post-interval portion is very lengthy and appears too stretched to be true. Even though it is a Rajinikanth film, the drama is so long and boring that it tests the audience’s patience. The climax, which should’ve been the high point of the film, is tame and devoid of excitement. Dialogues are not half as impactful as they ought to have been.
Rajinikanth plays to the gallery and shines as Tiger Pandian. Vinayakan is wonderful as Varman. Ramya Krishnan lends decent support as Tiger Pandian’s wife although she does not have much to do. Vasanth Ravi is effective as Arjun. Mirnaa Menon is fair in the role of Arjun’s wife. Jackie Shroff does quite well. Mohanlal adds star value in a special appearance. Shiva Rajkumar is good as Narasimha. Sunil lends some entertaining moments as Blast Menon. Tamannaah Bhatia is impressive. Yogi Babu evokes laughter. Rithvik is natural as Arjun’s little son. Naga Babu, Jaffer Sadiq, Kishore, Billy Muralee, Sugunthan, Karathe Karthi, Mithun, Arshad, G. Marimuthu, Namo Narayana, Ananth, Saravanan, Aranthangi Nisha, Mahanadi Shankar, Kalai Arasan, Uday Mahesh, VTV Ganesh, Redin Kingsley and the others lend nice support.
Nelson’s direction is good but his script goes quite haywire after interval, which drawback he has not been able to correct with his narration. Anirudh Ravichander’s music is good but not super-hit. Lyrics (Raqueeb Alam) are quite nice. Jani Master’s choreography is eye-filling. Anirudh Ravichander’s background music is fantastic. Vijay Karthik Kannan’s cinematography is outstanding. Stunt Siva’s action and stunts are thrilling but some of the action scenes are too gruesome to be true. D.R.K. Kiran’s art direction is wonderful. R. Nirmal’s editing leaves something to be desired. Dubbing is very good.
On the whole, Rajini The Jailer is too lengthy and also boring after a point of time. As such, it will not be able to do much at the Hindi box-office. Of course, the original Tamil version has the superstardom of Rajinikanth as its biggest asset and despite the fact that fans of Tamil cinema and of Rajinikanth will not find the film very entertaining, it will still manage to do decent business because of the tremendous advance booking and the entertaining first half.
Released on 10-8-’23 at Gemini (4 shows) and other cinemas and on 11-8-’23 at Gossip (daily 4 shows) of Bombay thru UFO Cine Media Network. Publicity: good. Opening: quite nice. …….Also released all over. Opening was good in areas with a good Tamil-speaking population, but dull otherwise.