Coolie Review | Rajinikanth Delivers Yet Another Blockbuster As Cinema Exits The Hall

You don’t go to the cinemas to watch a Rajinikanth film, you go there to be a part of the cinematic drama—a lot of which is happening off screen. Multiply that a few thousand times if you are in Tamil Nadu and you have what is truly an electrified audience. Sadly, what is happening on screen in Coolie is not as electrifying.

Coolie has the grand entries—not just for the Thalaivar, but also for the chief henchman Dayal (Soubin Shahir of Manjummel Boys (2024)) , chief villain Simon (Nagarjuna), chief guest villain Dahaa (Aamir Khan in cameo), and chief Rajini ally Kaleesha (Upendra).

Rajinikanth’s wit, timing, swagger and screen presence remain strong at 74, and Coolie leans heavily on his charisma to elicit applause, which the audience is generous with. His sharp dialogue delivery and flitting expressions keep the audience hooked from start to finish. Writer-director Lokesh Kanagaraj decides to rely more on gimmicks, style, action sequences and Girish Gangadharan’s camerawork (some stunning moments against the backdrop of the Vishakapatnam docks) than on the script or good storytelling. He knows that anyone who comes to watch a Rajini film will be invested in the experience, no matter what you throw at them.

While the non-linear narrative is a stylistic element, so are the choreographed Tarantino style action sequences, and close-ups of Rajinikanth’s eyes. Though these are enough to energise the audience, what is sacrificed in the whole process is storytelling. There are too many ideas and sub-plots unfolding all the time. It’s like making the audience go through mental gymnastics in every scene, and not in a nice way that says, “Aha! I figured that out.”

Dayal—who the story opens with—has an interesting arc of pure evil. He plays the leader of the dockyard, which is the venue for all of Simon’s illegal activities. He carries out a public execution and spins a top at the same time, and manages to be exceptionally funny with his moves in a dance sequence featuring Pooja Hegde.

The film starts as a revenge drama of Deva (Rajnikanth) on a mission to avenge his friend Rajshekhar (a restrained Satyaraj, who is some sort of scientist looking to patent a mobile cremator chair), with the help of his daughter Preethi (Shruti Haasan in a role that has gravitas). But it wanders into the various crime syndicates of Simon (gold and diamonds in watch form), multiple flashbacks and, wait for this—heart trafficking!

In the last ten minutes of the film—by which time you have sat through too many guns and too much blood and never-ending monologues—arrives Aamir Khan, in a chopper no less, laden with tattoos and flanked by six huskies. We are supposed to be impressed, but I was immediately thinking animal welfare and optimum temperature for huskies.

Nagarjuna is clearly showing off an impressive head of hair, a toned body, some great jackets and skin, which is aglow most of the time. But he is limited to one expression throughout the film, when the camera is not panning his bloodshot eyes or catching him stuff a burger into his face just before he unloads some more bullets. Strangely, he begets a paavam son in the film played by Kanna Ravi, who works as a customs officer and rides a bus with his sweetheart.

But Coolie, despite all its flaws is an out-and-out Rajini rollercoaster—style, drama, action, and emotion—all at full throttle. The background score by Anirudh Ravichander lifts every scene, especially the action sequences, which are often too long-drawn to keep you at the edge of your seat.

The point is—if you can summon a stadium full of people to show up just for the sake of your stardom, shouldn’t you be reading and okaying better scripts?