Vikram Vedha Tamil Movie
Many of us, especially the 80s born would have come across the famous fable of "Vikram and Betaal". The series was a runaway hit in Doordarshan. As a kid, I used to be amused by seeing the fancily dressed up "Betaal", as he not only drove the things further but was an instant "crowd puller"! Things are no different in Vikram Vedha starring Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathy. Before delving on the obvious of who exactly was the "crowd puller" for this movie, let's hop on to the formalities!
Vikram (Madhavan), a dreaded encounter specialist is tasked with taking down a dreaded criminal, Vedha (Vijay Sethupathy). Suddenly Vedha surrenders himself to the cops, only to be bailed out within a few hours by Vikram's wife, Priya (Shraddha Srinath), a lawyer. From then on, Vedha goes about leaving trails in the form of brief flashbacks for Vikram and finally leads him to the real culprits.
As a script, this movie is far ahead of any of the contemporary thrillers in the last decade or so. Take a bow, director couple - Pushkar and Gayathri. This is because, there were so many intricate layers within each character that walked the screen. Without getting into too many details, each character's point of view was narrated with an intelligent screenplay and haunting visuals!
Take for example Shraddha's role as that of a lawyer. Though she was used the least and appears on the surface as a trivial role, she has got a lot many complicated layers tucked beneath her character. Being a fierce independent woman is just the tip of the iceberg, she respects the male chauvinistic ego of Madhavan at times, but doesn't fail to give it back when needed (a scene where Madhavan asks her to not appear for her wicked client and in turn she asks Madhavan to quit his job as that of a cop. I am certainly not going to refer the obviously superficial ones like the one where both share a whisky each, on the rocks).
Also, Madhavan's character which begins on a righteous note struggles to find an arc and then finally when it appears to hit the sublime stage of self-realization on "what is right", the movie, unfortunately, winds up as an open ended climax. A bit of a disappointment on that note. It could have attained a sort of a completeness had there been a climax, bloody or not. We have invested close to 150 minutes, only to witness such an endless end?
Yes, I've saved the best for the last - Vijay Sethupathy. As the wicked Vedha(l), his natural charisma helps him go beyond his role as that of a dreaded don and we are able to feel the humanity within him. A scene where Vedha misquotes the number of encounters by Vikram and then Vikram corrects him. We suddenly see a glimmer of emotion in Vedha's eyes - Vijay Sethupathy, the actor, sparkled in it, with all his glory! His local slang and the way he carries off himself with a cool head is no different than his earlier movies, but this man helps in elevating a good script to its best possible highs whenever needed. Another feather to your crown Mr.Sethupathy! Bravo!!
Music and BGM by Sam was a brilliant compliment for this script. It was trendy and had that "mass" element at the same time. "Yaanji" for me was the pick of the lot and the theme music that gets played in the background during key sequences was a roar.
Cinematography and editing were certainly the two strong pillars that balanced the movie delicately by reassuring that the sags that crop up every now and then pass through without creating a dent to the audience's engagement. Bravo, P.S.Vinoth (cinematographer) and Richard Kevin (editor).
Finally, Pushkar and Gayathri, the couple who ventured into film making more than a decade back and only managed to dish out 3 films till now, are in my opinion the least rated script writers. I would certainly look forward to them donning a script writer's hats rather than them taking on the onus of direction.
As directors, they have done a decent job, but the movie always felt like lacking something - may be our sensibilities have been tuned to approach a "don" movie with 'mass packed' elements or did this movie really miss the mark by a whisker? I would leave it to the readers to watch and decide.
Recommended for those seeking a 'neo' don thriller!
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