Billa: Colossal waste

It is raining remakes and remixes in Kollywood these days. If music directors are remixing old songs to glory (read Ennadi Muniyamma, Vasantha mullai, Engeyum Eppodhum, Ponmagal vanthaal- all massive hits that were much better left alone), directors are also not so far behind. After that not so impressive remake of the KB classic, Naan Avan Illai, comes Billa, the remake of the earlier Billa, which in turn was the remake of Chandra Barot's block buster Don, which was recently remade by Farhan Akhtar with SRK in the lead. If you cannot make sense out of the previous sentence, Billa starring Ultimate Star Ajithkumar, "Ilaiya Thilakam" Prabhu and Nayanthara is not for you. Or rather, it is not for you anyways! For that is the kind of time, resources and talent that have been wasted on "Billa"- a Pyramid Saimira- Ananda Films presentation. I don't want to go deep into the story of this film since it is a faithful remake of the earlier Billa. The only difference is that it has been "stylistically" shot in Malaysia. Which brings us to the next important aspect- Making a movie in "Style". Now, this is something very few directors in India have been able to achieve. Farhan Akhtar's Dil Chahta Hai and Don were stylish. Sanjay Gupta's movies are almost always well shot. Abbas- Mustan and Anubhav Sinha make fairly stylish movies. Unfortunately, Vishnuvardhan (director of such impressive films as Arindhum Ariyamalum and Pattiyal) gets it all wrong with his third outing- Billa. The following are what Vishnuvardhan has to offer in terms of style:

• The Malaysian twin towers in the background of almost every scene
• The cops, the thieves and the dons all roaming around in black suits with black sunglasses
• The grossly under dressed Namitha showing off her distastefully fat thighs and calves
• Ajithkumar roaming around Malaysia in cars as varied as Merc, Jaguar and BMW
• Ajith pulling out guns from inside his suit, behind his pants and also from unmentionable parts of other people's bodies
• "Ilaiya Thilakam" Prabhu trying desperately to look and sound cool mouthing those inane English dialogues clumsily
• Every crucial scene opening on the terrace of high- rise building with a bunch of croonies in striking poses and mouthing dialogues animatedly
• Yuvan Shankar Raja's completely unimpressive musical and background score, exceedingly irritating for the manner in which he has destroyed the inherent coolness in M S Vishwanathan's original compositions- "My name is Billa" and "Vettalaye Pottendi"
• Ajithkumar trying desperately to hide his paunch under thick layers of clothing and suiting
• Rahman sporting a goatee and trying to look and sound cool but ultimately ending up reminding the viewers about "Rajappartu"- a rustic form of drama that is driven by highly theatrical, over the top performances
• and finally, Nayanthara who looks hot in her low- neck clothes revealing a lot of cleavage, but cannot manage to walk on her pointed heels

One fails to understand how could a group of fools come together and make this apology for a movie. Unfortunately for the cast and the crew, the audience are far more smart. Or rather, I hope so for the new gen directors should realize that some songs and some movies are best left alone.

There are a couple of things that are impressive about Billa though- Nirav Shah's camera that captures Malaysia and Nayanthara in all their beauty and splendor; and Anil Adithyan's performance as the Assistant Police Officer. He has come a long way from his days of "Mambazhakkalam" and "Bus Conductor"

My sympathies are with Sreekar Prasad and his team. If this is what the Editor has to offer after chopping off whatever was unnecessary, I cannot imagine their plight of having to sit through whatever was shot by Vishnuvardhan in the name of "Billa"

If you are a fan of thrillers, I strongly recommend "Billa" to you, definitely not the Vishnuvardhan- Ajithkumar offering, but the earlier Balaji- Rajanikanth offering that can still keep you entertained!