Jiiva’s Gorilla had to endure a battle to make it to the theaters after getting postponed several times after locking a date for release. While the animal entertainer has finally hit the screens today, it puts us in a helpless state of whether to feel happy for its release or otherwise, as such is the effect that the venture bestows in you. Director Don Sandy has churned out a middling work with wafer thin plot to Tamil audience which acts as a great patience tester.
Gorilla opens with Jiiva a petty thief befriending a chimpanzee named Kong and he begins to develop an emotional connect with the animal. Just when you get ready to connect yourself with Kong, some blown up explanation given for the connect between Jiiva and Kong refrains you from connecting not only with Kong but also to the film. Jiiva is a petty thief who does small burglaries and shoplifting along with his friends to make his living. As things move with ease in the life of Jiiva, a farmer named Sathik insists Jiiva and his friends to rob a bank with the objective to get settled in life.
Convinced by the idea Jiiva and his team begin to make preparations to pull off the heist. And how do they prepare themselves to carry out a heist? By watching multiple Hollywood bank robbery flicks. If at all Director Don Sandy had watched them, we would have got a decent heist entertainer. Finally, after equipping themselves with all the latest tech savvy equipment and devices (that you got to see for yourself) that they saw in the Hollywood flicks, they set out to accomplish the mission. And by the time they are in action – robbing the bank – half of the crowd were sound asleep and the other half had got busy with their handsets. The heist entertainer suddenly gets your attention when Jiiva right away after robbing a bank comes out without any cover up to address a press conference and to place his demands with the cops. Radha Ravi, who heads the police force approaches him with due respect as a genuine gentleman without making any plans to apprehend the head of the robbers. Did the team manage to rob the bank successful, if so, how did they manage to escape is what makes the crux of the story.
Watching a bad film is not painful but watching a drama with bright scope getting dragged down the drains is where the pain lies. The thought of developing a heist movie around a chimp is something new to Tamil cinema but the treatment and execution of the drama is disappointing.
Jiiva, like in his other flicks has put on quite a natural show as if like a next door neighbor to whom we could connect with no trouble. He is a good choice to play the lead and surprisingly he has developed a real connect with the chimp that acted in the film. That must have taken some real efforts and courage. Actress Shalini Pandey plays a role that does not have any sort of impact in the story. Besides the limited scope for her in the script, Jiiva and Shalini Pandey make the worst pair in the recent times. Comedians Sathish and Vivek Prasanna in the pretext of comedy make you beg for mercy while Yogi Babu infrequently reminds you that this is a comedy entertainer.
The entire reason for the project to have turned out to be a downer is to be put on the shoulders of the writer here. Though there are some positive aspects in the flick in the form of farmer’s issues and recreation of Jallikattu protests, the effect of them is ruined as they seem to be forced in to the script. Right from the comatose comedy tract to the illogical scenes makes it difficult to sit through the film.
On the whole, Don Sandy’s comfortable writing or should we say lazy writing, choice to toss up the logics in air, and insincere work has sunk a scopeful project.
