Beast - Vijay & Nelson's action film shines in some moments and manages to satisfy the fans. 

Following the super stylish venture 'Master' with Lokesh Kanagaraj, Thalapathy Vijay joined forces with the young and dynamic filmmaker Nelson Dilipkumar for the action-comedy thriller 'Beast'. Produced by Sun Pictures and with music by Anirudh, this massive budget film has undoubtedly generated a lot of hype and is all set to have a mega opening. Whether the movie has fulfilled the expectation is what needs to be addressed.

The plot opens with Veera Raghavan (Vijay) leaving his job and moving to Chennai after one of his missions ends in the death of a civilian girl child. Suffering from PTSD, he tries to distract himself by dating Preethi (Pooja Hegde), whose job gets Veera trapped in a mall hijacked by terrorists. While the government starts negotiating with the hijackers, they discover that luckily one of their ex-agents was among the hostages. The rest of the story builds up how the exceptional agent Veera Raghavan (Vijay) solved the hostage situation and saved the day.

Vijay has pulled off the role of Veera Raghavan with ease through his charismatic screen presence. Vijay proves that he is one of the best action heroes in the business and fits perfectly into a soldier role. Pooja Hegde has done what was asked of them. This film marks the acting debut of the ace director Selvaraghavan but sadly his character hardly has any significance apart from glorifying the hero. Aparna Das and Shine Tom Chacko's roles left no impact on us. Lilliput Faruiqui and Ankur Ajit Vaikal's villain roles were underwhelming. The rest of Nelson's usual gang have tried to give some comic relief amid the tense situation but only VTV Ganesh's humour worked out of the lot.

Nelson, who has proved his prowess in comedy scenes, has failed to entertain the audience this time. While the maker has made a technically sound film, he has lost his way in writing. Though 'Beast' revolves around a fresh and solid backdrop, it suffers from amateurish proceedings and a flat screenplay. The one-liners didn't go along with the flow of the story. While 'Beast' had its shortcomings, Anirudh and Manoj Paramahamsa's background score and visuals were stunning, as all of us expected. It also had impressive editing and sound design.

On the brighter side, 'Beast' had some impressive action sequences choreographed by Anbariv masters. The 'Arabic Kuthu' visuals were a treat to watch. It is good to see that a star actor like Vijay choosing off-beat roles like JD in 'Master' and Veera in 'Beast' as they didn't have any cliche family sentiments or backstories.

In short, 'Beast' has its share of positives and negatives but finds it hard to keep the audience engaged throughout the runtime. Still, the film manages to entertain Vijay's fans and has its moments. Nevertheless, it is a watchable movie with some interesting action episodes and a tiring screenplay.