Vettaikaran: Same old story, retold!

Once upon a time there was a small town boy named Ravi. Friends call him Police Ravi as he is a hardcore worshipper of Devaraj, a courageous police officer. Ravi dreams to become an IPS officer and after successfully completing +2 (after 4 tries), he joins the same college where his hero had studied. During his journey from hometown to college, he meets a beautiful girl named Susheela and manages to be the pet of her family. Thanks to duet songs at beautiful locations, he was able to convince the girl to be his love mate. But good time always has to end. A local gunda named Chella lays eye on Ravi’s friend Uma and Ravi has to fight against him. Furious Ravi sends Chella to hospital and there comes Vedanayagam, Chella’s father, to the front run. Vedanayagam, so-called owner of Chennai city, tells Ravi that it is “fear of Vedanayagam” which made him to win the power and money. Ravi decides to fight against Vedanayagam exploiting the same fear factor. Things become gripping when Devaraj, who has lost his family and eyes – thanks to same goon, also joins Ravi in the fight.

How many movies have told us the same story? I could not count…! AVM Productions’ Vettaikaran, directed by debundant B. Babusivan and starred by Ilaya Dalapati Vijay, also tells the same story, with nothing new to offer in terms of narration.

Vettaikaran is out and out a Vijay movie. And he is the only sparkling element of this movie and thanks to him, the movie doesn’t slips to the boredom mode. Vijay looks the same as in his old movies and delivers the same level of performance. No doubt, Police Ravi will not be remembered for a long time.

Anushka looks okay but lacks on screen chemistry with Vijay. She manages the navel show with numerous other junior artists during the song sequences and, in the end, delivers an unimpressive performance.

Ravishankar is loud and overreactive as the baddie Chella, so is Srihari as Devaraj. Salim Ghouse is good as Vedanayagam. In the midst of deafening characters, his half-smiley face is a relief.

Sayaji Shinde as the good turned bad cop Kattabomman delivers some funny moments. Manobala as the journalist, Sukumari as the grand mother, Sanchitha Padukone as Uma, Srinath and Sathyan as Ravi’s friends makes no impression in this hero centric movie.

Babusivan’s screenplay with many loose ends and cliché’s is fortunately seamless and along with V. T. Vijayan’s editing and Gopinath’s camera lives up to the requirements. Vijay Antony’s scores leave no mark except for 'Puli Urumbudhu' which is an inevitable fast number for the star’s fans.

In a nut shell, Babusivan has made a movie which has marked his arrival as a director and would satisfy bare minimum requirements for Vijay fans, but for a movie lover this one does not deliver anything new or entertaining.

Recommendation: Wait for Vettaikaran’s TV premiere.

Labels: Vettaikaran, Vijay, Cinema, ദൃശ്യന്‍, വേട്ടക്കാരന്‍, വിജയ്, തമിഴ് സിനിമ