Rajinikanth’s presence filled me up with joy from the first scene, he occupies a certain magic that instantly transports you away into his world, out of yours. But the world he occupied in this movie was never as interesting as he was, and after a while even the star began to dwindle. Watching the film in a theater filled with Rajinikanth fans who whistled and cheered made up for some of the duller moments, but nevertheless I could never entirely ignore how deeply flawed this film was. 

Many of the issues of this film stems from the reason why it’ll work for a lot of people. If your a Rajinikanth fan, which many people are, this film is made for you and you’ll enjoy it but if your not, you likely won’t enjoy yourself too much. Even the fantastic director Karthik Subbaraj subverts himself in the presence of Thalaiva. I don’t mind this being an all-out Rajinikanth film, it’s about time his superstar presence was used to full effect, but that shouldn’t have stopped it from being a good film also.  

Characters and plots completely slip away, what exactly did Simran or Trisha contribute to the film? The whole idea of Rajini being a hostel warden becomes inconsequential in the second half, and thus interesting plot points developed during the first half completely vanish, like Anwar’s relationship and hostel contracts. The villains in Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vijay Sethupathi also never quite match up with Rajini. I also thought that the twists revealed in the second half were underdeveloped and rushed, though it did add some much needed intrigue.

But I can’t deny how happy I was to see Rajinikanth basked in sunlight walking out of a shot or dancing on that big screen like he is suppose to. There are moments in this film that are absolutely delightful and bring a smile to your face. The first half may be slow and inconsequential in the end but the second half really picks up the pace and gives you what you came in to see, even if a lot of it may not be as well-crafted as you’d hoped it to be. And though Siddiqui and Sethupathi pale in comparison to Rajini’s character, they do add a lot of spice to the screen and I enjoyed watching them, especially Sethupathi, who comes into his own.

Time and time again “Petta” showed me the superstar Rajinikanth, the Rajinikanth that people love and worship like a God, but it never could quite muster up enough force to make me fall in love with him again.