As far as we can tell, Tamil movie superstar Rajnikanth has led a stellar and dignified life except for two big follies.

Rajnikanth’s first folly happened sometime in 1979 or 1980, when he disgraced himself with his bad behavior at an airport in South India around the time of his nervous breakdown.

Rajni’s second folly is more recent and even more bizarre - when he blessed the remake of his 1980 blockbuster Billa with Ajith in the lead.

Of all the bad Tamil actors we’ve watched in over four decades, it’s safe to say that Ajith causes the greatest agony to serious lovers of Tamil cinema.

An eggregiously bad actor and seemingly bereft of any talent, Ajith gives the entire Tamil film industry a bad name. Ajith’s Aalwar was a box office disaster while Kireedom hardly set the box office on fire.

After enduring the unendurable Ajith’s Billa at the horrible Newark Screens theater in New Jersey on Friday, we felt the new Billa is not only no patch on the original but it’s a downright disgrace.

In fact, Ajith’s Billa is worse than even Azhagiya Tamil Magan. Not an easy achievement, when you consider that Azhagiya Tamil Magan was itself a lousy movie compared to Vijay’s previous movie Pokiri.

There’s much that has gone awry with Ajith’s Billa.

The worst piece of Billa was Ajith’s pathetic performance. Prancing about like a Korangu than a seasoned actor, Ajith looks wooden in most scenes. There’s absolutely no range in his emotions or his dialogue delivery.

One of the crucial scenes in the old Billa is when the Deputy Superintendent of Police (Balaji) convinces a street performer Rajappa (Rajnikanth) to impersonate the don after Billa’s death. That memorable scene was handled with great finesse by Rajnikanth but completely messed up by Ajith in the new Billa.

While the story of the new Billa - filmed mostly in Malaysia - broadly follows that of the old Billa, the remake’s story is disjointed with a careless screenplay that is frequently jarring. To put it succinctly, Continue Reading…