Goli Soda

My review: Goli Soda

Vijay Milton’s “Azhagai Irukirai Bayamai Irukirathu” is a personal favorite for its freshness in the story-telling and trying out something new albeit within the confines of the normal love-story. Though the movie failed to create any flutters at the box-office, Vijay Milton’s directorial abilities came to the forefront. So when his second venture after long hiatus “Goli Soda” got released the title as well the lead cast of the movie kindled enough curiosity. The movie lives up to the expectation that it aroused and it is heartening to know that it is doing well at the box-office too.

Though the story is a routine underdog taking on the oppressor saga and the avengers are unlikely quartet of daily wage kids in their early teens, the treatment of the same is brilliant. At no point in the narration does one feel the implausibility of the happenings instead we start rooting for the kids. The emotional reciprocity the narration manages to kindle in the viewers is amazingly effortless. Main credit for the same goes to the writer-director Vijay Milton.

Though preachy and over-emphasizing at certain points movie also stays away from cheap mush and empty rhetoric as well. Movie also employs visual storytelling tellingly thus managing to keep the narration crisper. At places where a routine movie would have a dreary flashback or a mundane voice-over explaining the viewers what has happened, here Milton is able to fill in those blanks with just a passing shot. Not that these are difficult for the routine movie goer to fathom, which brings in the question whether the regular Tamil cinema makers underestimate the intelligence of the viewers these days. Thus by giving enough respect to the intelligence of the viewers, Vijay Milton has earned his respect from the viewers himself.

The quartet of “Pasanga” is back this time as adolescent daily wagers trying their might to get an identity for themselves. Kishore, Sreeram and Pandi among the four impress. The girl who is cast as Valarmathi is apt and has more screen space, scope and character importance than Chandini who is supposed to be the “heroine”. Madhusudhan and Vijay murugan as the antagonists have done their parts well.

If there is something that can be termed negative about the movie it is the music. Both the songs and the background score are not that impressive. Music is by Arunagiri and background score is by Seelin.

On the whole, “Goli Soda” is a well written and neatly presented mass masala entertainer that the top “stars” of Tamil cinema can only aspire to emulate.

Bottomline: Full on fizz.

3.5/5