GOAT review: This Vijay film is a nostalgic throwback to the full-meals entertainer

The issue that most people arguably have with tentpole star films is that the said star is always seen doing some more of the same. In Venkat Prabhu and Vijay’s first collaboration, The Greatest Of All Time (GOAT), there definitely is more of the same — star kicks butt in dual form (Vijay as MS Gandhi and Jeevan in this case), some ironic comedy to cut the tension (Yogi Babu when written wisely is a thing of delight), the routine song-and-dance, and family sentiment. But at a time when Tamil cinema is well on its way to desensitising fans to bloodshed, and when assisted by the director’s innovative touch, the more of the same doesn’t seem so bad. It perhaps is even a throwback to a jolly full-meals film that a generation of millennials grew up watching. 

Don’t get us wrong, GOAT is in no way a blood-free source of serenity. The ahimsa is all but limited to the name of the hero: Gandhi. The film revolves around an anti-terrorism squad officer who works with top-secret RAW stuff — so hush-hush that Gandhi is forced to hide his identity from his wife and kids (a Leo Das without the gaslighting). Gandhi’s work makes him a stressy globetrotter. So even as he brings his very pregnant wife and son to celebrate their “second honeymoon” to Thailand as a remixed track of Ilaiyaraaja’s very cool ‘Sorgame Endralum’ engulfs our ears, we know something bad is lurking around the corner. When his job brings doom to his door, he hangs up his boots. Well, almost.

The first half comes off as a movie in itself because so many things happen way too soon. We barely register anything about a character, including Gandhi. But this is not a film about details to gnaw at or character development. GOAT is all about the events. So, as it leaps from an  expecting family in Delhi to an anti-India riot in Russia to a swarming IPL crowd at Chepauk stadium, we realise that the Venkat Prabhu film rides a lot on its breakneck pace. 

The film manages to leverage this pace in most places — the train fight gets a euphoric action set piece treatment. The director leaves his stamp not just in how he frames scenes — notice how DOP Siddhartha Nuni’s camera frames Gandhi’s eyes just when he realises why a man’s eyes look familiar — but also how he frames conflict. The sound of the evening azaan reveals an important truth while the CSK jersey conceals another truth. It also helps that Vijay glides through this dizzyingly fast ride with ease, de-aged face and all. 

We also don’t see too much about Gandhi. Instead, Venkat Prabhu, in typical fashion, shows us his gang of boys. While these friends aren’t as convincing as the often hilarious motley group of bros from his earlier movies, they still form the foundation of Gandhi’s life. Especially Prashanth, (playing fellow special agent Sunil) who tries hard to make his presence felt. Among a lot of the superfluous wife jokes, he surprises with declarations like “I believe in you” and “I’m there for you” that are rare to come by in dude-bro films. But one wishes the same perceptiveness would’ve been extended to the women, or even the villain for that matter, in the film. While Sneha’s role is limited to writing the groceries list for the Gandhi household, Mohan stars as the good-guy-turned-bad who needed a stronger backstory.

GOAT, in many ways, is nostalgic. Venkat Prabhu gives us a reminder of why the full-meals entertainer was once a successful model. A framed picture of Vijay and Sneha from Vaseegara (2001), all of the Captain Vijayakanth references, and the hat-tip to the likes of Mankatha and Ghilli act as tiny time capsules that bring smiles. 

But it is also a film that packs in surprises with meta commentary about Kollywood’s future. While all of this can very easily border on “cringe”, GOAT is also one of those films that can laugh at itself when it occasionally gets cringe. It is the full-meals model done almost right.

If there’s anything Sruthi loves more than watching films, it’s writing about it. Sruthi Ganapathy Raman’s words can also be read in Film Companion, Scroll.in, and The Times of India.

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.