'Kabali' fails to live up to hype

Designed as a robust mafia film, South superstar Rajnikanth's "Kabali" is a self-glorification tale of a purported gangster with Robin Hood traits. The film mounted on an elaborate scale and hyped to exaltation, fails to live up to expectations, and the quality of the Hindi dubbed version could have been better. The story written by P.A. Ranjith is a brilliant conjuring act, inviting the audience to consider the mafia entirely on its own terms, where Kabali emerges as a sympathetic and even admirable character. During the entire film, this lifelong professional criminal does nothing which we can really disapprove of. The screenplay follows no formulas, narrative is generic and loops, often making the pace tedious and the script is strewn with glaring cinematic liberties. The action sequences too are regular, run-of-the mill and non-thrilling.