Dhiya Ashlyn D.S.

Vijay’s acting and portrayal of Parthiban/Leo kept viewers at the edge of their seats.

*MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD*

The recently released Tamil film “Leo” was the revitalization of the Tamil actor Vijay ‘Thalapathy’ Chandrasekhar’s film career, and a trendsetter movie that will be referred back to as the model for upcoming Kollywood films.

“Leo,” released Oct. 18, was directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj and is Vijay’s 67th movie. The film found its way into the hearts of hardcore fans, many claiming it is his best movie yet. 

However, “Leo” has mixed reviews from casual viewers (who do not eat, sleep, and breathe Thalapathy content; how dare they) and there is a clear 50-50 divide between people who adore and despise the movie. In a fascinating, but expected turn of events, teenagers had a positive reaction to the movie, whereas most adults find the movie uninteresting. 

Despite the fact that the movie is heavily based on “The History of Violence,” the 2005 action thriller directed by David Cronenberg, “Leo” has the ‘mass’ (epic) element that all successful Thalapathy movies have, which gave the movie its own charm. 

The most common complaint among movie critics and watchers is that the movie’s second half was not on par with the first half. Viewers find the background storyline of Parthiban/Leo, which was showcased in the second half of the movie, to be underwhelming and irrelevant to the plot. 

Most critics cite the character of Leo’s father, Antony Das (Sanjay Dutt), who is superstitious and sacrifices animals and humans for his luck; critics find the sacrifice-practicing to be out-of-touch with the current day and age and think this trope could have been avoided. 

However, fans defend the movie. Supposedly, there are three versions of the movie and each audience got a different version depending on which part of the world they are in. 

Fans say that the first version redeems the second half of the movie since Pathiban does not reveal himself as Leo to Antony Das.

Either way, the movie had a mindblowing turnout, selling one million tickets on opening day in India alone. The movie gained this much attention due to its great marketing. The amount of attention this movie is gaining is beneficial for Vijay as his past 2 movies, “Beast” and “Varisu” (successor) were flops, to say the least (and even fans admitted to that). “Leo” ended Thalapathy’s streak of supposedly bad films. 

“Leo” is a record-breaking movie that will no doubt be referred back to for its great marketing tactics and new Hollywood-like features such as creating a cinematic universe between films (referred to as the LCU, Lokesh cinematic universe). The music was great, as it always is when Anirudh produces it. Overall, “Leo” is a great movie and worth the watch.