‘Coolie’ (2025) Movie Review - Lokesh Kanagaraj Loves Rajni

Watch Lokesh Kanagaraj's Coolie after Ayan Mukerji's War 2, and the experience can be...revealing. For starters, Kanagaraj makes it clear how to do hero worship. Unlike Mukerji, Kanagaraj actually loves his stars and actors, and his love can be rewarding, infectious, and fascinating. The 39-year-old writer-director gives his thespians the showcase they deserve. There is joy in his reverence, which proves how big a fan he is of the actors he grew up worshiping. In War 2, Mukerji rarely saw his actors and was more involved in checking the boxes of a franchise film. Kanagaraj, too, checks certain boxes, but his superpower is that he knows how to write. He works the crowd by pushing the right button at the right time. His cinematic endeavors are like Holy Mass; he peddles the myth of legends like Kamal Haasan, Vijay, and now Rajnikanth with a passion in his voice. Kanagaraj understands the pulse of his audience and tries to surpass their expectations with every creative bone in his body. His creativity might come with a whiff of predictability, but it nonetheless works in the service of crowd-pleasing films. In Vikram, for instance, we knew Haasan's character wouldn't remain dead for the entirety of the film; yet that opening piqued your interest and hooked you immediately. 

In Coolie, Kanagaraj takes a more audacious and imaginative leap. Its seeds are subtly planted with the image of a black smoke, which generates a quick thought about air pollution, but we don't think much about this topic until Kanagaraj brings up a science fiction-level device. He introduces an electric chair that reduces bodies to ashes. How fascinating! When was the last time you saw a hero-worshiping movie like Coolie engage with the concepts of sci-fi? The idea that Kanagaraj comes up with is so juicy that the limits he imposes on it are all the more exasperating. As soon as the electric chair arrived, I eagerly wondered what Kanagaraj would do with something like this. There are endless possibilities; everything depends on a filmmaker's ingenuity. Kanagaraj, unfortunately, doesn't go fully mad with his sci-fi device. His vision is devoid of either a pulpy or an artistic extreme. What's worse is that the director almost forgets about this invention post-interval. Did nobody tell Kanagaraj that he had access to a gold mine? His Coolie could have been amazing. What it ends up being is a serviceable entertainment. Still, what an entertainment it is. Since Kanagaraj knows how to write, he expertly triggers surprising twists. There were moments when I actually wondered where Coolie would go from this point. (It would be a crime to give away spoilers, but it's almost impossible to avoid them. I think it's safe to give a spoiler warning. Stop here and return after watching Coolie.) 

I didn't expect Dayal's (Soubin Shahir) burial and resurrection. As he told Deva (Rajinikanth) that he was innocent and begged him to leave him alive, I couldn't help but doubt him a little. My reasons were simple: How did an innocent man like him know Monica (Pooja Hegde)? Something didn't feel right. My intuitions proved to be accurate, although the matter went beyond Dayal being a bad guy. By revealing that he killed Rajasekhar (Sathyaraj), Deva's best friend, Kanagaraj elevates the emotional stakes of Coolie. He later goes one more step ahead and reveals something dramatic about Rajasekhar's daughter, Preethi (Shruti Haasan). Like Gopichand Malineni's Jaat, Coolie often takes the unpredictable route to keep things fresh and exciting. When someone sacrifices himself to save Preethi by pushing both himself and Dayal off a moving train, you momentarily think she's safe. But Kanagaraj not only draws your attention to another notorious figure still on the train—he also surprises you at the station, where this character tries to trap Preethi in a new, deceitful web. Of course, some part of you wishes Preethi had been allowed to act more than just a damsel in distress. The scene where some goon threatens to touch a girl at a hostel and Deva dares him to touch her is rousing as hell, though you also wish that the filmmakers would just stop using women for whistle-worthy punchlines. Nonetheless, wait for Dayal's wife (Rachita Ram). She and Dayal are a match made in hell. They know how to exploit the goodness of the people around them when in danger. And let's have Nagarjuna Akkineni for more villainous affairs. The bad boy image suits him very well. 

It's almost funny that Deva is never physically vulnerable. Even when he's somehow stabbed, he only remains momentarily in pain. But Kanagaraj inflicts emotional wounds on Deva, and the result is a Rajnikanth who looks a little forlorn and aged. Deva's face is the face of someone who has lived a long life and has gone through all kinds of experiences. Ask him a life lesson, and he will probably say, "Tackle problems with a smile on your face." An aspiring filmmaker could take this as a filmmaking lesson; Kanagaraj certainly seems to follow this motivation. This is why there is no sense of exertion in his frames. What Kanagaraj does in Coolie is a simple matter of hitting the correct checkpoint at the proper moment. Crucial information, like Preethi and Deva's connection, is revealed at the appropriate junction to increase the suspense, which is something Kanagaraj does exceptionally well. He embraces the kind of celebration-cum-film he's making for Rajnikanth and his fans, and then immerses himself in the process and the execution. And while Coolie could have been something truly exceptional, what it's now is...not very bad. Flaws and all, Kanagaraj really knows his stuff. He knows how to love his superstars and their fans.

Final Score- [6.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times