Director: Vishnu Vardhan
Producer: L. Suresh
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Billa is the first designer-look Kollywood film with classy action cuts. It's a technically chic, racy, engrossing entertainer with a Hollywood look. Ajith as the ruthless David Billa is a revelation. Stylish, menacing and electrifying, he seems to have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and has completely lived up to it.
As the simpleton Velu, Ajith is lively and light, combining with Prabhu for some great moments. When asked by Prabhu to don the role of Billa, Velu expresses his dislike saying that Lord Muruga will not approve of this. When Prabhu sights sura samhara as an example, Ajith counters him saying that ‘avarukku aaru thala, aana enakku orey thala’, having his fans simply break into raptures.
Nayanthara has given her famous six-yard saris a miss and has decided to go full throttle to look her sexiest best in sizzling hot micro-mini shorts, leather jacket, tall boots! Namitha as CJ oozes sex appeal, is surprisingly restrained and her silences give meaning to the deep loyalty and devotion that her character has for Billa. Prabhu as the police officer is a delight while Rahman and Aditya are adequate.
The action scenes have been superbly choreographed by William Ong and are a major highlight. The car chase sequences are first of its kind in Tamil, with Ajith’s racing image adding to the grandeur. Sound effects are perfect and in sync with natural sound and the credit goes to Ayyappan. His efforts come to the fore especially in action sequences. Yuvan’s title track and theme music is one of the highlights of the film, though the songs fall flat! ‘My name is Billa’, though shot differently, lacks the original’s magic. The ‘Vethalayai Pottendi’ has a good beat that makes you dance and is well shot The only mass number is Seval Kodi.., with Vijay Yesudas’s striking voice and colourful picturisation .
Billa is an out and out Ajit film. Ajit brings to Tamil cinema a desification of Steven Segal, Van Damme style of pure high octane action and humour. He seems to be telling the audiences to just sit back and enjoy the fireworks. In short Ajit as Billa is a rocker!
The two biggest pillars of support for him come from costume department and cinematography section. Kudos to Vishnu’s wife, Anu Vardhan’s hard work and eye for details to get the colors and feel of the costumes perfect. Nirav Shah, the cinematographer’s work is of superlative nature and the result is an absolute visual delight. Seamless editing by Sreekar Prasad adds to the flow of the film.
Billa delivers the goods with its great star cast, a designer look, technical glitz, perfect chemistry making it an entertainment extravaganza.