Unlike any of his previous movies, master-in-acting Actor Vijay had braced up for the hardening trajectory in arriving back on the big screens. After nearly ten months of interminable yearning and expectation from the fans and the movie team, 'Master' has finally arrived in the theaters on January 13 and the fans had gone agog and gave a royal and stylish welcome to their Thalapathy as it took them one-and-a-half years to relish watching him on big screens. But, is 'Master' worth for such a grand welcome and a long-wait, and who is the real Master here? Let's review...

Appearing as an inebriated college professor under a deep addiction to alcohol, Vijay comes as a favorite for students but getting hated by the officials due to which he is being sent as a teacher to a child reform school. In that school, Vijay finds the students who got degenerated by Vijay Sethupathi for his business gains and Vijay plunges into action to save and rescue the students from Vijay Sethupathi which drives them to a direct clash. The nucleus of the story is who won the clash and what's behind Vijay Sethupathi's act of degenerating students. 

Vijay comes more stylish in 'Master' and his swag moments keep the fans and audiences to stay in ecstasy throughout the movie and unlike his previous movies, Vijay appears to be a normal human being in most of the scenes which had earned a great thumbs up not only from his fans but probably from everyone. But, in some scenes connected to Vijay Sethupathi, Vijay's underplaying act didn't attract much praise and satisfaction and the story revolves to be antagonist-centric than hero-centric. 

Antagonist Vijay Sethupathi had perfectly used that prospect and has given a real and tough fight to Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi had earned the love from the ardent fans of Vijay and the face to face meeting between the two actors on the screen had shaken the theaters with voices and whistles from the audience. Lokesh Kanagaraj has to be appreciated to pen a story to stand off from the typical and template storyline for Vijay. 

'Master' Vijay comes with fewer build-up scenes, neither with typical punchlines nor with controversial political remarks. By skipping these usual templates, Lokesh Kanagaraj has kept more goosebump moments that relished the fans on watching a new and classy Vijay. While arriving with style, Master is not exceptional of glitches and problems and the largest problem of the movie is its length. The movie drags the audience with more time to get into the story and the more lengthy second half than the lengthy first half makes the audience feel more exhausted and the fluctuating screenplay had also decreased the curiosity to stick to the movie. 

In the midst of giants like Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi, co-stars Malavika Mohanan, Arjun Das, Santhanu, Gauri Kishan, Ramya, and Dheena didn't fail to shine and they had delivered justice to their roles. Lokesh Kanagaraj has used interesting ideas in the movie to keep the curiosity. But, in his move of building curiosity in the whole movie, he made the fans and audiences to feel that something has gone missing in the film. The movie has been packed with positive and adverse impacts that would arise when the director, who tends to make quality movies, directing the legendary actors. 

One of the strengths of Master is the cinematography of Sathyan Sooryan and the rocking music of Anirudh. Sooryan's cameras had colorfully covered the scenes connected to the college while his cameras had done justice of covering the scenes how they are supposed to cover. Anirudh's music in 'Vaathi coming' and 'Vathi raid'  songs had made the fans dance in the theaters and Anirudh had shined as usual in the background music. 

It's indisputable that the arrival of Master had given a potential breakthrough and revival to the theaters after ten months of remaining under shutdown and while Master broke all the challenges and troubles from COVID-19 to the leaked scenes, it had drawn massive crowds to theaters but, the fans had audiences ultimately left the theaters with a disappointment after Master has lightly lacked the essence of being a Master and Lokesh Kanagaraj is the real master of bringing the legendary actors together for the first time to play opposite characters to deliver his story.