Beast Movie Review : Vijay, Pooja Hegde, Selvaraghavan, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley, Nelson, Anirudh

Review about recently released tamil movie Beast which has Vijay, Pooja Hegde, Selvaraghavan, Shine Tom Chacko, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley, VTV Ganesh,Shaji Chen, Aparna Das, Sathish Krishnan, Lilliput, Ankur Ajit Vikal, Prudhvi Raj, Sunil Reddy, Shiva Arvind, Sujatha Babu, Subbalakshmi, and many others playing lead roles. The movie was directed by Nelson. Music by Anirudh.
Beast is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film written and directed by Nelson and produced by Sun Pictures. The film stars Vijay and Pooja Hegde, while Selvaraghavan, Shine Tom Chacko, Yogi Babu and Redin Kingsley play supporting roles. It revolves around an ex-RAW agent's crusade to rescue people held hostage in a shopping mall by terrorists.
The production rights of Vijay's 65th film as lead actor, which was tentatively titled Thalapathy 65, were acquired by Sun Pictures in early January 2020, and the film was set to be written and directed by AR Murugadoss. However, the producers ousted Murugadoss from the film in October 2020, after he refused to cut his renumeration. Nelson was later hired, and wrote a new script for the film.
With an official announcement during December 2020, the film began principal photography in April 2021, and wrapped that December. It was shot across various locations in Chennai, including a specially designed set resembling that of a shopping mall where most of the film was shot, whilst sporadic schedules took place in Delhi and Georgia. The music was composed by Anirudh, cinematography was handled by Manoj Paramahamsa, editing by R. Nirmal and production design supervised by D. R. K. Kiran, respectively.
Beast was released in theatres on 13 April 2022. The film received mixed reviews from critics with praise towards the cast performances, action sequences, cinematography, production design, music, background score and Nelson's direction while the pacing, predictability and uneven screenplay received criticism.
Veera Raghavan, an Indian RAW agent is assigned to capture the terrorist Umar Farooq in Kashmir. While he successfully manages to do so, a missile shot by him to prevent Farooq's escape injures and kills a civilian child whom he personally knew. The event traumatizes Veera, who quits RAW. 11 months later, Veera is still reeling from the after-effects of the child's death and is suffering from PTSD. He meets Preethi at a wedding, and they fall in love. Preethi convinces him to join her security agency Dominic & Soldiers. Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government gets information about a major terrorist event is planned in Chennai. Along with Preethi and her boss, Veera visits the East Coast mall, which is last client of their agency. Veera observes a series of suspicious activities in the mall and deduces that someone else has taken over it. He is proven right, as terrorists dressed as Santa Claus open fire and hijack the mall. Veera, Preethi, and a few others hide unharmed inside an unopened restaurant.
The Government, led by Althaf Hussain, an ex-associate of Veera, try to negotiate with the terrorists, who demand the release of Umar Farooq. Althaf comes to know that Veera is also trapped inside the mall, and he manages to establish contact with him. Althaf tries to convince Veera to help them. Veera, initially hesitant, gets convinced when he realizes that the terrorists are here for Umar Farooq. He kills one of the terrorists, captures another one alive, and brings him to their hideout. He manages to infiltrate the terrorists and eliminates a few of them. The Home Minister, who is in league with the terrorists, gets them to stage the execution of his wife and daughter, who are also in the mall, on live TV. The government succumbs to this and agrees to release Farooq. Enraged, Veera retaliates and kidnaps the Home minister's wife and daughter by pretending to be a Bangladeshi militant to confuse the terrorists and he threatens to kill them if Farooq is released.
The leader of the terrorists, Umar Saif, senses his impending defeat and seemingly gives up, only to slip among the crowd pretending to be a hostage. He soon figures out Veera's real identity and forces him and his aides to give up and captures all of them. With the help of the Home Minister's daughter, Veera manages to escape, and he eliminates all the terrorists and executes Saif while making sure the hostages escape to safety. The Home Minister is arrested for his involvement with the terrorists.
Meanwhile, amidst all the negotiation, Umar Farooq was released. A month later, Veera finds and captures him in Pakistan occupied Kashmir and after surviving a long air chase against the Pakistan Air Force, manages to bring him back to India to have him arrested. In a mid-credits scene, Veera, Preethi and the rest of his crew celebrate their escapades in Goa.