GOAT Review: It’s Ilayathalapathy versus Thalapathy. One is a good guy and the other is a bad guy. A young guy versus an older one, which brings double the fun and double the action. Director Venkat Prabhu tries to show the audience why this film and Vijay are GOAT for his fans and audience. (Read also: Vijay to become Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in 2026: GOAT actor Premgi)
GOAT opens in Kenya in 2008, where we see a special anti-terrorist team (SATS) recover stolen uranium from a group of terrorists led by Omar and Rajiv Menon (Mohan). Gandhi (Vijay) and his team members and friends Kalyan (Prabhu Deva), Sunil (Prashanth) and Shaaam (Ajay) return to India victorious, but cause chaos in the mission and are criticized for it by their boss Nazeer (Jayaram). The group of men are close friends and love to party, and this gets Gandhi in trouble with his pregnant wife Anu (Sneha), who is very suspicious of his activities.
Chaos spreads
To make Anu and his son Jeevan happy, Gandhi decides to take them to Thailand when he is assigned a mission. And here, everything goes horribly wrong. Gandhi and his family are attacked by a gang and Anu ends up in the hospital while Jeevan is kidnapped and killed. A few years later, we see that things have changed – Gandhi has a desk job and is separated from Anu. But terror strikes again in the form of Sanjay. What does Gandhi do? Who is Sanjay? How does the SATS team save the situation? Will Gandhi be reunited with his family? Is it a happy ending?
Director Venkat Prabhu must first be praised for writing a story that goes across the world and weaves family sentiments, action, humour and drama with twists and many homages. He has given Thalapathy Vijay a story that is quite different from the Tamil star’s recent outings and is refreshing. Vijay is seen in two roles and the two characters are radically different and that makes the film interesting. Venkat Prabhu has loaded the film with many homages starting from Captain Vijayanath, SPB and Ajith’s Mankatha Hook Step to his late cousin Bhavatharini and numerous Vijay films.
A tribute to Vijay fans
The first half of GOAT is extremely engaging, with the director setting the stage for an excellent interval block that takes you by surprise. There is plenty of family drama and fast-paced action in various missions across the world before the film goes into the interval. After the interval, the film starts with a confrontation between Gandhi and Sanjay and the director tries to keep a fast pace. As the film progresses, Venkat Prabhu shows that he is a fan of Vijay and Kollywood (references to Ghilli, Thirumalai etc.) and the climax of the film definitely proves this. That is not to say that the film does not have any loopholes, but the excellent performance of Vijay and the large cast make one overlook them. The director makes full use of Vijay’s trademark charm, emotions, action, dance and humour and this is sure to please his fans and audience.
Venkat Prabhu has always worked with his friends and family and his cousin, Yuvan Shankar Raja, has composed the music for GOAT like he did for his previous films. Yuvan has done a good job with the background score and the remix of an old Ilaiyarajaa song is stirring. But the Bhavathirini song (created with the help of AI), Chinna Chinna Kangal, is quite touching and soulful.
GOAT is a treat from Venkat Prabhu for Thalapathy Vijay fans and viewers. This Vijay film is an action-packed, entertaining and fun-filled film!
