David Billa Review

There is an illegal consignment which one crook has to deliver to another crook at the other end.  However, delivering it is fraught with risk for one's life.  David Billa senses opportunity in every such necessity of someone, effortlessly does his job, and when doing this he sometimes ruthlessly guns down the other party on need basis.  Repeat this a dozen times and you have the story of David Billa.  A grossly predictable and simplistic fare, the film is, simply put, an uninspiring plot of a refugee-to-don saga.  The film is about how Ajith strikes nefarious business deals and wields his gun at every turn, while two or three glamorous villains seethe in helplessness.  Soon after one scene with a staccato of gunfire and a big blast, oomph quotient is added in the form of a stale club song.  Ajith mesmerises in places with his performance, but the dialogues totally lack wit.

In the name of a prequel, Chakri Tholeti has dished out a film with a string of action scenes inspired by God-knows-how-many-gangster flicks.  When you are telling the story of the meteoric rise of a Sri Lankan refugee who grows into a dreaded don, the film should bottle up exciting drama and the protagonist's mindset needs to be thoroughly explored.  Far from it, no where do we connect with Billa, because his psychology is never probed into, nor are there edge-of-the-seat moments.  A uni-dimensional character and a slew of gun battles, that is all we have.

His metamorphosis from a slumdog into a Sleek Don is uncontested and almost miraculous.  Tense moments, much less intelligent twists, go on a holiday.  The makers fail to realize that gone are the days when the elements like criminals in bloody clash with each other, sophisticated villains speaking foreign accent/language, arms and ammunition, skimpy-clad women, helicopters, me-special lines spouted by the hero, etc., entice today's audience.

By an unexpected turn of events, Billa, who is working for an illegal businessman in Rameswaram, cleverly goes straight into Abbasi's empire in Goa.  The reason why Abbasi (Sudhanshu Pandey) finds Billa indispensable is because he alone has the guts to accomplish difficult consignment tasks.  Billa has a difference of opinion with Abbasi regarding the latter's links with a wannabe Chief Minister.  On his trip to Georgia, Billa strikes a risky deal with Dmitri without Abbasi's permission.  Differences explode into a full-on clash.  They part ways.  Can Billa succeed in escaping the evil clutch of Abbasi?  Can he win over an ambitious Dmitri (Vidyuth Jamwal), who owns an illegal arms industry?

The film packs interesting performances by Ajith, and Vidyuth.  His demeanour is minimalist, dialogues are few, but the impact is huge.  Vidyuth as a suave villain is neat, and he does full justice to the role of the extraordinary villain he plays.  Sudhanshu, like two heroines (who are like guests), is just about ok.  Parvathy Omanakuttan and Bruna Abdullah, do not leave a mark.

The film works technically though.  The visuals are rich and the editing (Suresh Urs) is talented.  RD Rajasekhar's cinematography stands out for its pleasing camera angles.  Yuvan Shankar Raja doesn't give us a song to hum, but his background score is usually different.

Gambler (Mankatha) was for everyone, it had Ajith in a menacing role, it had a story, even a soul.  David Billa is for Ajith's fans, it sees Ajith in a menacing role, and it is an illiterate movie.

Released on: 13th July, 2012