Review of “Blast”

The trailer of Arjun’s latest action film Blast showed a great deal of promise. This was augmented by reports of the film’s strong showing at the box-office, so it’s release on Netflix this weekend was eagerly awaited. Unfortunately, the film fails to live up to its hype, despite an excellent premise and good intentions.

Written and directed by debutante Subash K Raj, Blast stars Arjun, Abhirami and Preity Mukhundan in the lead roles, supported by John Kokken, Vivek Prasanna, Arjun Chidambaram, Dileepan, Pawan and Vinod Sagar. There are also guest appearances by Matthew Varghese and producer P.L. Thenappan.

Rajaram (Arjun), his wife, Neelaveni (Abhirami) and their daughter , Nila (Preity Mukhundan) are all karate practitioners and try to lead a peaceful life. They soon become unwillingly embroiled in an off-colour business deal involving Varun Dhayalen (John Kokken) and Abraham (Arjun Chidambaram). Rajaram’s younger brother, Ilango (Vivek Prasanna) soon gets dragged into the tussle where their lives are at stake. How the family deals with the multiple challenges that come their way, forms the rest of the story.

The film has a good story and had the potential to be a classy action entertainer, but the script and screenplay are unable to translate the core idea into a good film.

The pace of the film, especially in the first half, plods through a lacklustre script and only gains momentum shortly before intermission. One-dimensional antagonists, poor characterisation, unrealistic fight sequences and unimaginative scripting all weigh down any attempt for the screenplay to take off.

Post intermission, the pace picks up, but the rest of the flaws remain the same. The logical lapses are glaring – from a dusky skinned child turning into a light-skinned adult to four karate experts struggling to take down one man and minutes later, fifty percent of the same team tacklung thirty armed men successfully and then once again struggle against an antagonist with no martial arts training. It is truly annoying when the collective intelligence of the audience is undervalued to that degree.

Given the flat script, there are no magnificent performances to speak of. Arjun looks in incredible shape for his age and clearly has not lost his acting depth, but his role in this film suffocates the actor in him.

The same can be said of Abhirami, who is one of Tamil cinema’s most talented actresses, but is reduced to a two-dimensional character in this film in a role that does not exhibit her vast acting repertoire.

Preity Mukhundan is not given an opportunity to emote, while Vivek Prasanna, despite the limitations of the script, still manages to make his mark in the film.

Dileepan and Vinod Sagar are the only actors from the rest of the cast that attempt to break beyond the mould of their screen characters.

KGF-fame Ravi Basrur scores the music and delivers an electrifying background score with a level of excellence that is unmatched by the film.

Cinematographer Arunkrishna Radhakrishnan shows his creativity with some stunning use of light, lighting techniques, angles, framing and filters – making much of the pedestrian screenplay more than bearable.

Subash K Raj shows great promise as a writer, but has a long way to go in terms of screenplay, scripting and directing.

If you enjoy mindless action, Blast might provide something for you in terms of entertainment. However, if you are a discerning viewer who is looking for realistic action sequences supported by logic, you would do well to stay away from this film.

Blast scores 5 points out of 10.