Doctor movie review: An enjoyable comedy-caper that has Sivakarthikeyan playing down his strengths – The Hindu
let me make a confession first: i had a lot of fun watching the bts videos that the doctor team put on. One of them has director Nelson desperately waiting for a song outside composer Anirudh’s studio. the composer walks out, phone in hand, “ippo lam directors studio vella padhuturanga (these days, directors have started sleeping outside the studio). they don’t understand that making music is a creative process. ”
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There is another amusing interaction between the director and the sivakarthikeyan hero, where the former teases the star about the kalaimamani award he recently won.
Most of these videos are delivered with a serious face, but are packed with humor and witty repartee. Nelson continues that irreverence on the big screen in Doctor.
With his previous film, kolamavu kokila, the filmmaker proved that he could captivate audiences with the story of an ordinary family doing extraordinary things. he repeats the same trope in this outing, and the result: an intriguing story of a family going to great lengths to save a loved one.
read more | sivakarthikeyan on ‘doctor’, the lessons he learned from ‘hero’ and why siva 2.0 has just started
that’s the gist, but the movie starts with varun (sivakarthikeyan), a very strict doctor with discipline. he is also practical with life, which is why the girl he likes (priyanka arul mohan, that he doesn’t have much to do) doesn’t reciprocate his feelings; she wants someone with more emotions, more heart.
in time, you will see all that; When a child in his family is kidnapped, Varun springs into action. Will it succeed?
The main attraction of the film is that it is not about the doctor himself; sivakarthikeyan, in this case. in fact, this is probably his most low-key role yet. it literally steals his happy and boisterous personality, a quality that has endeared him to family audiences. in doctor, it’s like a rishabh pant that stays put in the crease (pant is known for his aggressive batting style). even his dialogue delivery is staccato-like. you could have put endhiran chitti here, and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.
however, much like the teacher in the popular series money heist, sivakarthikeyan remains in the background as he tries to encourage a family to do something that is normally the job of the police department. the family is full of memorable characters, as are the people they meet in the rollercoaster process of saving their loved one.
The first half crackles with humor, with comedic actor Kingsley having us divided with his cheeky dialogue. Nelson has a lot of comedy in the scenes, so much so that even the action sequences have a dose of humor (see the shot inside a subway train compartment). Although he misses the plot to some extent in the second half, the interesting set of characters he has designed and his performances keep you interested until the very end.
Like many Tamil movies of late, Doctor also highlights a cause, human trafficking. the stats and dialogue proving the cause are just a line or two… that’s a huge relief. it’s also refreshing to see unnale unnale vinay play a character with shades of gray; not much to write home about but boy does vinay still look fit and good. Anirudh’s music and background score are the highlights of Doctor; the use of a Carnatic melodic phrase (track ‘the soul of doctor’) in a slow-motion fight sequence fits surprisingly well, as does the foot-stomping ‘chellamma’ song. the cinematography, by vijay karthik kannan, also gives us some very bright pictures. All of this is richly packaged into the 148-minute rollercoaster comedy that is The Doctor. All of this bodes well for Beast, director Nelson’s next big hit with Vijay.
doctor is currently showing in theaters
