Very few of Vijayakanth's action movies - and there are quite a few of them - can be classified as being logical but recently, the need for suspension of disbelief has been raised a few notches with each new entry. Narasimma raises the preposterousness quotient to a new level and not just in the action sequences. The thriller definitely has potential and sets the stage with an intriguing first half that portrays Vijayakanth as a terrorist. But logic takes a crumbling fall when the reasons behind his actions are revealed and the action in the second half fails to make up for this lack of logic.

Tamil cinema has recently been plagued by several accidents and demises. One of the saddest was the untimely death of Tirupathisamy, the young and promising director of this movie, in a car accident recently. Director of two hits in Telugu, Narasimma was his first Tamil movie. He shows skill in directing the action sequences and has a catchy style. The homage to him at the beginning of the movie, calling him a sun that has set before it could rise, is touching.

Narasimma(Vijayakanth) boldly identifies himself as a terrorist, breaking the tight security around a CBI office building to plant a bomb there. He then goes on a killing spree, assasinating a music director in Mumbai, an honest and upright police officer in Calcutta and the heir to a well-known family in Kerala. He also kidnaps the associates of the three people he kills. Finally, the reasons behind his acts are revealed.

Inspite of the periodic interruptions with the comedy and frail romance, the first half is quite absorbing. Vijayakanth's first act of bombing the CBI building piques our interest and his subsequent murders raise our curiosity about his intentions. Scenes of him striding majectically with his coat billowing up behind him like a cape, with the Simma Simma Narasimma background music, are very effective. The murders, especially of the music director, show some ingenuity. The final murder of Kazhan Khan in Kerala has been picturised ferociously. Even though the romantic interruptions slow down the pace, there is a little cleverness in the way the palmist's predictions about Isha's meetings with Vijayakanth come true.

As in recent Vijayakanth movies like Vanchinathan, the action sequences here too defy all known laws of physics as he flies through the air, dodges bullets and emerges from explosions unscathed. Scenes where the generator used to give him an electrical shock explodes with his intense concentration(he is supposed to give the current a shock!) will likely make even his fans laugh. But it is in the sequence of events that this movie falters the most. Considering that the hero is Vijayakanth, the surprise about his identity is no big surprise, but once this is known, all his previous actions have no rational explanation. His posing as a terrorist achieves nothing and no explanation is given for the dozens of policemen he killed on the way to accomplishing his missions.

With such gaping holes in logic, the second half rarely engages our attention. There are lots of long-winded dialogs from Vijayakanth about patriotism and politics, including a direct attack on Rajnikanth's indecision about entering politics. These dialogs are thinly-veiled proclamations for his fans but the sequence where he warns politicians feigning heart attacks to escape arrests rings true considering the numerous such incidents in the near past. The short discourse to Sriman about the state of Muslims in India is also an effective dialog. His handling of the spy also has a nice twist though the way he finds him is ridiculous.

Vijayakanth's girth is an impediment to his role but his eyes are effective in conveying anger and have been used to full effect. Isha, trying to make a comeback after a long gap, looks slim and pretty but is on hand solely for the duets. Raghuvaran utters his dialogs with his usual style while Nasser and Anandraj are underused. Ramya Krishnan makes a special apprearance for a single song that doesn't fit in. Telugu music director Mani Sharma raises the tempo with some fast and effective background music at several points. The duets are quite catchy too.