Billa 2 reviews

The advent of “Billa 2” marks the dawn of prequel making in Tamil/Telugu cinema. This is an age old phenomenon in Hollywood: Star Wars, X - Men... read more

The advent of “Billa 2” marks the dawn of prequel making in Tamil/Telugu cinema. This is an age old phenomenon in Hollywood: Star Wars, X - Men and many more that went unnoticed amidst chaos. We have seen the previous version in 2007 and now its prequel is making waves. The director's effort to give the viewers a refreshing ensemble got dampened with some haphazard and off-course journey in film-making. Ajith oozes style as David Billa and he nurtures the role to perfection. The way he carries his character with great poise and maturity should be a tight slap for all the aged heroes of Tollywood who still run after heroines donning lover boy, err, man roles!!

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The movie opens with a strong Hollywoodish premise that sets the pace for the film. I can't resist repeating the opening lines of Billa, “Naa jeevitham lo okko roju, okko nimisham, reeeeeeeyyyyyy, okko kshanam... Naaku nenu gaa maluchu kunnadi raa” followed by a typical “bang the goons” scene and the movie traverses into the opening credits where Billa's childhood is depicting in the form of a pictorial. All praises to director Chakri Toleti, and his team, for their valiant effort to unleash some, hitherto unseen, creative gems.

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Ajith's David Billa is rich in character but poor in characterization. There are many loose ends that perplex the viewer and thwart his imagination. At the outset, the director made the character aimless and enigmatic; Billa always finds himself in onerous situations and at the verge of death, but emerges out effortlessly and his agility and spontaneity make things turn in his favor. In the opening scene Billa said that he carved every moment of his life, but I could not understand how chance happenings can be called premeditated ones.

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The lead actresses (for lack of a better term I am calling them actresses) come and go in a jiffy at certain places and their placement in the film is forced. The pre-release publicity said they are stylish models, but after watching the movie you will realize that they got some style but no substance. Also the use of large number of supporting cast is redundant and leads to confusion. Though editing was seamless in the beginning and at certain places, it has fallen prey to some trivial scenes that increase the movie's runtime without doing any good to the narration.

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Coming to the nerve centre of “Billa 2,” the music, Yuvan Shankar Raja spreads the Godfatherish Hollywood aura with his background score. With this movie he joins the league of other international composers such as A R Rahman, Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore. The way he dabbles with serious and soulful music is worth mentioning. There will be a day we bid him adieu to start work on his Hollywood ventures. Though most of the scenes lack impact, the complimenting music makes a thumping impression on our minds. The signature tune of David Billa lingers in your mind even after the movie gets over. That's the magic of YUVAN.

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Some questions that intrigue your mind:

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1) When Vishnuvardhan, director of Billa (Tamil), made such a great piece of work, why the makers gave the baton to Chakri Toleti for its prequel? May be Vishnuvardhan is hibernating after the demise of Pawan Kalyan's “Panjaa.”

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2) How can they call it the prequel to “Billa”? Just by the tag line - “Every man has a past and every don has a HISTORY.”

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3) How can Billa always take hasty decisions without thinking and meticulous planning? Is it his “Never Say Die Attitude?”

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4) When four screenwriters (one being a Hollywood one) work on a script, the outcome should be stupendous and not dismal. As fledgling screenwriters, our group has unearthed umpteen flaws in the script.

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5) How can a person who made “Eenadu” (*ing Kamal Hasan and Venkatesh), and graduated from a reputed film-making school in USA, give emphasis only to style and throw the substance in drain?

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Bottom-line: Watch “David Billa” for its aesthetic value, uber cool and stylish portrayal of Ajith. You love him for his style, looks, chutzpah and charisma. The movie shines and outsmarts other Telugu flicks in terms of acting, style, camera, exceptional use of CGI, and MUSIC. There are many creative touches in visual effects - the post interval graphics song with lots of brown color earns brownie points for the makers. But the director ran out of glue to stick different pieces of collage and failed to transform it into a seamless mosaic. If you have an ear for detail, you will enjoy the background music a lot and it leaves you wanting more. The film's a novel effort to bring in the prequel-making culture in Kolly/Tollyland but nowhere in comparison to Hollywood flicks in terms of script, characterization and attention to detail.

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Billas bullets speak louder than his words and with these same bullets; he knocks down your expectations in cold blood. Released as the prequel to ... read more

Billas bullets speak louder than his words and with these same bullets; he knocks down your expectations in cold blood. Released as the prequel to 2007 super hit Billa, Ajiths Billa 2 is a film that fails to evoke interest of any kind. Having been made in almost 3 languages, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil, Billa series hasnt changed one bit and the clichd story still continues with bigger, even bigger stars.

When the idea was announced to make a prequel to Billa, there was buzz and curiosity all around and it doubled when the films trailer was released. Alas, today, all seems to have gone down the drain.

Billa 2 takes us through the life of David Billa, an ordinary man turned gangster who will do any dirty job for money. As a kid, Billa loses his parents in Sri Lankan war which brings him to Tamil Nadu as a refugee, where he meets his entourage Ranjith, Ram and Kadir. At the refugee camp Billa clashes horns with a corrupted cop Sinha, who is later bumped off in a brothel house.

