In hostage rescue situations, the big, almost tangible, fear is that innocent people could potentially get killed. It’s what negotiators want to avoid; it’s what the hero usually works against as well. The chess is between cops and criminals usually, and our thrill and tension comes from the awareness that one wrong move in such a delicate situation could result in casualties. Nelson’s third film, Beast, is about a couple of hundred hostages in a mall—and among them is an innocent but infuriatingly talkative, old woman. When the criminal leader eventually put a bullet in her head, I was… relieved. I doubt it is a positive sign when the hero is trying to save hostages and you are relieved that one of them has been murdered.
Director: Nelson
Cast: Vijay, Selvaraghavan, VTV Ganesh, Pooja Hegde, Yogi Babu
For a while now, we have all known that Beast is about a mall-siege situation. And yet, boy, does this film take its own sweet time—almost an hour—to set it all up. Sure, there may be a point to part of the setup—especially about the RAW-agent protagonist, Veeraraghavan (Vijay), suffering from PTSD… I quite enjoyed that his introduction scene is rather straightforward, and that the title card, Beast, flashes at a time when this character is ironically at his most vulnerable. However, I didn’t realise at the time that would be the last time I would feel good about my viewing experience.
The problem with Beast is how Nelson doesn’t seem to have made up his mind on whether the film should feel real and serious, or parodic and absurd. It oscillates between these extremes and the results are uninspired at best. For instance, Veera goes to a mental health counsellor to deal with his PTSD problem—and I thought to myself that this was a welcome move given how a star like Vijay seeking such help in a film could normalise mental health consultations… However, the writing gets restless soon, and so, this counsellor’s inefficiency is passed…