Coolie (2025) Movie ft. Nagarjuna, Rajinikanth, and Soubin

Coolie (2025) is a bruised, angry port‑town thriller where a lifelong labourer decides he’s done carrying other people’s sins along with their cargo. Rajinikanth plays Deva, a former coolie union leader who has spent decades at the harbour, Nagarjuna steps in as the polished face of a gold‑smuggling cartel, and Soubin Shahir brings in the nervous, human side of men trapped in between.

Lokesh Kanagaraj doesn’t pretend this is subtle. Coolie is all grime, rage, swag and stainless‑steel tiffin boxes hiding contraband. But beneath the stylised violence and whistle‑bait lines, there is a clear line: the people who load the ships have stopped believing the system will ever work for them, so they choose to become the system’s worst problem.

Story, setting and stakes

The film unfolds in and around a sprawling South Indian port where thousands of workers live off back‑breaking daily wages and tiny favours from contractors. Deva, once the loudest voice of their union, has resigned himself to silence after a tragic strike years ago that cost him more than just comrades.

When one of his oldest friends “falls” to his death during a routine night shift, the official line is accident. The details , wrong shift, no safety gear, CCTV conveniently offline , tell Deva otherwise. His quiet decision to ask questions sets him on a collision course with the new powers that run the docks: a slick gold‑smuggling syndicate that treats coolies as disposable packaging.

The stakes escalate fast. What begins as an old man demanding an FIR becomes a war about who controls the port, who gets rich off each shipment and whether the workers will remain nameless bodies in the background or claim the frame.

Performances and characters

Rajinikanth’s Deva is not playing young, and that’s the good part. He moves like someone whose knees hurt, who knows every crack in the dock floor, and who still has a terrifying switch inside him when pushed. The performance banks on presence more than speed: a stare, a pause, a slow walk into a room full of men with guns who suddenly don’t feel so confident.

Nagarjuna’s antagonist, Raghuvaran, is the exact opposite texture: crisp suits, immaculate hair, soft voice and a complete belief that money and influence can erase anything. He’s the kind of man who calls workers “our people” in speeches and “headcount” in private. The film uses his charm to show how easily exploitation can mask itself as opportunity.

Soubin’s character, Sameer, is a junior supervisor who grew up in the worker lanes but now signs papers for the cartel. He’s constantly torn: the salary feeds his family, the guilt rots him. His arc , watching Deva stand up again and deciding how far he’ll go , provides much of the film’s emotional grounding.

Direction, style and action

Lokesh shoots the harbour like a maze and a monster. Containers become walls, cranes loom like gallows, and the sea is usually visible but rarely comforting. The camera glides through narrow lanes, crowded canteens and echoing godowns, making you feel the scale without losing the sweat and noise.

Action is messy and tactile. Fights break out around cargo nets, on dripping staircases, between stacked containers. Deva doesn’t move like a superhero; he fights like someone using every bit of old muscle and old rage he has left. There are slow‑motion punches and heroic silhouettes, sure, but the hits feel heavy, not weightless.

Anirudh’s score goes full industrial: clanking metal, deep bass, aggressive chants. It’s designed to rattle theatre seats and amplify every punchline and punch. In emotional scenes, the music smartly pulls back, letting Rajini’s pauses do the work.

What lands well

Deva’s age is a feature, not a problem. The film acknowledges his years and turns them into authority rather than pretending he’s 30.
The port backdrop is used brilliantly. Every major set‑piece takes advantage of the location, so you never feel like the story could be happening anywhere else.
Nagarjuna’s calm menace keeps the hero–villain dynamic interesting; he’s dangerous even when he’s just adjusting his cufflinks.
Workers are not faceless. You meet them in small, specific moments – a man saving for his daughter’s fees, a woman negotiating overtime – which makes the larger fight feel personal.

Where it stumbles

Coolie still follows a very familiar spine: reluctant lion, dead friend, corrupt syndicate, uprising. You can see several beats coming, especially in the second half. The script doesn’t reinvent structure; it energises it.

Some emotional beats are undercooked. A key flashback to the old strike, meant to fully explain Deva’s guilt, feels rushed compared to the time given to present‑day cat‑and‑mouse games. A couple of side characters introduced as important vanish or get generic fates.

And like most star‑driven action films, it occasionally pauses the story to stage an entry, a song or a monologue that exists mainly to feed the fandom. If you’re locked into the vibe, you won’t mind; if you’re watching for pure narrative tightness, you’ll notice.

Audience connect and impact

For Rajini fans, Coolie is designed like a gratitude letter: vintage attitude, social anger, humour in small doses and a strong working‑class spine. Seeing him lead a crowd of coolies rather than a gang or army hits a nostalgic note that still feels relevant.

For wider audiences, the film works as a solid, stylish action thriller with a clear emotional core. The theme of exploited labour fighting back against shiny, white‑collar crime is straightforward but effective, especially in the sequences where Deva turns the very machinery used to control workers against their masters.

Overall verdict

Coolie (2025) is a muscular, crowd‑pleasing harbour thriller that mixes old‑school star power with a modern, gritty visual language. It doesn’t chase clever twists; it commits to a simple idea , a coolie who refuses to bend anymore , and builds a full‑blown uprising around it.

If you go in wanting tight social drama, you’ll find some rough edges. If you walk in wanting Rajinikanth and Nagarjuna to face off in a world of sweat, steel and stolen gold, you’ll get more than your money’s worth.

Rating: 4.0/5