Review: Phoenix
You can’t be faulted for expecting some really remarkable action sequences in a film that has stunt choreographer Anl Arasu as its director. The man doesn’t disappoint one bit with his Phoenix, which also happens to be Vijay Sethupathi’s son Surya Sethupathi’s first film as an action hero.
Film: Phoenix
Director: Anl Arasu
Cast: Surya Sethupathi, Sampath, Devadarshini, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Aadukalam Murugadoss, Muthukumar, Dilipan, Ajay Ghosh, Harish Uththaman, Abi Nakshathara and others
Story , Screenplay & Dialogues : ‘ANL’Arasu
Director of Photography : Velraj R
Co-director : N. John Albert
Music : Sam CS
Editor : Praveen K.L
Fight Master: Anl Arasu Master
Rating: 3.5 stars
You can’t be faulted for expecting some really remarkable action sequences in a film that has stunt choreographer Anl Arasu as its director. The man doesn’t disappoint one bit with his Phoenix, which also happens to be Vijay Sethupathi’s son Surya Sethupathi’s first film as an action hero. The film offers not one but several explosive action sequences that win your admiration.
The story in brief…
The story begins with Surya (Surya Sethupathi) being taken into custody and sent to a juvenile home for killing an MLA (Sampath Raj). The brutal manner in which he has delivered death to the politician becomes a talking point among cops.
The MLA’s death infuriates his wife Maya (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar) and his partymen who seek instant retribution for Suriya. They decide the young boy who killed the MLA must be hacked to death immediately, even if it means killing him inside the correctional facility itself.
With a corrupt cop inside the facility aiding the assassins, a badly bruised Surya appears to have little or no chance of survival. The only factor in his favour is that he is a trained MMA fighter. Attack after attack follow… What happens then is what the film is all about.
Analysis
The film, which is a story of revenge, bloodshed and brotherhood, keeps you hooked to the screen with its fast paced developments. It is a story that is set in North Madras where the poor struggle to dispel the darkness in their lives by working hard on either studies or sports.
Surya Sethupathi, who has honed himself into a fighting fit actor, perfectly fits the bill of the film’s protagonist Surya. It’s a role that is tailor-made for him. He speaks little by way of dialogues and lets his kicks and punches do the talking instead.
To play a Mixed Martial Arts fighter is no easy task and young Surya Sethupathi does an outstanding job of transforming himself into the role. He seems to have put his heart and soul into the transformation process and looks mean, tough and every bit the fighter he needs to be.
Surya gets ample support from his co-stars who add credibility to the plot with their fine performances. Be it Sampath, who plays the politician, Varalaxmi, who plays the vengeful wife, or Devadarshini,who plays Surya’s mother, all of them deliver commendable, neat performances.
Velraj, who is Vetrimaran’s favourite cameraman, shows his class in this film both as a cinematographer and as an actor as well. Going well with Velraj’s sharp visuals is Sam C S’s powerful background score that compounds the emotion on screen. Praveen KL’s masterful editing keeps the story tight and gripping.
The flipside to the film, if one can call it that, lies not in the narration but in the sequencing of events. For almost the entire first half, you only get to know that a seriously injured boy is being hunted down by bloodthirsty assasins. Details of why this conflict happened and what pushed Surya to murder are provided well into the second half. One gets the impression that had these details been provided sometime in the first half itself, the film would have been even more intense.
Verdict:
Having said that, Phoenix is a reasonably good action entertainer that Surya Sethupathi can be proud of.
