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Admirable film.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

First of all the movie has a brilliant plot, when it enters into Raja Lingeswaran's flashback. But why the movie has such a low rating and box office reception you ask, i'll tell you.The movie is well cast. Especially Vijayakumar, who does a great job.The movie falls mainly due to poor direction, cinematography, music and pretty much every technical department fails in this one.K.S. Ravikumar had a great story but overloads it with a lot usual masala stuff, making it a tough watch.The stunts reminded me of "Man of steel", with a lot of flying and destruction. Totally cringe worthy.The director tries hard to bring the style element in, but fails. Because first the movies like Baasha, Padayappa, Arunachalam etc.. set a baseline standard for Thalaivar. Then the bar was set even higher by Shankar's Sivaji with an even more stylish Superstar. KSR tries to bring all these style elements together, failing big time.Another extremely irritating part of the movie being the portrayal of the heroines. A total Arunachalam-Padayappa rip off. Those kind of heroines were popular then. Times have changed, it's 2015 now and social situations have changed a lot. But the director sadly, is still stuck in the 19th century.IN A NUTSHELL, I WOULD SAY: The movie would have been better with only the RAJA's sequence, where SUPERSTAR would shine as an ACTOR rather than just a style icon.Rajini did so well in the RAJA half, it was brilliant by the actor.And one thing i would criticize on the RAJA's sequence would be that they fail to show the Architectural difficulties of building such a dam. Other than that the RAJA's plot was just sheer brilliance. Certainly a watchable movie which could have been better.

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)Rating: 2/5 starsThe first song in "Lingaa" shows Rajinikanth flouncing his long jacket in different parts of the world and at one point, if the subtitles are to be believed, he sings, "Pal, don't lose control of your sense." Too late, sir. This Pal lost that battle a long time ago.K.S. Ravikumar's film isn't quite bonkers enough to be hailed as one of the most enjoyable Rajinikanth films. It is, however, ridiculous enough to make you burst out in giggles every few minutes for the better part of its 175-minute runtime. Lingaa (Rajinikanth) is a petty thief and grandson of Raja Lingeswaran, who is revered in the village of Solaiyur because he built a dam and a temple back in 1939. When an engineer is stabbed to death with a deer antler in 2014, one of the elderly gents in the village says that it's imperative that Raja Lingeswaran's descendant be brought back to Solaiyur. Why? Because dude, it's Rajni. The problem is that Lingaa hates his grandfather because the king left his descendants with nothing but poverty. This is why he calls himself Lingaa instead of Lingeswara, which is his original name. Personally, I'd wonder about any person who voluntarily chose to call himself Lingaa, given its phallic connotations, but that's just me trying to not lose control of my sense. In order to get Lingaa to Solaiyur, KS Ravikumar's screenplay neatly and studiously copies the central trick of William Wyler's "How to Steal a Million". The scene has Rajinikanth plays Peter O'Toole — and that there, ladies and gentlemen, sums up so much of the tragedy that encircles being an Indian man, woman and/or screenwriter. Our Audrey Hepburn is Anushka Shetty, who plays Lakshmi, a Solaiyur resident who is determined to take Lingaa back to the village.After one heist and a few insane song sequences, one of which contains a mash-up of "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Mission Impossible", and "Star Trek", Lingaa along with his two buddies shows up in Solaiyur. There, he learns the truth about his grandfather.Insert: flashback to 1939. Raja Lingeswaran (Rajinikanth, again. Naturally.) is travelling by a train that looks like it has a steam engine and moves about as fast as the Shinkansen. He's reading Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". This is interesting for a number of reasons, prime among them being that Campbell's book was published in 1949, which suggests that the story of how Raja Lingeswaran came to be reading that book in 1939 could have been a sci-fi story that beats "Interstellar" and its wormholes hollow."Lingaa" is also irritatingly interspersed with an excruciating number of songs and dances, mostly in unbearable dream sequences! A.R. Rahman's music does not help either to stop Lingaa from stumbling on its plot track.Rajinikanth, yet again, remains a slave to his trademark mannerisms in the name of acting. Here he does not flick a cigarette in the air (that would be politically incorrect now, wouldn't it?), but twirls his hair and moustache for ideas. And there's hardly any difference between Raja Lingeswaran and Lingaa – not just in appearance but also in mannerisms, accent, body language, and dialogue delivery. Both Sonakshi Sinha, who abandons her home and village to be with the Raja as he is banished, and Anushka Shetty as a television anchor-girlfriend of Lingaa are characters on the periphery. But, that has to be expected, or so we're forced to believe, because a superstar like Rajinikanth simply must be present in ever frame, and the others around him simply have to shrink into inconsequential specks. Santhanam remains Lingaa's sidekick, portraying the same character for the zillionth time.For a film that takes almost three hours to tell its story, many of the crucial elements are conveyed through dialogues (for example, we never see Lingaa's steps to expose the corrupt MP but we see him narrating them in the climax), which takes away the heroism from the character. However, the biggest disappointment is the preposterous climax stunt piece (that includes Lingaa jumping on top of a hot-air balloon from a bike, and kicking a bomb away while dangling from the balloon) that seems to be a validation of all the Rajni jokes that flood the internet.For those watching "Lingaa" outside Tamil Nadu, there is actually someone who tops Rajinikanth, and that is Rekhs, the sub-titlist. His subtitles are guaranteed to spread more good cheer than a thousand Santas. Whether it's lyrics like, "With my domes, I invade your armor", or lines like, "What do you say, MP bro?", the translations of the original Tamil dialect are legendary. Wittingly or unwittingly, they confirm "Lingaa" to be a comedy."Lingaa" is not a good film. Rajni films rarely are. And like so many of them, it is entirely oblivious of how silly it is in its hackneyed portrayal of the deified superstar with all his pseudo- ideological, naively moral, do-gooder, larger-than-life traits intact. And as usual, the icing on top is Rajnisaar's crackling, trademark dialogue delivery of the most absurd lines, and his buffoon-like rendition of the most outlandish action scenes and stunts. But, all this combined is what makes these movies so much fun to watch. I for one am planning to watch the film again just for the subtitles. To quote the film, "Hey Lingaa, let's jinga-ling."

