The Legend Movie Synopsis: A scientist is inspired to create a treatment for diabetes after the death of a friend, but will he be able to overcome the power of the pharmaceutical industry?
Movie Review for The Legend: The Legend is a film based on the privileged-savior-hero and five-songs-six-fights formula of the commercial cinema of the time, which had become antiquated even by the end of that decade. JD-Jery used filmmaker Shankar's playbook from his 2007 smash Sivaji. After 15 years, watching everything unfold on the big screen simply makes us feel bored because every scenario they come up with feels unoriginal, unimaginative, and completely foreseeable.
Dr. Saravanan (Legend Saravanan), an allegedly well-known scientist who has revolutionised the antibiotics field, decides to work from his village in order to maintain his "makkal," according to the plot. He makes the decision to create a treatment for diabetes after his diabetic friend (Robo Shankar) passes away. However, this is bad news for the pharmaceutical industry, which has already taken a hit as a result of Saravanan's prior study, the "antibiotic need test." In order to undermine Saravanan's research, their Indian agents (Suman, Rahul Dev, et al.) even cause him to suffer a very personal loss. Can the scientist find the motivation within himself to carry out his research and be successful in his goal?
The entrepreneur Saravanan, who stars as The Legend's leading character and decided to pursue a career in acting, is the only reason for the film's buzz. To his credit, Saravanan performs all the heroic duties expected of him, including romance, dancing, punchlines ("Enakku padhavi mukkiyam illanga.. Makkall dhaan mukkiyum"), and acting sentimental. Unfortunately, he performs all of these without flexing a single facial muscle (the fact that he is heavily makeup in every shot just makes it worse), leaving us with a performance that is as hollow as the movie itself.
It doesn't help that the remaining performances are also not particularly strong. When compared to more experienced performers like Nasser, Vijayakumar, Devadarshini, Sachu, and Thambi Ramaiah, Geethika and Urvashi Rautela feel somewhat out of place. While the late Vivekh deserved a better final film, Yogi Babu is hardly funny. But everyone is always immaculately dressed, as if they were in a Saravanan's clothing store advertisement.
JD-Jery does one thing well: they polish their product to cover up its two main flaws, the screenplay and the lead performances. The film's size is reminiscent of big-star productions from the 2000s, and even R Velraj's cinematography and Harris Jayaraj's opulent but pointless score are from that era. Unfortunately, if only they had used some of the money wasted on pointless songs and stunts for the writing! Even a genuine superstar like Rajinikanth wouldn't have been able to redeem this vanity effort; forget about a want tobe famous like Saravanan.