#NotASpoiler
Movie – I (ஐ)
Director – Shankar
Producer – Aascar V Ravichandran
Casting – Vikram, Amy Jackson, Santhanam, Suresh Gopi, Ramkumar Ganesan, Upen Patel
Music – AR Rahman
Released in – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi
Release date – 14th January 2015 (Pongal Release)
The movie starts with a monster looking hunchback kidnapping Diya (Played by Amy Jackson) on her wedding day. She is held captive in a derelict bungalow. The story then flashbacks to a charming young Mr. India aspirant Lingesan (Played by Vikram). After becoming Mr. Tamil Nadu, Lingesan gains the animosity of bodybuilder Ravi who thinks that Lingesan had ruined his bodybuilding career. His passion for bodybuilding was intense and his love for supermodel Diya was even more intense. She was his heartthrob. His craze for her was such that he would buy all the female products that she endorsed.
Being a supermodel, Diya faces several challenges in her professional career. John (Played by Upen Patel) a well-known male model misbehaves with her and constantly nags her to sleep with him. Upon Diya’s refusal, he threatens her to blacklist her and ruin her career. To stop Johns’s advancements and to strengthen her professional career she joins hands with Lingesan who was known to her at a shoot location. She cajoles him to work with her for an ad assignment in China that could be a life-changing assignment for both of them.
Her uncle Dr. Vasudevan (Played by Suresh Gopi), also a trusted friend of Lingesan endorses Diya’s views. Finally, Lingesan acquiesces to her requests and sacrifices his Mr. India competition that was to be held in Belgium the same month. During this journey to China, Diya introduces Lingesan to transgender makeup artist Osma, who later develops hots for Lingesan. Diya rechristens Lingesan to Lee in the ad world who later gains appreciation from top guns and grows famous.
Initially, he struggles to perform well in the shoot and the chemistry between the duo simply fails. The Ad director suggests Diya love Lee and the later does it for her professional gains. Lee floats cloud Nine when Diya talks about love. But eventually, Diya confesses to him that she doesn’t love him. Lee is disappointed and feels dejected. In the meanwhile, Osma gets intimate with Lingesan and Osma gets hurt when Lingesan disapproves of her love.
Lee (Lingesan) grows to be a famous ad model and the ad guru Indra Kumar ( Played by Ramkumar Ganesan) appreciates him. The egoistic ad guru feels offended when Lee refuses to do his Drinks ad due to the presence of pesticide content in the drinks owing to which he gains animosity of the ad guru. In his journey from rags to riches, he goes on to make few enemies. Bodybuilder Ravi – who feels that Lingesan snatched his career, John – a model who feels that Lingesan had taken away his job, egoistic ad guru whom he hurt with his principles, and a transgender makeup artist whose love he refused to accept! They all plan to take revenge by planning his downfall.
They all team up along with their fifth partner. This fifth person would come up as a surprise element for you. It’s this villain whose idea changes Lingesan’s life forever. All of them take revenge on Lingesan by transforming him into an ugly unrecognizable monster looking hunchback by injecting an Influenza virus into him. Monster looking hunchback Lingesan starts hating himself and wants to take revenge. He wants to give the same treatment to those who stole his looks.
The story moves on how Lingesan takes his revenge and how successful he is in achieving it is something you could watch for! This is a perfect revenge thriller and I highly recommend this movie. Vikram has done justice to the role of Lingesan by shedding and gaining kilos. He is such a perfectionist. The Vikram Shankar Duo is pairing up again after Anniyan/Aparichit and this duo has clicked again. AR Rehman’s music is a cherry on the cake. The Mersalayaiten song is tipped to be the most expensive song in the history of Indian cinema where the actress transforms into soap bubbles, mobile phones, and motorbike, and so on. It is a fresh and different take of Shankar and I loved the way Vikram transformed himself into the monster looking hunchback.
He will mesmerize you with all his looks – be the romantic Lingesan, hunchback monster, or the beast. A lot of things could be said about his acting skills – Of course positive. He scores my points there. Amy Jackson was indeed gorgeous and beautiful. I could hear whistles in the theater during most of her scenes especially the Ladio song. But a little bit of body language and homework from her side could have been proved good. Santhanam gives the most important comic treat. Brownie points to PC Shreeram for his cinematography – especially the scenes shot in China.
Shankar’s direction is well known to the world. The story sails slow like a cruise on the ocean and later on as many twists and mysteries unfold, it speeds up like an express train. This is a fresh storyline. Although I felt that inclusion of an extra character like Power star was totally uncalled for. But still, I loved the way the movie ended. I do not intend to write more of the Post interval bit as it may reveal too many crucial elements. The movie But I highly and strongly recommend this movie for a weekend treat. It’s definitely a onetime watch. I would give it 3/5 ratings on the basis of direction, characterization, and acting skills of the actors. Vikram ruled the show! Of course not to forget the climax.
