Coolie (2025) Movie Review

Coolie is an action drama about a sober warden that’s drawn into a murder mystery after the sudden death of his best friend. He soon finds himself in the middle of a smuggling empire that’s up to more evil than meets the eye. There are other elements involved, such as a sci-fi style electric chair fit for capital punishment and a global crime syndicate, but they are often ignored to setup action sequences and slow motion moments.

There were a lot of high expectations for Coolie. As both his next film after the massive commercial success of Leo (2023) and as a Super Star Rajnikanth movie, there was a lot of pressure on Lokesh Kanagaraj. Unfortunately, Coolie is a confused film that doesn’t know where it wants to be a Lokesh movie or a Super Star flick, and ends up being an underwhelming mix of the two.

Intentionally or otherwise, Lokesh Kanagaraj has written himself into a corner with films that hit the same story beats. While these have worked in the past, they feel a bit tired in Coolie. For example, there is the moment where the hero is in the middle of a fight while someone else is in danger that needs protection, a random third party will save the day when it looks like the hero is losing, side characters and cameos get hero level slow motion introductions, and there’s an over-reliance on the soundtrack.

Speaking of the OST, Lokesh has teamed up with his trusted composer Anirudh Ravichander and action choreographer Anbariv and they both deliver to expectations. The score and songs are very Vikram (2022) inspired and fine but reused a bit too often to land a big impact every time. The action looks good, despite obvious stunt doubles in action sequences between the 74-year-old hero and the 65-year-old villain.

The biggest drawback of these recycled story beats is that they don’t give the things that work time to get fleshed out. The movie wastes precious runtime on a cameo and potential sequel tease with Aamir Khan that could have been spent better typing up existing storylines. Coolie sets up a pair of really cool villains in the second half, but it practically abandons that story right as it is gets interesting to insert a flashback sequence.

If you’re a Rajnikanth fan, like me, you’ll be entertained by seeing him work his charm. Coolie has some interesting characters such as Soubin Shahir as Dayal and Nagarjuna as Simon but it too often goes the route of action instead of a gritty crime drama. That’s all I can say at this point with going into spoilers about specific plot points.