'The Greatest Of All Time' Movie Review

'The Greatest Of All Time' Movie Review

Cast: Vijay, Sneha, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Prabhudeva, Jayaram, Prasanth, Mohan, Vaibhav, Premji Amaran, Aamir Ajmal, Laila and others.

Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Cinematography: Siddhartha Nuni

Producer: Kalpathi Aghoram – Kalpathi Ganesh – Kalpathy Suresh

Writer – Director: Venkat Prabhu

Tamil hero Vijay managed to get a decent market in Telugu in recent times. His 'Leo' got huge openings in Telugu states despite the bad talk. He is the No.1 hero in Tamil right now and he even announced that he will be leaving acting for politics soon. With 'GOAT' being one of the last films he does, there is high buzz on this movie. Venkat Prabhu directed this movie and let us see how it turned out.

Story:

Gandhi (Vijay) is a secret agent who poses as an employee in a travel agency to the outside world. He is a member of anti-terrorist squad. Even his wife doesn't know the truth about him. With his wife suspecting him, he forced to take her and his kid to Thailand whilst being part of a mission. He goes about his work without getting noticed by his wife. But the terrorist gang attacks his family. In this process, his son Jeevan gets killed. Gandhi's wife despises him for that and leaves him even though she gives birth to a daughter. Years pass by and Gandhi is still a secret agent. He goes to Europe as a part of a mission and finds a youngster with identical features. He realises that he is his son Jeevan and brings him home. But problems start from here as Jeevan has another motive. Where did Jeevan grow? What did he do? How did he create problems to Gandhi? How did Gandhi overcome them? Answers to these questions form the rest of the story.

Analysis:

Venkat Prabhu is a brand. If we watch his dubbed films like 'Saroja', 'Gambler', 'Rakshasudu' or 'The Loop', we can see his trademark style. He is known for making thriller movies which engage you as well as entertain you. He entered the film field 15 years ago and showed that he is still at the top of his game. But his last outing 'Custody' ended up being a huge failure. Venkat Prabhu who shows his specialty even in his flop movies has completely gone off the rails with 'Custody'. Nonetheless, he got the opportunity to director Vijay who is undoubtedly the No.1 hero in Kollywood. Many expected him to regain his form with 'The Greatest Of All Time'. But he showed that it is not easy to regain the lost midas touch. He lifted the plot of the Hollywood movie 'The Gemini Man' and tried to attach commercial elements to it which backfired. The film ended up neither as a thriller nor a commercial masala entertainer. Vijay who managed to get a decent craze for his films in Telugu states ending up disappointing with his content once again through 'GOAT'.

There are many logical plot holes in the story like the hero not reassuring that the kid who got killed is his son or not and believing it blindly despite being a top secret agent who did numerous missions. He believes it by looking at a bag and a toy his kid used to play with. When the son finally comes back, he brings him back without even asking what he did all this time. He takes him into his life without checking his background and anything. He doesn't even think that there might be a motive behind it. When an agent is called 'GOAT', how can he behave in such an illogical manner? All these make the film lack conviction. Also, the young Vijay having a dance number with the heroine immediately after a member from old Vijay's gang dies and the hero going into an item song immediately after his lover getting killed makes you wonder if the director considered having emotions in the film or not. The director did not even establish the reason for hatred of young Vijay towards older Vijay. We have seen hero hiding his identity from his family in many Hollywood films and Indian films too. But Venkat Prabhu used the same template and tried to revolve the screenplay around it. The fight between son and father does not intrigue the audience. The movie starts well with action sequence but the family drama starts boring you a lot. The comedy doesn't work out too but the attention of the audience comes back with the death of the hero's son. But the interest dies down when the son comes back in a pretty lame fashion. But the interval scenes are conceived well and people get excited. We expect the second half to take off with the father and son battle.

But there are zero highs in the second half and the director failed to showcase the rivalry in intriguing fashion. The effort to showcase Vijay's younger version too does not attract the audience and his character too lacks any depth. Meenakshi's character's ending and twist regarding Prabhudeva's character makes the audience completely lose interest in 'GOAT'. The situationless songs which arrive after a strong emotion along with boring scenes make the film a tedious watch. The climax scene planned at the CSK match is okay but it is quite lengthy too. This is not a film that needs to arrive at a time when Vijay is planning to enter politics. The movie lacks mass elements which we expect from Vijay and Venkat Prabhu mark thriller entertainer goes missing too.

Performances:

Vijay looked stylish as usual. He did a decent job too. There are not many scenes where he can flex his acting skills. He delivered in the emotional scenes. He managed to show variation in two different roles. The de-aging technology used in the film is not that effective but it was a decent attempt by the makers. We feel that older Vijay is better after young Vijay enters the screen. Sneha as Vijay's wife did a good job. Meenakshi Chaudhary got a tiny role with zero substance. She gets a few scenes and one dance number. She is just there for namesake.

The actress who did Vijay's daughter role had more significance compared to Meenakshi. Prabhudeva did a different character but it fizzled out quickly. Actors like Prasanth, Jayaram, Aamir Ajmal, Vaibhav and others were fine in their given roles. Senior actor Mohan did not fit the villain role at all. His look and acting don't impress you.

Technicians:

Irrespective of movie results, Vijay's recent movies like 'Master', 'Beast' and 'Leo' had superb songs and thumping background scores. Anirudh lifted a lot of scenes with his music. People got used to terrific BGMs and songs in Vijay's movies but Yuvan Shankar Raja disappointed the audience heavily in this aspect. 'GOAT' music is no match to Yuvan's stature. None of his songs were catchy and the background score too did not meet the expectations. With both scenes and BGMs not being good, the film got heavily by it. Siddhartha Nuni's cinematography is decent and the production values are quite high.

But it is Venkat Prabhu who fails to utilise the golden opportunity he got with a hero like Vijay. We wonder if he is the same director who made 'Gambler' with Ajith and 'Maanadu' with Simbu. He is famous for his racy screenplay. He showed that he lost touch with 'Custody' and 'GOAT' proved it yet again. He tried to take the main point of 'Gemini Man' and convert it into a commercial film that suits Vijay but it did not work out at all. Barring the CSK element in the climax, we cannot see Venkat Prabhu's touch anywhere else in the movie.

Verdict: GOAT – Not Great But Bad!

Rating: 2.25/5