At the centre of this animated
motion - capture 3D film is the Rana (Rajinikanth) chief of Kallingapuram army
ruled by Raja Mahendra (Jackie Shroff). Rana takes Kottapatanam slaves into his
army to make a powerful impact with the start. He wins every small kingdom in
his way, and pens to attack Kottapatanam. But Rana has second thoughts to make
his come back to his hometown with his army. Ugra Simha (Nasser) hugely
impressed with his approach in the enemy combat, asks to lead his army. In the
meantime Raja Mahendra plans to attack Kottapatanam and kill Rana. Surprisingly,
attacks Ugra Simham and gets arrested. Who is Vikramasimha? Why does Rana
attack Ugra Simha? Will Vandana Devi (Deepika Padukone) marry Rana’s in the end
forms the rest of the storyline.
It might not initially make sense to cast Rajinikanth in an animated role,
but once you see the movie, you can see the brilliance in the casting. Majorily
Rajinikanth voice delivers the performance. Rajinikanth can make any line sound
impressive, and his character often has to overact in an attempt to impress his
fans. It makes sense for Rajini to voice himself, and his delivery style adds
to the charm and humor. Deepika Padukone, Jackie Shroff, Aadi, Nassar, Shobana
and Nagesh are less impressive, although they're much more reserved,
down-to-earth characters. Dasari Narayana Rao voice over in the start is
promising.
If the Vikramasimha suffers, it's because of the supporting characters and
cartoon-ish expressions from motion capture images. The rest of the characters
other than Rajinikanth’s (Rana, Nasser & Vikramasimha) characters rest of
the characters all are painfully underdeveloped and essentially have one
gimmick each, But most of the time is dedicated to the three characters
mentioned above. There's really no reason for the other characters to even be
in the film, and it would have been nice to see their roles expanded.
en somewhat sidestepped the problem that 3D motion capture films almost
always face, which is that the human characters almost always look
significantly worse than the rest of the picture. Humans are more difficult to
animate, apparently, and also wind up looking like jelly in comparison to the
fur or textured surfaces that surround them. The themes aren't exactly
groundbreaking from writer and director K S Ravikumar and Soundarya R. Ashwin
and the plot feels too repetitive with the Rana encountering one explored
terrain after another and responding in predictable ways. Vikramasimha is a
thoroughly modern, But its content is just a nostalgic piece.
The first photo realistic character was developed for Young Sherlock Homes
(1985). With every film since then, Willow (1988), Backdraft, Jurassic Park,
The Lord Of The Ring: Two Towers…Etc motion capture has reached new heights in
Hollywood and Here comes India’s first Motion capture movie, Vikramasimha in 2014.
Hollywood has taken 25 years to perfect in Photo Realistic film making, our
film makers must be appreciated for the intent in film making and coming up
with middling result in the first attempt. Soundary R Ashwin must be
appreciated for bringing new technology to Indian film Industry and making a
Photo Realistic film in limited $ 20.5 Million budget in years.
The Music by Oscar winner A R Rahman is impressive in parts. Especially, at
fight sequence between Deepika - Rajinikanth, Kallingapuram soldiers attacking
on Vikramasimha ships and at Rudra Thandavam scene. Cinematography by Rajiv
Menon is fine. The action sequences in the film are very long and looks
inspired from 300. Even Depth perception ratio was not perfectly handled in the
action sequences. Dialogues by Sriramakrishna are ordinary, but the way final
dialogues are written makes a special impact in the end. Editor coud have
easily cut short the film by 10 -15 minutes. Production values of Media One
Global Entertainment and Eros International are grand.
The motion capture periodic features a strong, star-studded
cast, but the script and CGI doesn't pop off the screen quite so effectively.
Vikramsimha first half is boring and dragged, but the second half picks up the
pace and ends with a promising note. There’s a strange sort of disconnect one
may experience while watching Vikramasimha. That’s because Vikramasimha isn’t
our typical animated kid’s movie because we have been conditioned for a certain
kind of animated movies. Though it doesn’t hit the bench mark of Hollywood
motion capture films in recent times, it doesn’t sink either. If you look back,
Hollywood has taken 25 years time frame to come up with a promising motion
capture film, we must be happy with what we have seen on screen in the first
attempt itself. On the whole, Vikramasimha must be appreciated for the intent
in film making, nothing else
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