If it's a project featuring one of the biggest superstars of Indian film industry eagerly awaited by his huge fan following in the south (coming after a long gap of three years ignoring the animated KOCHADAIYAAN), then its nothing less than a big cinematic festival in that specific region celebrating the event in an unbelievable style, not seen even in the case of biggest Hindi film stars to be honest.However if the same film releases in its dub format in Hindi then it struggles to find viewers even in its very first show despite all the hype and publicity received. And I was really surprised to have this contradictory experience this Friday, when the theater owners told me that you will have to wait for a while as we need more tickets to be sold in order to run its first show as scheduled. Fortunately about 12- 15 people did come asking for LINGAA and I thankfully got to see it as desired in its dubbed version.Moving on to the film, it has everything required for a Rajinikanth project supporting his larger than life image of both a superstar as well as a socially active person. But sadly the content has nothing fresh to say and gives you the same old feeling of watching a complete masala flick of the 80s with ample dosage of heroism, patriotism and emotional drama written around the superstar. In other words, LINGAA once again offers that standard mix of many typical sub-plots put together including a petty group of thieves, a casual heist, a romantic news reporter, the village link, an emotional flashback with the period theme, references of British rule and their brutality, a rich maharaja turning into a savior, an important dam built by him alone, misunderstandings being created, love affairs thrown in to fill the space and then a poor climax with some mediocre action heading towards a happy ending.The dialogues are specifically written asking for claps and whistles in the theater, whereas few early songs are just added into the script like a five minutes relief item or a musical advertisement as usual. Beginning with all below average sequences, the narration goes into a long (nearly 100 minutes) flashback hindering the pace severely. And returning to the present you just have the routine end-fight to see, shot hurriedly with some mediocre special effects, strangely in a Rajinikanth film. Probably the length has something to do with the viewers phenomenal love for their icon, forcing the makers to give them more. But having nothing fresh to say in its nearly three hours, LINGAA struggles hard to make an impression and remains just an average film with the only saving grace being the Superstar.Mentioning its plus points, the film largely works in its emotional or confrontation scenes alone and fails to deliver anything great when it comes to the basic storyline, songs, background score and performances. Where the action impresses in its early train sequence, it does exactly the opposite in the climax fight. Cinematography and Sabu Cyril's art direction visibly gives the film its much required support but A. R. Rahman's musical score remains the biggest disappointment undeniably. The master composes a very ordinary soundtrack for such a big venture and it was even more surprising to see the name of Gulzar behind some of its weird lyrics like "Mona Gasolina" and more.Performance wise, Rajinikanth does manage to deliver a towering act as the generous Maharaja, but doesn't have anything novel to offer as the young thief (he has a double role in the film). Sonakshi Sinha does it well and is more appealing in her controlled act in the later reels. Anushka is charming as far as looks are concerned but gets to play a completely artificial character in the film. Plus the enormous supporting cast mostly comes up with all average acts as required in its flashback sequences.In short, it's a project featuring one of India's biggest superstar, but again has the same predictable story to tell where the lead character first gets maligned and thrown out of the village only to regain his lost respect and image as the truth gets revealed with a hugely disappointing climax. Honestly we have seen this many times before since the last century and now actually wish to see something more innovative, path breaking and unexpectedly impressive when it comes to names such as Rajinikanth. Hope our Thalaivaa will deliver the same in his next venture rising above the routine soon.

This is the worst movie ever, nonsense. I wasted time 30 min watching and could not continue. I think Lingaa should stop acting in the movie ever. This is the worst movie ever, nonsense. I wasted time 30 min watching and could not continue. I think Lingaa should stop acting in the movie ever. This is the worst movie ever, nonsense. I wasted time 30 min watching and could not continue. I think Lingaa should stop acting in the movie ever.This is the worst movie ever, nonsense. I wasted time 30 min watching and could not continue. I think Lingaa should stop acting in the movie ever.This is the worst movie ever, nonsense. I wasted time 30 min watching and could not continue. I think Lingaa should stop acting in the movie ever.