Gorilla movie review: Kong the chimpanzee is fun to watch in Jiiva's illogical, ordinary heist film

The highlight of Gorilla as hyped by the makers in the promotional campaign is Kong, the trained chimpanzee. And to a large extent, Kong remains the saving grace of an otherwise run-of-the mill Kollywood entertainer from writer-director Don Sandy. The chimpanzee plays a key role in a comedy heist drama which has hardly anything new to offer. The title card explains how Jeeva (Jiiva), a conman, has an emotional connection with his buddy Kong. In one of the scenes, he meets up with some disgruntled youths who have an axe to grind with society for treating them shabbily. Looking to make big bucks, they team up with Jiiva and decide to rob a van which they think is carrying cash to be ultimately deposited in the ATMs in the suburbs. Using Kong to ambush those inside the van, they stop the vehicle only to find it empty. [caption id=“attachment_6983561” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Poster for Gorilla.[/caption] Like seen in most Tamil films, they vent out their frustration at the local bar and soon hatch a plan to rob a bank which deals in crores on a daily basis. One of the characters, a farmer, says he wants to rob a bank so that he can settle down in life. They think all that it takes to rob a bank can be learnt from Hollywood heist movies. The bunch hires fake guns and bombs from a film production manager, wear gorilla masks, call themselves the ‘Gorilla Gang’ and enter the bank. The bumbling idiots mess it up as Kong the chimpanzee presses a red button, setting off the alarm. The police, headed by an inspector (Radha Ravi), rushes in try to negotiate with the robbers who threaten to kill the customers inside. The director forgets logic in favour of downright silly scenes replete with body shaming to raise the laughter quotient as top comedian Yogi Babu enters the scene. In a gag scene, the police asks Yogi Babu, who is not wearing a mask, to remove his mask as they think he is a gorilla. There are ample references to some of Tamil Nadu’s politicians who have been a favourite with memelords. Towards the climax, the film takes a fresh turn and changes its focus from a heist film to a social one with its preachy take on the Tamil Nadu farmers’ loans. This is the sixth Tamil film this year which has taken up the farmers’ cause. As mentioned earlier, the film is entertaining to a certain extent, thanks to Kong the chimpanzee. Jiiva shines in the comedy scenes. Arjun Reddy actor Shalini Pandey makes her Tamil debut with Gorilla but does not have much to do. A host of popular comedians do their regular walk-in roles. Sam CS background score and Gurudev’s camerawork are a few pluses. Lastly, I wish there was more of Kong the chimpanzee or at least some logic in the script.