Bruce Lee or Bruise Lee?- Hopelessly incompetent groan-inducing film


In Apoorva Sagothargal, the villains would inhumanely force the heavily-pregnant Srividhya to drink poison. This particular scene kept playing in my mind throughout the screening of GV Prakash’s 6th experimentation, Bruce Lee. I have no idea why watching Bruce Lee reminded me of Srividhya and the bottle of poison. If Srividhya were asked to watch this film, she would have voluntarily drank the poison and asked for another bottle, killing both Kamalhassans. The story would have ended there.



There wouldn’t have been a Apoorva Sagothargal. We wouldn’t have known what great acting is. We wouldn’t have known what a magical story/screenplay Tamil cinema has produced. We wouldn’t have seen the best. The blunder Tamil cinema made- it has produced classics and at the same time, many unforgiving crap.

Do we have skyrocketting Baahubali-expectation on films like Bruce Lee? Definitely no. Why do I even put myself through this torture? We have to reboot our minds and erase any trace of watching good cinema before taking a life-threatening decision to watch Bruce Lee. It is not a matter of how bad it would turn out to be, it is how much sanity we can retain at the end of the film. 

Now, every Tom, Dick, Harry unashamedly tries his hands in acting. I don't mind crawling around to find the remaining ounces of poison left by Srividhya of Apoorva Sagothargal.  Every Friday, when a new film is released, we have no choice but to digest unapologetic acting on screen. Bruce Lee or Bruise Lee that I prefer naming this film, has been promoted as a black comedy film. Black humour which is also called black comedy involves writing that juxtaposes morbid or ghastly elements with comical ones that underscore the senselessness or futility of life.

Here, we see no evidence of black humour. What we witness is a scarcity of humour in ‘Bruise Bruce Lee’.  I wonder, if black humour was misinterpreted as Black Monday by this cast and crew. I don’t see any humour other than the fact that GV Prakash is a leading hero in Tamil film industry now and has a line-up of 8 films. Usually, Black comedy challenges norms and pushes boundaries with a litany of clever one-liners that often include a signature sociopathic twist. For instance, in films like Soodhu Kavvum, characters play serious roles but it makes us think and laugh.

Bruce Lee challenges the normality of a patience level that any civilised human can attain and pushes us to the boundary of the theatre exit. Paralyzing boredom was what I was severely diagnosed with, as a result of Bruce Lee. There are all kinds of murky plot debris involving some time-bomb suspense, dancing by desi hero GVP, bizarre romantic scenes, and lots of failed humour.

In one scene, GVP quizzes as a plate of fish is served to him, “Ithu enna Meena?” 

Comedian bala saravanan replies, “illai, Nagma.”

The scene continues as they are well-settled at a spacious, city-view rooftop and all ready to open a bottle of beer.  With legs placed on each side of the bench-like sofa, seated like a typical pattasu balu, GVP stretches his right arm, “Iniku interview poga mudiyalai!”


Nuances of acting are well-exhibited in the stretching of hands and in his dialogue delivery, all scattered in a modulation that compels you to be wary of sins from your previous births and this sin- watching Bruce Lee- to be added to that existing list.

He stretches his left arm next and weeps, “Car kannadi udaichutaanga. En aalu moonjile acid ooti irunthaana?”

Comedian Bala Saravanan’s responds, “Already adicha maathiri thaan da iruku”

Hero doesn’t react for an insult made on his girlfriend.
Upon hearing the degrading comment, heroine doesn’t get furious.

The heroine completely not bothered by the earlier comment made, simply  flashes a smile, “oru vellai unmaiyile acid adichu irunthaana?”

The hero answers, “Naan odi poi irupen.”
 

This is seemingly a comical scene in Bruce Lee, written and directed by debutant director Prashant Pandiyaraj. Calculate the number of jokes cracked and the number of times you laughed in the above mentioned scene. If your answer is not zero, then your mind is monitoring your body reactions which is going through a psychological phenomenon and has almost given you the green signal to watch the next appalling phase of comedy where Mottai Rajendran imitates like Baasha Rajinikant and dances for ‘naan autokaran autokaran’ song.

Bruce Lee, unsurprisingly, is a horrendously produced movie and it could not be more damaging to the career of everyone involved if it had been made as a documentary by someone who hated GVP. The fact that GVP, in all his interviews and promotions, outwardly believes this movie is worth seeing is lugubriously miserable, indicating that he not only lacks a sense of humour, but also ordinary human decency.

GVP thinks he committed a murder, only in the film they claim. To escape from all these troubles, Bala Saravanan wants to go back to his hometown immediately just like how many people in the theatre would have felt. Heroine retorts to Saravanan’s demand. She approaches GVP, lifts his chin up, claims that he is too innocent to commit a crime and says “intha moonjiya paratha siripu varalaiye”.

“illai veruppu thaan varuthu” was what my mind voice was screaming in pain, 20 mintues into this hopelessly incompetent groan-inducing film.


The director of Bruce Lee has worked as an assistant under  National Award Winning Director Pandiyaraj who has given us classics such as Pasanga. I can’t fathom what went wrong in the learning. These are the students who you know learnt nuts from a Guru who probably have juggled balls and blew fire in the class, in an attempt to make learning fun and meaningful. This would have been the Guru who gave his heart and soul teaching all those 21st century competencies, instilling values and skills. This would have been the Guru who geniunely believed every student has learnt one or two from his painstakingly well-prepared lessons. Sadly, nothing was learnt.

Bruce Lee’s director was indeed honest enough to put up the disclaimer in the beginning title credit stating that this film was copied and inspired from several films. Thanks for the warning. Please add that you also copied an entire dance sequence from another film. 
Tere Mere Beech Mein Song from Shuddh Desi Romance - Left
Sugar Mint-U song from Bruce Lee- Right





Absolute crack: appallingly written and witlessly directed. A misfire of inanities. One has to be a genius to make a movie this bad. If you plan to miss this movie, better miss it quickly; I doubt if it’ll be around to miss for long. 

(When I told some of my friends about this film, they slapped their foreheads and asked me, why did you even watch this film? Here, you go, my answer...)


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