Divya
Nair
recommends
that
non-Vijay
fans
save
their
money
and
wait
for
GOAT
to
drop
on
Netflix.
At
least
you
can
fast
forward
and
get
to
the
climax
faster.
It’s
no
longer
unusual
to
see
an
actor
play
double
and
sometimes
triple
roles
in
cinema.
The
trend
of
lead
actors
successfully
playing
both
father
and
son
peaked
in
Tamil
cinema
with
Kamal
Haasan’s
Indian
in
1996,
and
continued
with
Thalapathy
Vijay’s
Mersal
and
Bigil.
In
Greatest
of
All
Time
(yes,
that’s
the
name
of
the
movie!),
Vijay
pushes
the
envelope
by
using
CGI
and
deep
fakes
to
create
not
one
but
three
different
avatars
of
himself
across
different
ages.
It
is
probably
the
first
time
that
technology
has
been
used
to
create
and
tribute
the
late
actor
Vijayakanth
(played
by
Vijay
in
disguise).
Vijay’s
68th
movie
is
set
in
two
timelines
—
2008
and
2024.
The
elder
Vijay
plays
Gandhi
(a
careful
choice
of
screen
name,
considering
his
latest
political
ambitions),
a
Special
Anti-Terrorism
Squad
(SATS)
officer.
During
a
covert
operation
in
Kenya,
his
team
of
four
—
Nazeer
(Jayaram),
Sunil
Thiagarajan
(Prashanth),
Kalyan
Sundaram
(Prabhu
Deva),
and
Ajay
Govindaraj
(Ajmal
Ameer)
—
successfully
retrieve
uranium
that
was
stolen
and
bomb
the
train
carrying
a
dreadful
terrorist
Rajiv
Menon
(played
by
yesteryear
romantic
hero
Mohan).
Back
home
in
India,
the
SATS
team
is
disguised
as
employees
of
a
tourism
firm
which
often
raises
suspicion
among
family
members.
In
one
such
attempt
to
balance
his
high-risk
secretive
work
and
family
life,
Gandhi
takes
his
pregnant
wife
and
five-year-old
son
Jeevan
to
Thailand
while
he’s
chasing
an
important
mission.
When
a
group
of
men
chases
Gandhi
and
his
family,
his
wife
goes
into
labour
while
his
son
is
kidnapped
and
later
succumbs
to
a
road
accident.
Distraught
by
the
personal
tragedy,
Gandhi
punishes
himself
by
quitting
the
squad
and
taking
up
a
job
as
an
immigration
officer.
Cut
to
2024,
at
a
training
session
in
Moscow,
Gandhi
bumps
into
a
young
boy
who
resembles
him.
When
confronted,
younger
Vijay
(with
an
equally
bad
hairdo,
albeit
with
less
grey
spikes),
confesses
that
he
is
indeed
Gandhi’s
son
Jeevan
who
was
kidnapped
but
did
not
die
in
the
accident.
(And
Gandhi
believes
him
because
Thailand
and
Moscow
are
like
Mumbai
and
Pune.
Also,
by
Indian
film
logic,
only
father
and
son
can
have
the
same
face.)
Jeevan
is
quickly
reunited
with
his
family
and
his
childhood
crush
Sreenidhi
(Meenakshi
Chaudhary,
who
instantly
falls
for
this
chicken
head-inspired
hair
ambassador)
in
India.
But
it’s
only
the
beginning
of
new
troubles.
When
Gandhi’s
ex-boss
Nazeer
is
attacked
and
killed,
Gandhi
rejoins
the
squad
(like
it’s
his
family
start-up,
no
interviews,
no
training).
We
are
at
the
intermission
stage,
and
by
now,
you’ve
likely
realised
that
logic
and
plot
have
long
gone
out
of
the
window.
The
audience
is
now
surviving
on
Vijay’s
old
movie
dialogues
(most
of
them
are
poorly
revisited).
Either
the
writers
weren’t
paid
enough
to
write
fresh
dialogues
or
maybe
Vijay
fans
needed
something
to
whistle
about.
For
hardcore
Thalapathy
fans
who
may
enjoy
watching
their
hero
have
the
last
laugh,
there
are
a
few
twists
in
the
story,
but
nothing
is
earth-shattering.
One
would
expect
a
Vijay
movie
to
have
ample
comedy
sequences.
In
GOAT,
the
humour
is
weak
but
may
evoke
some
forced
laughter,
sometimes
out
of
mere
exhaustion
because
the
run
time
of
182
minutes
(you
can
easily
finish
two
tubs
of
popcorn)
is
perhaps
the
longest
after
Nanban.
Right
from
the
first
scene
where
Vijay
disguises
himself
as
Captain
aka
Vijayakanth,
to
calling
himself
Gandhi,
there
are
subtexts
of
political
campaigning
to
the
extent
that
Jeevan’s
character
mocks
Kamal
Haasan’s
iconic
scene
and
dialogue
from
the
movie
Guna.
It
is
admirable
to
have
Gandhi
as
your
screen
name
and
remind
us
that
he
is
the
‘Father
of
the
nation’,
but
the
makers
should
have
been
careful
about
casual
dialogues
like:
‘Dei
Gandhi’,
which
intentional
or
not,
I
felt,
is
disrespectful
to
the
original
Father
of
the
Nation.
GOAT
is
mostly
a
failed
attempt
at
mimicry,
disguise,
and
de-ageing.
The
film’s
ambitious
title
does
no
justice
to
Venkat
Prabhu’s
version
of
Thalapathy
vs
Thalapathy
because
there
is
nothing
so
great
about
the
film,
the
story
or
the
message.
Vijay,
usually
known
for
his
dance
and
action
sequences,
fails
to
produce
anything
memorable
in
GOAT.
However,
his
inimitable
style
of
dialogue
delivery
keeps
you
entertained
throughout.
Oh,
and
I
must
mention,
the
older
version
of
Vijay
is
more
bearable
than
the
younger
one.
Do
watch
out
for
teenage
Jeevan
as
well.
As
for
the
runtime,
the
movie
is
stretched
like
a
worn-out
chewing
gum
that
couldn’t
find
a
dustbin.
To
cast
Mohan
as
the
villain
was
a
bad
idea
but
the
real
mastermind
(no
guesses)
is
part
immature,
rest
cringe,
so
you
can’t
decide
who
is
worse.
Unless
you
want
to
waste
your
money
on
overpriced
popcorn
at
a
multiplex,
I
would
recommend
that
non-Vijay
fans
save
their
money
and
wait
for
the
film
to
drop
on
Netflix
instead.
At
least
you
can
fast
forward
and
get
to
the
climax
faster.
Goat
Review
Rediff
Rating:
