I am such a late entrant to watching Tamil films it is not funny. And here I am, less than a year later, swearing by them, rating them streets ahead of Mumbai’s Hindi film industry. So when I read ignorant reporters refer to Bollywood as representative of Indian films, I feel motivated to call them and give them a piece of my mind.

Sure, once in a while I come across a lemon called Billa 2 and walk out of the theatre unable to bear the unbearable. I mean, how could I have known that Rajnikanth’s classic will be so badly done, so wrongly cast. I never thought highly of Ajith as an actor or star, not when Vikram and Surya are around, but I decided to watch it simply because the original starred Rajnikanth. When I am told that this film is actually a hit in Tamil Nadu, I wonder, huh, is that the state that’s producing the films that have been wowing me of late? Films like Paruthi Veeran, Sattham Podathey, etc which left me speechless?

After blowing good money on a bad film, I needed to make amends. And redemption was quickly at hand. Pongal saw the release of Vikram’s Beema, and although the reviews were not too heart-warming I knew I had to see it.

Given my lack of awareness of Tamil films, my introduction to Vikram began only with Shankar's Anniyan, his mid-2005 release, also his last till Beema. I was blown away by that film; so much so that I saw its dubbed version, Aparatchit, just to satisfy myself. After that I became a hardcore Vikram fan, and organized DVDs of his films like Pithamagan, Sethu etc to catch up on this fine actor who is also a stunning hunk.

Beema was all that the reviews said it was. It was an out and out Vikram film, an action flick (but what an action flick!). Even through a masala film the actor manages to take your breath away. When I watch a movie, any movie, I like to second-guess the director, and figure out the climax. As Beema moved towards the end, my friend and I were sure the director would botch it up, a sensible outcome just didn’t seem possible. Oh god, yet another director too knows how to climb a tree, but not to get down, I groaned internally.

And the climax, when it came, blew us all in the auditorium. For 20 minutes or more, there was complete silence as everyone stayed riveted by the story. I shook my head in disbelief on coming out. What did I just see! The end redeemed the film’s extra length, contributed by some needless romantic songs. I still feel the film could be tightened into a taut story on the lines of Kaaka Kaaka by lopping off some 30 minutes of footage, though I must add that the climax makes the exercise redundant.

If you have no idea who Vikram is, Beema is a good introduction to nothing like what Bollywood puts out….