Hero Review: Exciting Content Let Down by Poor Storytelling!

Last year, P. S. Mithran managed to amaze everyone with a well-written movie in Irumbu Thirai and managed to shed some light on the ugly side of technology. Hero, only being his second project to date, succeeded in getting people excited for the release when the Superhero side of the film was introduced to the public. And watching Sivakarthikeyan as a Superhero is both compelling and uncanny to watch at the same time. So, let’s find out how the film fared.

The storyline begins with Sakthi (Sivakarthikeyan), who is fascinated by the idea of a Superhero from his childhood. He believed Shaktimaan is a real character and even went to the extent of jumping off his school building, believing that Shaktimaan would save him mid-air.

RELATED: THE BEST KOLLYWOOD MOVIES OF 2019

However, sometimes, dreams do not come true and fast forward to the present day, Sakthi is now into printing fake certificates for money as a profession. Eventually, he comes across Mathi (an underprivileged bright student) through his girlfriend (Kalyani Priyadarshan) as she requests to get Mathi an admission without the capitation fee. As a favor, Sakthi displays Mathi’s innovative invention in an exhibition which secures her the admission seat in the university with a 100% scholarship. However, a group of businessmen accuse her of fraud and claim her invention is a patented one already. How the story shapes up from this point forms the remainder of the narrative.

So, first off, Mithran blames our education system and complains that our society is churning out educated labors, rather than innovators. He suggests that studying and securing a degree doesn’t mean a student is intelligent, and intelligence lies far more past that. Yes! I do agree to a certain point, the issues that he highlighted are clever and significant. But, didn’t we already see quite a few films denoting similar mistakes in our education system?

And the problems of Hero do not just end there. As the movie also offers the Superhero elements to please the audience inside and out, the abrupt right turn in the second half when the narrative move further away from its focal point was handled very poorly. The fast transition from one story beat to another didn’t come off properly on-screen and should have been more supervised.

Moving on to the characters and the performances from the cast, Sivakarthikeyan’s attempt to try a diverse subject compared to his usual commercial films should be commended. However, the gist of his character didn’t quite fit his personality for the most part. Watching him don a mask (which seemed like a poor man’s version of the Krrish mask) in a bat suit driving a low-budget, less technical Batmobile was, without a doubt, very awkward to the eye.

RELATED: THE BEST TOLLYWOOD MOVIES OF 2019

Arjun, as the mentor of Sakthi, had the potential to shine, but, suffers the fate of a poorly written character. Kalyani Priyadarshan – the female lead of the film does not offer any extended input to the story and is only utilized for a song in the first half and completes vanishes in the second half of the film.

Overall, the participation of the Superhero element and the visually striking frames of Hero might appeal to some audience, but, the average writing, and not being able to continue with the main crux of the narrative blemished this film’s overall product. A regular entertainer that you might not mind checking out on a streaming platform.

Hero Movie Review
Hero Movie Rating

Rating – 2.75/5 | Grade – C+

---