Excellent, Without a doubt!!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I've logged in and taken pain to write this review, as I hardly write anything anywhere, but after watching this total time waste movie, I was forced by myself to help other people save their 2-3hrs. Please never watch this movie. Rajnikant should retire full time now. Robot and earlier 2 movies were still better. I watched it because it was showing under awarded category on Netflix, would request them to kindly remove it from that list.

Kabali's trailer may have excited die hard Rajnikanth fans with the swagger and punches the actor is known for, but for neutrals, this depature from the norm neither has a proper story nor does it feel any different. Ranjith's usual take on dalit politics this time focusses on the plight of Malaysian Tamils against the local dada with Kabali being brought back into the plight several years later. Looks like the writers have decided to springboard a "Nayakan" like backdrop as the basis of the story and weave in a couple of what-if scenarios. What if Nayakan's wife survives but somehow disappears becoming the crux of the hero's plot? What if Nayagan's children were separated by birth only to reunite with the hero under different circumstances? What if Nayakan himself went to Jail for a change? What if Tinnu Anand's father (Nayagan's rival) took over Nayagan's rule and continued to thrive his network/empire post Nayakan's arrest? These were the scenarios which Ranjith had complied to make this film. The screenplay movies at a snails place and only elevates slightly through the action blocks and the reveals. The only constants in a Rajinikanth film is the one-dimensional villain, this time being international (Winston Chao.) and the hero ka funda result of getting the final blow on the big bad. Kabali showed some promise, but the presentation and the propaganda of the malay tamils felt shoehorned.In the end, both Nayakan and Kabali share one thing. They both ended up killing the protagonist. Ranjith and Rajnikanth have teamed up for Kaala (coming up in a week as of this writing.) The intial trailer/soundtrack yields a Kabali hangover, but as Producer Dhanush has told time and again, there are more opportunities for mass moments than what was presented in Kabali. Let's hope the screenplay is more engaging too.

This is another example, how the Indian film producer S.Thanu is raising the expectations for a movie way too high, without thinking about the quality of the movie. With all due respect, making marketing like this has nothing to do with talent. The movie Kabali is easily the best movie of Superstar Rajini since Enthiran. It's totally a movie you should watch for the plot and the whole cast and not only for Rajini. What was good? First of all, the best thing about this movie is the godlike background score by Santhosh Narayanan, which is one of the best in Tamil cinema history in my opinion. It's not only good sounding, but on top of that it is played very wisely. This guy really is some kind of Hans Zimmer of India. Then the character development of most of the characters were great, especially Jeeva, which was performed extra-ordinary by Dinesh. I totally love that Rajini was playing a role, which was fitting to him. And all in all the first half of the movie was great in every aspect. Story-Telling at it's finest by Pa.Ranjith. One could totally relate to the tension of Kabali. The last sequence was a master-piece.What didn't feel right for me? Evan if the story is great, Pa.Ranjith still put in some forced Rajini moves. This movie didn't need that. Sometimes it killed the atmosphere of the movie. Although the characters were great, the movie didn't use the full potential of the characters. Especially the potential of Jeeva and Meena was wasted. While the first half was great, the second half was disappointing. It was too slow-paced and it was dragging. If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean. What disappointed me as well was the Kumaran character. Kalaiyarasan wasn't really the right choice for this character and the character development of this character wasn't complete as well.So, don't watch the movie with the thought of watching a bad movie. But don't watch it with too high expectations as well.

I saw Kabali in Hindi. I think I need to see it again in its original language, Tamil, because I feel that there are certain issues this film raises that can be understood in a better way only if one watches them in Tamil. There are several references to history of Tamils in Malaysia. Kabali (played by Rajanikanth), his wife (played by Radhika Apte), and several other Indian and Tamil characters in the film are supposed to be new generation Indians/Tamils in Malaysia whose ancestors were taken to the Malaya peninsula from the India as workers in plantations run by the British. In these plantations, these Indian/Tamil workers were treated as being inferior to the Chinese (another community present in Malaysia). Kabali, in the first half of the film, has never been to India. He is shown as leading a revolt in one of the plantations demanding an equal pay for Indian/Tamil workers. This episode of the history of Indians/Tamils will, I am sure, never be shown in mainstream Hindi films. A Tamil film has shown this and this is an important thing. I did not understand if most of the Indian characters in the film Kabali were Tamils or a mix of north- and south-Indians, for some of them had north-Indian sounding names. For example, a villain named Vijay Singh. It could also be that some Tamil characters were turned into north-Indian characters in the dubbed Hindi version to appeal to north-Indian viewers. This method does not work, because it reduces Kabali to a mere entertainer. And Kabali, I felt, was not a mere entertainer. There were several slices of history in it that we need to mull upon. The history of the Tamils in British plantations in Malaysia is one. Then, there is the chemistry among the Indians (or Tamils) there. In one dialogue, Kabali explains the importance of wearing suit to one other Indian. Kabali says: "Mahatma Gandhi gave up wearing suit and Babasaheb Ambedkar started wearing suit for one reason." In Hindi, this dialogue seems powerful and entertaining enough. But why did Kabali speak this dialogue? What is the background behind this dialogue? This, perhaps, could be understood in a better way if this film is seen in Tamil, or if we get to see more films (in Tamil or in any other language, but best in Tamil) on the lives of Tamil plantation workers in Malaysia. Also, there is another scene where a Tamil character thinks that just because Kabali started wearing suits, he has become very arrogant. There are sequences like these which made me think about the lives of these Tamil workers, their journey from India to Malaysia, their history in Malaysia, etc. It is a remarkable thing that a completely commercial and mainstream film - that too one starring Rajinikanth - speaks of these things, speaks of the politics. How many Hindi mainstream films starring the biggest 200-crore-plus-earning stars of Bollywood would be able to talk of politics like this? I wouldn't say much about Rajinikanth. He is endearing, as usual. He plays his age; and even in his younger looks, the special effects have been suitably executed. He does his trademark style once in a while, though it was not needed. Rajinikanth looks special the way he is. The scene where he sits like a king on a couch with the Petronas Twin Towers in the background, that is one memorable scene. Radhika Apte shines in every scene. Reminiscent of Aishwarya Rai of the mid- and late-1990s, Apte lights up the screen the moment she comes in. I was intrigued by Dhansika's presence in the film's trailer➖her action scenes are awesome. However, more than its stars, I admired Kabali for its characters and the issues it talked about. Kabali is, I will say it again, more than a mere big budget entertainer. I need to see it again, in original Tamil, because, I think, much was lost in its Hindi dubbed version.