Why Vikram Roared While Coolie Crawled?
Two films. Two ageing heroes. Two very different fates. With the same director. Vikram stormed the box office, showered with applause from critics and fans alike. Coolie, meanwhile, stumbled on arrival, greeted with groans and eye-rolls. So what happened? Why did one grey-haired hero get a standing ovation while the other left the audience reaching for their phones?
Let’s start with Vikram. Right from the word go, it knew what it wanted to be – a sharp, slick thriller about the war on drugs. No detours, no distractions. The screenplay sliced through like a blade, each scene trimmed to perfection. The storytelling was tight and synchronised, with every thread weaving neatly into the bigger picture. Each character mattered. Each emotion landed in sync with the moment. Visually, it was razor-sharp. Scenes were cut with precision, close-ups zoomed in with purpose, and not a single frame felt wasted.
Music? On point. When silence was needed, it stayed silent. When a bang was needed, it banged. Characters weren’t just names on a poster – they had weight, purpose, and stories that locked together like puzzle pieces. Even the emotional beats hit home. Sure, there were a few moments of over-detail, but the film never drowned in them. The end result? Audiences happily bought into a sixty-year-old hero pounding forty-year-old villains into the floor without batting an eyelid.
Now slide across to Coolie. The start had potential – a crime-centre setup, much like Vikram. But soon, the train went off the tracks. Gold smuggling through watches suddenly turned into illegal organ trafficking. Plot twists felt less like revelations and more like a desperate writer throwing darts at a board. Each new twist landed like a clumsy “next episode” in a soap opera, and not a good one at that. Scenes dragged, cuts looked stitched together without care, and the whole thing began to feel like homework rather than entertainment.
The characters didn’t fare much better. Shruti Haasan’s arc? Confusing. Nagarjuna’s Simon? Supposed to be powerful but ended up lighter than a paperweight. At one point, he forgets his father’s killer – a detail Aamir Khan’s character spotted instantly. Talk about upside-down logic. Add in dull editing, unconvincing fights and aimless dialogue, and it’s no wonder the sight of a seventy-year-old man flinging baddies into the air had audiences chuckling instead of cheering. Even the background score was a minus with sad moments drowned by heavy, mismatched music.
So here’s the tale of two films. Vikram worked because it trusted its story, respected its characters and kept its thrills tight. Coolie collapsed under messy writing, clumsy plotting and hollow characterisation.
Lesson learned? If you want audiences to believe in an ageing hero saving the day, you’d better give them a story worth fighting for.
