Bigil Movie Review: Thalapathy Vijay's film is literally Chak De India in steroids.

Cast: Vijay, Nayanthara, Kathir, Jackie Shroff, Amritha Aiyer, Reba Monica John, and Varsha Bollamma

Directed By: Atlee

Bigil is a massive blockbuster film with huge stars like Vijay and Nayanthara. And we have two Vijay in the film.

The film is promoted as a film dedicated to film but it is clearly the film which revolves around one only Thalapathy.

Rayappan (Vijay) is a don, but a good one in North Madras. He chooses the life of violence to protect the rights of his people. His son Michael Rayappan aka Bigil is a state-level footballer. But, due to circumstances, he becomes the messiah of people in North Madras, leaving behind his career. 

Meanwhile, Michael’s friend Kathir (Kathir) is grievously injured, which forces him to take over his position as the coach of the Tamil Nadu women’s football team. The rest of the film follows Michael’s journey to winning the hearts of the women’s football team and how he 'guides' them to glory.

Bigil is a big step up for Atlee in terms of scale and vision, and he pulls off quite convincingly, delivering a film that works both as a star service to Vijay and as a powerful sports drama with an effective emotional core. In the first half, Bigil treads a tried-and-tested path of commercial cinema and plays to the gallery, especially with Vijay’s Rayappan character who plays the aged gangster with charisma. The football portion, featuring Michael, doesn’t quite work as expected but Atlee makes up for it with well-choreographed football sequences in the second half.

Director Atlee always knows the art of playing to the gallery. Almost all of his films are intelligently packaged. So well, that there are elements to satisfy people of all age groups. Bigil belongs to the same type. You get a predictable story, but Atlee, as expected, adds mass elements, emotional scenes and kickass stunt sequences to keep you engrossed in his product.

The women’s team wins a game and there is a full-blown celebration dance that goes on for 2 minutes, which adds literally nothing to the story. Similarly, you see Nayanthara as the physiotherapist, but she is hardly seen doing her job. Her romantic portions with Vijay are not that fun to watch on-screen.

But Atlee gets a lot of things right as well. Bigil is a delight for Vijay’s fans and Atlee’s trademark style of glorifying his 'annan’ is visible throughout. The filmmaker adds a lot of references to Vijay’s earlier films and his own previous ventures, which are nice to spot.

Vijay is exceptional in Bigil and so are his expressions. As young Michael Rayappan, he is full of energy. However, as Rayappan with stammering issues, he seems to oversell his role a tad bit. Yet, his swag, style, and comic timing will bring a smile to your face. This might be considered as one of his best performances and a big treat for the fans to watch their star in a different avatar.

Bigil could have been an out entertaining film some scenes of the film would have been trimmed. But this Deepavali if you have to celebrate in style then to see this mammoth is a good option.