Master — Re-mastered
Master begins with a home on fire, a shell shocked kid facing his father’s killers gamely laughing, ideating on whether to kill or keep him alive. The kid (Bhavani) survives to become someone more evil than the original killers he managed to evade giving our incoming hero (Vijay) a fight to death.
Looks familiar? Well almost every “Vijay” flicks has a pattern. A hero with a background, all conquering, who is loved by the masses and obviously is always right.
JD (Vijay) is a professor loved by the students in his day job and a drunkard by the evening. A student election goes horribly wrong leading JD to be moved to manage a remand home for juvenile convicts for 90 days. Everything changes when 2 kids lose their lives as JD is too sloshed to pick up their call for distress. As JD starts to investigate, he is shocked to learn that the prison is run by “Bhavani” who uses the kids to cover up for his nefarious activities. The reminder part of the story is all about how he manages to refine himself, the kids and defeat Bhavani. As Arnie would say in the end “Just bodies” :)
What makes master engaging is Vijay Setupathi. He is cool, he goes about his job without a hint of remorse giving life to the character. The scene in which he gives people 2 minutes to either kill him or get killed or the scene where he explains the difference between “loyalty” and people who work for money is a treat to watch.
Master has it’s moments, but disappoints because of the length and the sameness of the script. The first half is super engaging, the second half goes down to a whimper. The movie is 3 hour long, so please go in with popcorn and drinks :). Both the Vijay’s make a nice combination which makes the movie a 1 time watch.
