G.V. Prakash is the busiest hero in Kollywood with an impressive line up of films and here comes ‘Bruce Lee’ promoted as a dark comedy and boasts of a fairly good cast. Whether the film delivers a knockout punch like the legend in the title remains to be seen.
Bruce Lee (GVP) is a cowardly young man whose boasts are mainly about getting beaten by others while his suffering friend is Bala Saravanan. Kriti Kharbanda and her friend are the lovers of the duo. In a spate of incidents a time bomb finds its way into their car and the heroine happens to photograph murders committed by a comical don Muniskanth. There is also police officer Anandaraj who is after the criminals for his own reasons. When the don kidnaps the girls it is left for our hero to rescue them and how he does it or doesn’t forms the rest of the screenplay. Sounds like an edge of a seat comic caper on the lines of Kamal-Crazy Mohan films? Boo to you.
Debutante Prashanth Pandiaraj should consider himself lucky to get an established hero like GVP ready to self-deprecate himself for the character he is playing. He remains wimpy till the very end and even plays second fiddle to Bala Saravanan and the girls. However, it is sad that his commendable efforts are wasted by the wayward script and direction. Bala Saravanan manages well to lift himself above the script and deliver his trademark one liners that keep the audience from dozing off. The director is so obsessed with showing the villain’s henchmen and their flashbacks that he has allotted very less screen time to Kriti Kharbanda for us to assess her performances and she is even robbed of a "kuthu" number which could have helped her cause for a foothold in Kollywood. Muniskanth tries hard to masquerade as the legendary Marlon Brando’s ‘Godfather’ and fails miserably. Motta Rajendran who makes a late appearance is somewhat of a saving grace, especially in the climax when he imitates Vijay and Ajith. The rest of the cast is so so.
GVP as usual has given an apt background score and the songs are also passable. P.V. Shankar’s cinematography is good with his tungsten lighting and quirky angles nailing the feel of the genre. Editors Pradeep E Raghav and G. Manoj Gyann leave a lot to be desired with unimaginative cuts throughout. An example is the audience is well aware of why Anandaraj wants to shove a banana into the villain's mouth and a flash back insert is put up. The art director deserves a pat on his back .
Director Prasanth Pandiraj puts up a card at the beginning of the film that he is inspired by every film ever made (a la Quentin Tarantino). It's hard to believe that after watching 'Bruce Lee'. The screenplay grounds to a halt in the first fifteen minutes and refuses to budge after that till the very end. Though a few ideas are good and some adult comedy also works, it is not enough to lift the film killed by bad writing and direction.
Verdict : Go for it if you can endure two hours of pain for a few laughs in between
