Vijitha Raj

Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie arrives with mammoth expectations — Rajinikanth in a gritty avatar, a director celebrated for reinventing action thrillers, and the promise of a high-voltage cinematic experience. The first half delivers on much of that promise. It’s pacy, engaging, and staged with style, with Rajini commanding the screen effortlessly and reminding audiences why he continues to be the ultimate mass entertainer. The second half, however, falters. Action sequences dominate to the point of exhaustion, dragging the 170-minute runtime and diluting the narrative impact. What should have been sharp, memorable set pieces begin to feel repetitive, overshadowing character arcs and emotional beats. The film has all the ingredients of a standout mass entertainer, but overstretched spectacle blunts its edge. On the performance front, Rajinikanth shoulders the film with undeniable charisma, keeping even the weaker portions afloat. Soubin Shahir holds his own as the ruthless Dayal, delivering a menacing performance that lingers. Nagarjuna does full justice to his role, making his presence impactful without ever feeling wasted. Shruti Haasan is competent, though her character is written more as a functional device than a layered part. Sathyaraj, as always, lends gravitas, but one wishes he had been given more screen time. The “coolie” angle itself may appear only as a backstory — surfacing through a late flashback — but it’s a powerful one. Coolie isn’t without its moments — the mass highs work, the staging is slick, and Rajinikanth’s aura remains magnetic. But compared to Lokesh’s Kaithi and Vikram, where action served story, here the balance is lost. One-line Verdict: Coolie is a star-powered spectacle weighed down by excess — entertaining in bursts but stretched beyond its impact.

I want to give the show a good rating... I truly did but one character ruined the whole damn show for me. Watching that one character was pure torture and for me she was the weak link in the entire script. Yes, it's Andrea/Andy. I was literally pulling my hair out every time she made a move. And for me her part was nothing but lazy writing. I get that they wanted to use the daughter as the medium who unravels her mother's past but the way they did was pretty lame. Her obsessive and incessant need to meddle as a part of the narrative was nothing less than torture. Andy can never understand what Jane went through so her stance of understanding everything made me want to grab her and shake some sense into her. Her character ruined the overall experience of the show for me.