Later, Billa joins hands with Annachi, a deceiving diamond merchant, with whom he spends few months until he meets Koti. In search of someone to pull off a dirty job, Koti hands over a briefcase of heroin that needs to be secretly sold. Not only Billa sells it successfully, he wins the heart of Abbasi, Kotis boss, who in sheer happiness makes him one of his team members. What follows is easy to predict therefore I leave it to you to guess.

To begin with, Billa 2 has no story to tell or captivate its audience from the first to last minute. Everything in the film gets predictable after a point of time, including what is going to happen to the baddies. The film starts off brilliantly Billa held by collar with a gun to his head, giving one the feeling youre in for some treat. But, as the film progresses everything turns dreadful.

Secondly, the film was inundated with flaws and nobody seems to have done anything about it. For example In one scene, Billa endeavors to make the CM one of his puppets but he gets his warned. CM gets intervened in the middle of the road and killed by Billas men. The CM is escorted by only one police jeep! I mean what happened to the Z category security which VVIPS use? Its the CM of the state but not some common man.

When a gangster has no time for himself, why does he need women at all? I mean I understand you cast these sensuous women in an effort to arouse the audience with item songs and few sleazy scenes but Billa 2 just doesnt succeed in that department either. Bruna Abdullah and Parvathy Omanakuttan roles didnt make any sense. Neither did they display any signs of good acting nor vigor. Theres no hard and fast rule that a former Miss India World or Channel Vs hottest ladies can turn the audience on.

Except Ajith, nobody else showed any maturity in acting. I suppose the director did this on purpose to cast weak, unknown actors such that all attention is shifted towards Ajith. Good move but then the audiences are left to rot every time these characters show up on screen. Rahman, the villain from Billa comes in one scene and the audience went gaga for him before hes never to be seen again. The director doesnt even attempt to link the prequel to the sequel at any instance in the film.

Although Billa 2 was stylishly made and backed by some powerful dialogues yet the film still falls short of being called one of Ajiths best films. Chakris direction lacked purpose and it was evident throughout. All he wanted to show was the rags-to-riches story of a common man turned gangster named Billa, David Billa (courtesy Bond, James Bond). I would revisit Mankatha once again instead of watching this film.

Some good aspects of the film include the opening titles which narrate a story pictorially, taking us through the childhood of Billa, and how he moved to Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka. Second good aspect of the film is the song Gangster which in about 3 minutes catapults Billa to super gangster stardom. The song is intelligently made in Sin City style, in black and white and color wherever required. I found this idea really appealing and original in its own kind. Everything is narrated through some kind of cartoon and graphical form and the credit goes to the cinematographer R.D Rajasekhar. The stunt team choreographed some of the best plausible stunts, and especially the climax fight in the chopper is one the finest. Yuvans music is good and saves the film in a way from turning in to a nightmare.

In essence; Billa 2 is all style but no material.
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Billa 2 is two odd hours of stylishly done action sequences that do not add up to a cohesive plot.Who is David Billa, why and how did he become the... read more

Billa 2 is two odd hours of stylishly done action sequences that do not add up to a cohesive plot.

Who is David Billa, why and how did he become the dreaded Billa? what was his journey to the top of gangsters the world over? answers to questions like these are intended to be answered to this prequel to the Billa, itself a remake of Salim Javed's iconic Don. While an origins saga seems deliciously intriguing on paper, what ends up in this ajith starrer is a film that has only its name in common with the original and little else.

Billa here is shown as a Lankan refugee who reaches Tamil Nadu and in a series of convenient and sometimes even downright incredulously silly events rises to become a powerful don. He starts with selling drugs, ends up dealing in arms and starting his own empire.

The story tries real hard to look cool, stylish and suave. While the clothes and visuals match up to this aim, the story it self fails. For most part the film ends up being a snail paced chronology of events leading up to Billa's ascent to gangster kingship.

There is no investment into the psyche of the guy about to rule the world with effortless wit and rithlessnes. There is no reason for his being evil, which could have worked better had Billa been made out to be a compulsive law breaker, that opportunity too is wasted. Characters like Billa's neice played by Parvathy Ommankuttan and his moll by Bruna are just cardboard props to add some glamor and skin show. The villains too are lackluster.

Then film seems confused as to which year it is set in too. While it looks like It is meant to be the early nineties (considering DD news is the only news int he film) actors flaunt jockey boxers and vests while the songs seem straight out of a neo modern discotheque. Continuity also suffers in scenes, which and as abruptly as they began. some of the action sequences are so lame one wonders if the makers thought that a swagger and some slo mo is all that one needs to make a good gangster movie.

Ajith's is the only performance that manages to grip you throughout. The ladies are pointless in the scheme of things, the villains smug and worried only about looking good, while the rest of the cast is as lost as the director is.

Billa 2 is like watching your pet cat take its own time having its food- it would go round and round aimlessly the bowl only to end up squatting at the exact point it began from. This one is a very nice opportunity gone waste,
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