Beast

What’s it about?

Former secret agent, Veera Raghavan, doesn’t trust the government to protect people from harm. However, when terrorists take control of a Chennai shopping mall and hold the shoppers hostage to get a dangerous terrorist released, Veera draws on his skills as a spy to rescue the hostages.

The facts

• Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English language with subtitles in English
• Comedy-action thriller with a couple of song and dance numbers
• Runtime: 157 minutes

Why did it get this rating?

Violence

There are frequent scenes of action violence. These bombastic action scenes mostly consist of knife and gun violence between Veera and the villains in the mall setting.

Violence includes stab wounds to the neck, gun violence and dismemberment. Wound details include blood, abrasions on faces and a hole in a man’s hand.

Crime

There is some level of moral ambiguity in the way that Veera is considered to be a hero, although he is no longer formally employed as a spy. His violent tactics against criminals and terrorists are presented as justified and humorous.

When the government agrees to release a convicted terrorist to free the hostages, Veera kidnaps and threatens the wife and daughter of a prominent official to prevent the terrorist being released. These ends-justify-the-means crimes are likely to be confusing to younger viewers.