Jailer Review: This is Rajini’s ‘Beast’ action comedy

Jailer, which was set in the action comedy genre, once again featured Nelson's signature introverted and innocent lead character. These two elements are a recurring theme in the director's previous films.

Jailer, written and directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, stars Rajinikanth as its lead. The film was released across India in theatres in multiple languages today. Sun Pictures produced the film on a budget of Rs 200 crore.

Despite Rajini’s not-so-solid box office hits for almost a decade since 2010, Jailer was still released amid huge expectations. That’s the craze Superstar Rajini has. Even Nelson targeted a blockbuster with Jailer after the not-so-impressive Beast with Vijay.

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Jailer was set again in the action comedy genre, for which Nelson is well-known. Also, Nelson repeated his introverted and innocent kind of lead character in this film too. These are the two elements repeated by the director from his previous films.

Jailer is the story of Muthu, a retired jailer of the Tihar jail. Muthu’s son, Arjun, the ACP of the city, goes against a robbery gang and gets kidnapped by them later. Muthu stays calm for a while and waits for his son’s return to the home. But he changes his path to action and violence against the gang when he comes to know that his son is no more. How Muthu takes revenge for his son’s murder is the rest of the film’s narrative.

The first half of Jailer completely has Nelson’s touch. There are parallel layers of comedy and action throughout the screenplay of the first half. Nelson gave all the fan moments to Rajini’s fans in between the middle-class family emotions and the rest of the elements. Rajini was fantastic in the action episodes.

The interval block was so alluring and engaging. It is one of the best episodes of the entire film.

The second half of the film misses its original path to entertain the audience for a while with a lag episode of Sunil and Tamannah. It is very disappointing to see Nelson choose such a senseless comedy. But he was on the line soon, with the action episodes.

The ending could be much better in terms of action. But as Nelson chose to run the film on family emotions from the beginning, he ended the film in the same way.

There is one special mention in Nelson’s screenplay, and that is the flashback episode of Muthu in the Tihar Jail.

Rajinikanth nailed the action episodes with the ultimate style. He is super energetic in the flashback episode in particular. The rest of his performance is a superstar dose for the audience.

Ramya Krishnan and Mirnaa Menon are good in their roles.

Yogi Babu and Ganesh Janardhan made their presence necessary for the comedy blocks.

The special appearances of Mohanlal and Shiva Rajkumar as Mathews and Narasimha, respectively, are on the top of the hill.

Sunil and Tamannah are totally wasted.

Jailer is super strong in technical aspects. Vijay Kartik’s cinematography is stunning. Editor Nirmal could have done a better job. Anirudh Ravichander fired with his background score, but the flame is not so bright compared to his other films.

On the whole, Jailer is a half-served mass meal with more of the best action and the rest of the unwanted comedy. But it was also how Nelson and Vijay created Beast. Jailer can be called Rajini’s Beast in some terms. So you decide whether to watch Jailer or not.

By Saki