Who payed the critics

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I start my review with a salute to Vikram for his risks taken for the film.Surely it is one of the films which would be seen eagerly by future generations.It is an another proud presented by Shankar for Tamil film industry. Vikram has shown an excellent acting and a must watch film.Children must watch with parents.Amy as a hot babe has nothing to do than glamour and romance on her part.Suresh gopi on another side is names as a brilliant villain but easily forgettable characterisation.Ozma brings more humour for sure than comedian Santhanam.Some adult comedies are somehow disgusting.The song locations are excellent.

Revealing the positive features first, I has a huge colourful canvas featuring many virgin locations of China and more captured beautifully. It has few brilliantly conceived action sequences (particularly the one with the cycles), worth watching graphics and an exceptional make-up converting a hard working body builder into a hunchback so believingly. Moreover the effort put in by Vikram in both his unusual avatars on screen simply bowls you over leaving a lasting impact post the happy ending. And the actor deserves full marks for his visibly worked-upon performance, displaying an exemplary dedication towards the art without any doubts. Though for the Hindi film audience his lover-boy act might seem to be a bit over the top, but what he does as the disfigured victim later is simply mind blowing reminding you of veterans such as Kamal Hassan and Aamir Khan.Apart from its cinematography, another major support to the film comes from its Background score that perfectly enhances the excitement level with the right punch delivered just at the right moment. The high volume arrangement makes you feel the power watching the disfigured person emerging as the winner at regular intervals and that's exactly what lifts the movie till the end, particularly in its climax.Mentioning the flaws I's first half stretches a lot and Shankar takes a long time to establish his characters as usual. The romantic angle becomes repetitive after a while and the film starts losing its grip post the initial 40 minutes only. Thankfully the non-linear format adapted by the director, returning to the revealing flashbacks keeps the interest alive and one expects more surprises coming next remembering the path-breaking trailer. Post interval after another routine song as the basic plot gets revealed, Shankar returns with many entertaining sequences dealing with vengeance and the viewers enjoy justice being served to the evil souls quite deservingly. In other words the final 40 minutes of the film work as its major savior and one doesn't feel entirely disappointed due to Vikram and his flawless performance alone.In the supporting acts, Amy Jackson does what she was supposed to do, i.e. look beautiful besides the skin show and provide the glamour factor as an important commercial requirement of a big project. Whereas all the rest including Upen Patel, Santhanam, Suresh Gopi & others fail to make any major contribution in the film resulting in all childish kind of villains reducing the overall impact. In the technical department, editing comes out as the biggest culprit since the film is too long at more than 3 hours of duration and could have been trimmed by at least 20-25 minutes cutting out all the unrequired songs and sequences. (Spoilers Ahead) Elaborating on the disappointments further, the basic story plot of I is so thin and clichéd that it makes you wonder that how come one think of making such a big budget film with a big star on such a wafer thin plot of plain revenge (where the culprit can easily be guessed too). The money spent on the song picturisations are the next bizarre thing you notice while watching the lackluster songs. And this further forces you to ponder over the poor music composed by the maestro A. R. Rahman yet again in a biggie post LINGAA. But here along with Rahman, Shankar also needs to be questioned for having approved such tracks coming from the Oscar winning composer and not (demanding) asking him to deliver something bigger and better. For instance there was a time when every sad song from Rahman used to be a gem like 'Tu Hi Re' and more. But now even the rendition of a sad song seems to be so loud and odd putting too much effort into it in a silly manner.Pointing out I's major shortcomings, its screenplay is erratic, the romance lacks depth, humour doesn't work, particularly the gay angle falls flat and so does the rich 'fat millionaire' acting weirdly. The final 40 minutes of the film where Vikram is taking his revenge resulting in more uglier disfigured bodies might be upsetting and distasteful for few. But ironically these are the only moments when entertainment is supposed to be there for the viewers leading to an emotional climax song reminding you of the traditional fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast.For friends (in awe of its trailer) who were expecting a bit of horror, a bit of werewolf and a bit of terror in I as shown in those 3 minutes promotional cut, there is nothing of that sort in the film at all based on a simple plot of love and revenge. Specifically the werewolf getup and that roar is just there in a song that has nothing to do with the film's actual storyline and I doesn't deliver anything related to the horror element in its more than three hours, missing the magic promised in its trailer.Yet the silver lining in the dark clouds is the enthralling, never before kind of rare performance by its lead actor and the film can and should be seen for Vikram alone instead of Shankar, Rahman or anything else.

the first thing to say is about Vikram .. unbelievable acting.. but the plot was bad .. Shankar's thinking level is too bad .. very old story line that revolves around revenge .. but the revenge in different ways .. bad comedy scenes.. many unwanted scenes in the movie ..the movie is too boring in the first half..then gains pace in the second the visual of the songs are great and u never take your eyes off the screen.. the twist before the climax was bad..songs are really good .. A R Rahman has done a good job .. the camera was handled perfectly by P C Sreeram for a story like this..the movie is not worth a 3 year wait

I saw 'I' with my family. And this is the second movie in a row featuring 'Lingeswaran' that we weren't particularly fond of (the first being Linga of course).To begin with, I don't understand how 'I' was rated U/A when it is definitely more suitable for an audience of 18+ (parents, you might need to exercise a lot of caution during the film). Second, the movie itself is NOT a remake of the Beauty and the Beast (which is no doubt a Disney classic). 'I' is perhaps very very loosely based on the theme. But it is way darker and grotesque than the adorably innocent animated film. So if you go expecting a fairy tale movie, you are gonna be devastated (much like I was). That been said, this movie is perhaps worth a watch for the sheer brilliance of Vikram. Vikram out did himself with his acting and of course throwing himself into the role of the model as well as the hunchback. He was mind blowing and certainly surpassed his past performances in movies like Anyan and so on. No wonder Arnold was impressed.Finally, the make up and direction. As pathetic as the screenplay was, the make up was out of this world and we had no negative comments on the direction. Shankar had no doubt paid extreme attention to detail and must I say, it definitely paid off brilliantly.