Spyder is a Tamil/Telugu bilingual action movie starring Mahesh Babu and Rakul Preet Singh in lead roles. S. J. Surya played a key role. A. R. Murugadoss directed the film. N.V.Prasad and Tagore Madhu produced it. Santosh Sivan is the cinematographer and Harris Jayaraj composed the music. Spyder was released worldwide on 27 September 2017. Please read Spyder movie review to know more about the film.
Spyder Story
Shiva (Mahesh Babu) works in the Intelligence Bureau office, which spies on phone calls of selected people for security reasons. Shiva is content with his job though he is over-qualified, justifying that the job helps him prevent crimes instead of enquiring later on. He spies on the general public unofficially with the help of software developed by himself in order to protect the needy. The brutal murder of a teenage girl and his friend leaves him devastated. When he sets out to find the killer, more gruesome murders surface which is connected to a possible psychopath. The rest of the story is about how Shiva tracks down and eliminates the unknown threat.
Story Inspirations
The story is completely based on ‘The Dark Knight’ including the characterizations of hero and villain and some scenes. A. R. Murugadoss has copied Christopher Nolan several times earlier, but he time and again fails to understand the soul of the films, Spyder is no exception. While Dark Knight has an extraordinary moral argument, it is non-existent in Spyder.
Story & Character Analysis
Characterization of Protagonist
The characterization of Shiva (Mahesh Babu) is half-baked. We never know if he has any work at the office. He comes to the office as if to use free internet without any responsibilities and roams around the city freely. He even makes his colleagues work on his personal projects in the office which has nothing to do with his job profile. All these things look silly and leave many loose ends. His personal life is also not properly established in any scene.
We are told repeatedly that the hero is an intelligent guy, but the Director failed to show it on screen. The protagonist doesn’t reach the villain on his own, but the villain intentionally leaves clues. He doesn’t catch the villain but takes the help of the ladies. Moreover, he depends on his friends to rescue his own family. In all these scenes, Director tried to portray the hero as a smart guy through dialogues which didn’t work well. All these things helped in elevating the villain’s role. So, the audiences leaving the theater remember the villain instead of the hero.
Characterization of Antagonist
The role of the villain’s brother (Bharat) is just a filler. His character has no development, no scope, and no importance. It just bridges the gap between hero and villain.
The characterization of the villain dwindles between anarchist and psychopath. When the tension raises, the flashback of the villain comes as a speed breaker. The major flaw in this film is that villain is always suppressed to elevate the hero, which reduces the stakes. Particularly during the scene where Shiva gets stabbed from iron rods on the truck. This scene establishes much-needed conflict, elevates the villain as a serious antagonist, presents the cheap nature of people recording it on mobiles instead of helping which is the central theme of the film. But everything is spoiled just with a single scene of the hero shooting villain which adds no value to the story or theme except for a cheap thrill of hero elevation.
Confrontation
The ladies helping to arrest the villain reduce the scope of the hero. There should have been a serious face-off between hero and villain instead of forced sub-tracks. The boulder scene looks comic and doesn’t have much-needed seriousness. The fault is on the VFX and Director’s end, as it looks cartoonish and is not elevated enough to provide thrills. The villain blackmailing people to do things for him repeatedly is not believable. The climax episode too is passable in comparison to the rest of the film.
Performances
S. J. Surya delivered an outstanding performance as Bhairavudu, a person who takes pleasure in the wailing of people. Rakul Preet Singh is good in her role. Most other characters have a limited screen presence.
Mahesh Babu disappoints with his performance. The problem is certainly with Director who failed to narrate his character properly or give sufficient details. Murugadoss focused more on the villain’s character, thus undermining Mahesh Babu’s role. For example, in the scene where they catch Bharath and Mahesh walks aside to think, there should have been a close-up shot to show what he is thinking. But the entire scene has been covered in a long shot, which spoils the scope for his performance. In several other scenes, where Mahesh is thinking or planning, long shots make it appear like a blank face. This is something least expected from a talented director like Murugadoss.
Technical Analysis
The Direction is mediocre and spoiled the majority of the film. The cinematography is top-notch and every shot looks rich. The Editing is good. The Background music is good, but songs appear as speed breakers. The lyrics in the Telugu version are cheap and make it look like a dubbing film. VFX is cartoonish and spoiled most of the action scenes. The Production values are good.
Conclusion
Spyder failed at several levels, but Direction is the worst of all. It seems as if Murugadoss let his assistants Direct the majority or whole of the movie.
Spyder
Director: A. R. Murugadoss
Date Created: 2017-09-27 11:00
1.5
