Recent Rajnikanth movies have predominantly been seen as catering solely to the tastes of his fans. Evoking extreme reactions from both his fans and others, these movies have been praised and adored by his fans while being summarily dismissed by the neutral viewer. Among such movies, Baasha is the one that has the most cross-over appeal. While it has its share of scenes designed to warm the hearts of the ardent Rajni fan, it also offers solid entertainment for the average movie-goer.

Manickam (Rajnikanth) is an auto driver with a heart of gold, supporting a family consisting of his mother, two sisters and a brother. He abhors violence, meekly enduring several troublesome situations. He catches the fancy of rich girl Nagma, whose father turns out to be linked rather closely to his past. A string of incidents starting with his brother, now a policeman, arresting the local dada and culminating with the angry dada hurting his sister, forces Manickam to turn violent. A flashback then reveals his past life as powerful don Manick Baasha in Bombay, responsible for putting another don Antony(Raghuvaran) behind bars. Thought to be dead, he has since been leading a peaceful life as an auto driver in Madras. Learning that he is still alive, Antony breaks out of prison and returns for revenge.

Rajnikanth dominates the movie from beginning to end and delivers one of his finest performances. He strikes the right balance in the initial portions, striving to maintain composure even when provoked while making it clear that the results would be deadly if he did go off. He sparkles in the scene where he gets his sister a seat in a medical college by revealing his past to the college chairman. The scene is beautifully picturised from the point of view of the sister standing outside the room. We just see Rajni's actions and the college chairman getting increasingly flustered and know exactly what is happening. The punchline is perfect as his sister asks him what he told the chairman to get her the seat and he replies "the truth".

Director Suresh Krissna delivers a lesson in pacing through this splendid first half. Setting up potentially explosive situations and then making Rajnikanth defuse them non-violently works extremely well in racking up the tension. And while several directors slip up in the denouement after building the tension up to an appreciable level, the eventual explosion of Rajnikanth before the intermission is picturised in a manner that is unforgettable and deserving of the build-up.

There is nowhere to go but down after that kind of a first half and the movie falters (but just a little) during the segment in Bombay. While it might be unthinkable to picturise a song not sung by Rajnikanth in a Rajni movie, seeing the don sing and dance does take some of the shine off his character. Rajnikanth's performance as the don is enhanced by his style of delivering the dialogs with a kind of a stutter. His encounters with Raghuvaran, both in person and on the phone, are well executed. Things get back on track when, back in the present, Rajni retakes Nagma's hand in marriage.

Raghuvaran makes an impression during the short time he is on screen while Nagma does little more than provide romantic relief. Devan makes a mark as the man who double-crosses everyone he comes into contact with. Unlike the typical Rajnikanth starrer, there is almost no comedy throughout the movie and no political barbs either. And most of the violence is real rather than cartoonish as in his other movies.

Some stellar off-screen talent was assembled for the movie with popular tamil writer Balakumaran writing the dialogs. He comes up with a good piece about the fondness Indians have for talking. The dialogs in the scene where Rajnikanth fixes up an alliance with a rich guy for his sister are also natural without being overly sentimental or cinematic. Not to mention "Naan Oru Thadavai Sonnaa, Nooru Thadavai Sonnaa Maadhiri", probably the most popular of Rajnikanth's punchlines. Deva comes up with the exuberant Naan Autokkaaran..., which provides a jumpstart to the movie. Thangamagan Indru... and Azhagu Azhagu... sound melodious, the latter benefitting from a very well picturised song sequence with Rajnikanth appearing in a variety of get-ups.

Suresh Krissna does a nice balancing act here, managing to come up with a product that keeps Rajnikanth's fans happy and yet not falling into the trap of adhering strictly to the Rajnikanth movie formula, which might turn off the non-Rajni fan. Wish more directors would have the courage to try this.