Movie review ‘I’: Shankar's directorial fails to impress

Director: Shankar

Cast: Vikram, Amy Jackson, Suresh Gopi, Upen Patel and Santhanam

Rating: 2.5 stars

Shankar’s much awaited ‘I’ has finally released. With Vikram and Amy Jackson in the lead and A.R. Rahman’s music, the film, which took nearly two years to finish, had been eagerly anticipated.

Lingesh (Vikram) is an aspiring bodybuilder from Sanath Nagar and wants to participate in Mr India. He is working hard for this. Meanwhile he is also obsessed with a model, Diya (Amy Jackson).

Lingesh is approached by Diya to act in an ad film with her and he reluctantly agrees as he has to break his workout routine. He has to undergo a complete makeover for the film and while shooting, the two fall in love.

But all’s not well as enemies of Diya and Lingesh want to eliminate Lingesh and inject a deadly virus into him. The crux of the story revolves around what happens to Lingesh and how he takes revenge.

Shankar’s earlier films have done well and there were a lot of expectations from ‘I’ given its technical aspects. But other than Vikram’s make-up, the director hasn’t really concentrated on the story and the screenplay. The entire storyline becomes clear to audiences in the first half-an-hour of the film.

Though a few scenes are exciting, most of the film fails to thrill. There is also a bit of a confusion with flashback and present scenes mixing together. The film being three hours long is also a drawback.

When it comes to performance, Vikram steals the show. Generally Shankar gets all the credit in his films, but ‘I’ definitely belongs to Vikram. His performance in three different shades and the way he had worked out his body to suit the three shades is superb. However, all his hard work might not pay off due to the mediocre story and screenplay.

Amy Jackson is simply superb. She is another highlight of the film and has given a mature performance. She is beautiful and gorgeous in the film. Another surprising package is Suresh Gopi. He played the baddie and the seasoned actor has done a good job along with Upen Patel and two other villains.

Santhanam as Vikram’s friend has also done a good job and Telugu comedian Srinivas Reddy, who dubbed for his character, is great.

PC Sriram’s camera work is superb and the way he captured some of the scenes are very beautiful.

Some of the action scenes are entertained and interesting. But a few of them are boring, especially the bicycle fight sequence.

While the movie is good technically, its content is just average.