“We’ve killed three people. What shall we do with them? What with the other two still alive, “What do we do with these?” The type of darkly ridiculous line that is truly illustrative of Blast. Things happen out of nowhere, coincidences are plentiful, and people end up in scenarios much larger than they would ever have been able to imagine. Subash K. Raj as the director, the action thriller starts with a normal family life and gradually takes a turn for the extreme high-stakes game with the corporate world, survival and justice. Not all pieces fit together perfectly and sometimes the script asks viewers to ignore a few glaring logical holes. However, the story has an undeniable vitality in its way of binding its characters together and continually escalating the drama. Although the story falters at times, Blast is always entertaining and never lets the viewer down, even till the end.
The plot is about a disciplined life of Arjun Sarja, a Karate master, together with his wife and their young daughter. The first thing that I noticed about this movie was how they set up their main idea. Arjun teaches his daughter martial arts from as early as she can remember and also gives her great sense of responsibility towards the society. He feels that when he sees injustice, he should question it, whether the injustice is to his friend, family member or stranger. This message provides the emotional core of the film and a meaningful base for the narrative.
In addition to this family drama, there is another story of a powerful corporate man, who is the main antagonist. His plans include exploiting a mountain region, displacing tribal communities and making huge profits without even caring about the cost of humanity. The fight starts when the heroine unwittingly throws off his plots. It all begins with an unwanted noise, but soon turns into a dangerous confrontation, putting her family in the antagonist’s sights. Then, the tale of survival, revenge and justice unfolds…
The fact that the first half of the film is quite strong is one of its best things. The director sets the tone of the story, the characters, the ideas and themes within the first 15 minutes. I always feel that the opening act of a movie is either going to get you to feel what they are trying to get you to feel or it isn’t going to. Blast does a terrific job with that. The presentation is crisp, concise and well-structured.
The screenplay has a few rough winds to sail over in the section where it moves to the antagonist’s side of the story. The corporate villain bent on trying to destroy a mountain is a throwback to a different era of commercial film. On top of that, they introduce several different antagonists and their story. This section can be a bit slow at times and stretches too long.
Thankfully, after the initial battle between the hero’s family and the villain’s network, the movie gets going. The narrative from then on picks up steam and never lets it go. I was always curious as to what will happen next and the suspensiveness continues till the end.
The thing that I really liked was the way they bridge between the seemingly unconnected characters. A family of a karate master, a ruthless corporate raider and an honest police officer seem to be living completely different lives. As things go on, each of them finds himself in the same crisis, but without being aware of the real enemy. The two plots tend to merge gradually and it’s a great story there. Each thread seems to finish, and is followed by a new one, which maintains a dynamic and unpredictable narrative.
There are loads of little nuggets of interest in the film but not too many. Ending up discovering that Abhirami is not who she claims to be, the explanation of a key character being the headmaster of a karate school, and the brilliant dialogue when they have a tense confrontation, ‘We’ve killed three people. What do we do with them? What do we do with the other two who are still alive?”, all add flavour to the proceedings. The film is unpredictable enough, even with seemingly small occurrences like a complaining neighbour to the high volume of the television set or a thief being entangled in the plot when buying medicine.
Another plus is the performances. Arjun’s acting has been convincing, impressive and full of depth to what he plays with the role. It’s hard to think of another actor who could have the same physicality and the same level of sincerity. Abhirami is confident and has a good emotional quotient when the characters need it. In fact, there’s also a positive impression left by Keerthi Pandian, who is sometimes mentioned in other places with the name incorrectly misspelled. The action choreography works well to make her look like a badass even though she looks skinny. The little actress is also commended for her Natural and good performance.
However, the biggest drawback of the film is its reasoning. There are some big plot twists that require viewers to take a leap of faith. Some police officers die in large numbers, but the government responds to the situation in a carefree manner. Issues which are supposed to be of national importance are dealt with in a very funny way elsewhere. These inconsistencies are too great to disregard altogether, and sometimes detract from the tension.
The other great thing is that there are no frills that detract from the experience. It is not a romantic melodrama and there isn’t a falsely constructed comedy arc to entertain the audience. This limitation helps to keep the story focused, on the conflict, and the message.
The storytelling style of watching Blast was similar to the ‘tension’ type of storytelling that has been seen in the great family action films but the difference is that Blast is a full-fledged action entertainer. There is a simple, yet profound message under the action, suspense and confrontations: When we see injustice, we should speak out.
I found Blast to be an entertaining action thriller although it didn’t fit into my ideas of one. It has enough tension, feeling and action to hold the attention of its audiences, and contains a socially relevant message. Most of all, it is still a movie that the whole family can enjoy. If you’re looking for a commercially-made action-packed thriller with some soul, then this is for you.
Rating: 3.5/5
