Actors usually strive to present something special for the landmark movies in their film career and the half-century mark definitely qualifies as a pretty big landmark for an actor in Tamil cinema, which has been witness to so many short careers. But Vijay unfortunately takes things a step back in Suraa, his 50th film. With an old-fashioned story helmed by an even more old-fashioned director, Suraa is tacky and amateurish and ends up as Vijay's worst film in recent times.

Suraa(Vijay) is a fisherman in the fishing community of Yazh Nagar, whose residents look to him for help and guidance on pretty much every issue. Poornima(Tamannah), a rich girl, falls for Suraa. Samudhrarajan(Dev Gill), wants to build a theme park on the land occupied by the fishermen and realizing that that will not happen as long as Suraa is around, he plans on getting him out of the way.

Its not like Vijay's previous movies were classics that took Tamil cinema in new directions. They were also mass masala, formulaic films that unabasashedly catered to Vijay's larger-than-life image. But even those films managed to add some good aspects within those boundaries. Pokkiri had some visually appealing song sequences, Azhagiya Thamizh Magan had a somewhat different story, Villu featured some stylish stunts and Vettaikkaaran contained a cute romance. Suraa delivers what's expected in terms of showing Vijay in a superheroic light but does so in a clumsy, amateurish fashion. There's not a shred of style, originality or flair to be found anywhere in the film.

As the movie sets things up initially, every aspect of the film feels incredibly dated and amateurish. Vijay's character is established through some of the oldest cliches in the book - helping a woman suffering because of a drunkard husband and dealing with a corrupt cop. The romance is an uninteresting, poor boy-rich girl romance that, inspite of some surprising self-awareness(when Tamannah proposes to him, Vijay reminds her that she's seen him just twice!), is groan-inducingly lame and unconvincing. Dev Gill is a loud, corrupt and dumb politician who makes no attempt to hide his intentions or activities and his reason for clashing with Vijay is as simplistic as it gets. As these unfold in episodic fashion, the film resembles a cheap, made-for-TV movie rather than a big-budget film starring a big star.

The movie shows some signs of life only after Vijay and Gill's face-to-face confrontation. Though preceded by a familiar thiruvizha and an item number(Vanga Kadal Ellai...), the imagery as Vijay lifts the giant idol is striking, his advice to the others makes sense, his dialogs directed at Gill are fiery and the movie gets some real purpose.

But the excitement sputters off soon enough. Events are rushed through with no concern for logic or logistics(Vijay's 'sale' of laptops is the most tacky in plan and execution) and pretty much everything - the police, the courts, the collector's post - is made a mockery of as Vijay achieves his goals. In other words, everybody around him is made to look dumb so he can look good. Gill's plans to eliminate him are silly and Vijay's responses match that silliness. The climactic fight on the boat is good but doesn't offer anything special.

Vijay looks lost and disinterested initially(not that we blame him) and gets into his groove only towards the intermission point. His trademark comical dialog delivery is even more exaggerated at places and that makes it sound almost effeminate. But he still has the ability to elicit a few Wows with his dance steps, as in the Naan Nadandha... song sequence. He spouts a lot of lines about everything from the Sri Lankan situation to the budget, which doesn't come as much of a surprise considering his political aspirations. Tamannah gets to do the usual tasks associated with the heroine in a Vijay film - fall in love, show up for the duets and get kidnapped by the villain. Dev Gill is too over-the-top to be taken seriously while Vadivelu plays the usual comedian role by getting put down and hurt. As always, his routines lose their effectiveness as the movie proceeds and the last couple of segments with the bhagavadhar and the criminal, are pretty painful. Mani Sharma's songs follow the template for Vijay movie soundtracks and there is nothing noteworthy about the picturization of the sequences either. Thanjavoor Jillakaari... looks bright and colorful though both the tune and the song steps themselves have been copied from Telugu.