Spyder (2017)

Spyder (2017) — is a bilingual (Tamil & Telugu) film by super hits director A.R.Murugadoss starring Mahesh Babu. The film was entertaining because of its pace. It could’ve been a lot better, but unfortunately, it was not.

This is a cop style thriller film — Shiva (Mahesh Babu) is an intelligence department personnel who has developed a software, of course illegally, to eavesdrop on people’s conversations and when it feels the speaker needs help, he intervenes and saves them. Due to turn of events, he is drawn into identifying, which he does very early in the film, and to finally capturing a serial killer — played by S.J.Surya.

I first saw Mahesh Babu and got impressed by the style he exhibited in the Telugu film Srimathudu (2015), in Spyder I felt there was not much fodder for him to impress the audience with his action performances. He has done what he could with the limited scope presented by the screenplay. It will be good for Mahesh Babu to start showing differentiation in the characters he plays. As an actor, S.J.Surya has upped his performance from his earlier film Iraivi (2016), best wishes to him. Rakul Preet Singh as the love interest of Shiva has been offered little scope in the story — limited to appearing in the 2 to 3 duet songs — she was unimpressive.

In a scene where few hostages had to be saved without arousing any suspicion for their captor(s) Shiva employs the work with a bunch of housewives — though unbelievable, was enjoyable; it was the only place in the film you could see the signature of AR Murugadoss. Music by Harris Jayaraj has come out well, songs were good.

The character of Shiva is clearly based on Edward Snowden and the protagonist from George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, mixed with typical a Kollywood Police character. There are many unanswerable questions throughout — why should the architecture of a modern building occupied by Intelligence Bureau resembles James Bond’s recent film, how does a truck stop a several hundred tonne “rock” coming down at super speed, where does the villain get the funds required for his diabolical plans?. The roller-coaster fight scene was anything more than amateurish.

Originally published at Venkatarangan Thirumalai blog.