Blast Zone Movie Review

After delivering two blockbusters (i.e., Love Today and Dragon) with Pradeep Ranganathan, the production house AGS Entertainment teamed up with Pradeep Ranganathan’s assistant director, Subash K. Raj, for an action thriller, Blast Zone. Instead of selecting a rom-com like his mentor, Subash K. Raj, opted for an action thriller subject, for his directorial debut. Arjun, Abhirami, Preity Mukhundhan, and Vivek Prasanna played the lead roles, and the KGF fame Ravi Basrur scored the music for the film. After creating enough curiosity with the trailer, the film was released in theatres in Tamil as ‘Blast’ and in Telugu as ‘Blast Zone’ today. Did the debutant director, Subash K. Raj, come up with an engaging film? Did the production house, AGS Entertainment, continue its success streak? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Rajaram(Arjun), who runs a karate school and a pharmacy, lives a simple life with his wife(Abhirami), daughter and brother. He teaches Karate to his daughter to make her self-reliant and also educate her about the importance of helping needy people. What happens when Rajaram and his family end up fighting against a mining kingpin, Varun Dayalan(John Kokken)? How did the family come out triumphant in their fight against a powerful businessman like Varun Dayalan? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

‘Action King’ Arjun looked apt for the role of Rajaram. He has the necessary physique to appear believable in the role of a karate master. Apart from appearing effortless in action sequences, he delivered a very restrained performance as the head of the family. Abhirami in the role of a caring mother and an ex-karate practitioner, delivered a good performance and looked stunning in action sequences. The same goes with Preity Mukhundhan. Both actresses seemed to participate in karate workshops during the pre-production of the film and all their efforts in prepping are to be seen on screen during the action episodes.

Vivek Prasanna in a passive role with a twist, delivers a good performance. His entry during an action episode in the second half, drew the biggest cheer from the audience in the theatre. Vinod Sagar, in the role of Toby, came up with a very commendable performance. Arjun Chidambaram, John Kokken and Pawan Krishna, made their presence felt in crucial roles.

Technicalities:

Ravi Basrur came up with an impressive and intriguing background score for the first half of the film and his score was inconsistent for the second half. Cinematography by Arun Radhakrishan, was standard. He delivered an adequate output within the budget limitations. A bit more care in editing by Pradeep E. Ragav, could have made the film more engaging. At least two subplots would have been easily edited. Let’s discuss the writer and the director, Subash K. Raj, work in detail in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Engaging Screenplay
2.⁠ ⁠Pre-Interval Sequence
3.⁠ ⁠Twist Related To Fourth Family Member
4.⁠ ⁠Action Choreography

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Lack of Logic At Times
2.⁠ ⁠A Couple of Irrelevant Subplots

Analysis:

First act – Introduction & setup around the hero and the villain. Second act – Introducing the conflict point through a problem created by the villain. Third act – Hero solving the problem by killing or defeating the villain. A majority of the films made across the film industries, revolve around the aforementioned storyline. However, only a handful of those films work out and most of them end up becoming flops. Why? – When the director and his team, come up with an interesting and engaging screenplay, films will work even if the storyline is routine and when the screenplay is bland, the films will fail. For ‘Blast Zone’, the debutant director, Subash K. Raj, took a very basic storyline but blended it well with an engaging screenplay and made sure to add enough thrills and fun at regular intervals. And, the result is an engaging film that entertains the audience to a large extent.

In most films, the protagonist stands against the antagonist to save his family. But, in Blast Zone, we will see all four members of the family as protagonists. All four of them are equally capable of fighting against the antagonist to save their family. The director and the screenplay writer, Subash K. Raj, used a clever screenplay around these four characters and the remaining characters in the film and ensured to thrill the audience regularly throughout the film. Every sequence and most of the characters we see in the first half, have a relevance and pay off at a later point in the film. The fifteen-minute pre-interval episode and a twist related to the fourth member in the family during an action sequence in the second half, are the major highlights of the film. Both these episodes provided the necessary thrills and made the audience in the theatre, cheer out loud. The director deserves a special mention for seamlessly blending the concept of women’s empowerment into the screenplay without getting preachy. Also, the way the director generated fun through situations, was commendable.

On the flipside, in an attempt to show the four members of the family as strong-headed individuals, the director made them look almost invincible. They go against a powerful antagonist who has money and political support and yet the four family members come out unscathed. A bit more care could have been taken in writing to give the film the required emotional depth. Though the screenplay of the film was written cleverly, at times it appears too convenient. Also, since the film runs only on the thin conflict point, the director used at least two not-so-relevant subplots(i.e. the sexual harassment episode at the workplace and the back story of Abraham). Apart from adding ten to fifteen minutes of runtime, these subplots did not help in any way. The film would have been even more engaging without these two subplots.

Overall, a simple storyline, engaging screenplay along with a few adrenaline-pumping thrills at regular intervals, made ‘Blast Zone’, an entertaining film. It has a few flaws but the positives outweigh the flaws. The film certainly deserves a watch in theatres for its entertainment quotient and the subtle message it delivers regarding the empowerment of women.

Bottomline – Served Enough Thrills

Rating – 2.5/5

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