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Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu - Review

Another movie, which was not in my list, came up for viewing so soon after its release…. Just a passing remark from my colleague, made me to accompany him to the nearby theatre.

Since I had observed many movies of Kamal Haasan, failing in the box office after initial hypes, I didn’t have much expectation before entering the hall. Except that, it was Gautam’s third tamil directorial venture.

The narration of the story line is very simple. If you had read some good crime novels of Sujatha, Rajesh Kumar, Subha or ‘Pattukottai’ Prabhakar, you will feel like patting Gautam on his back for the screenplay. For a long time, I have not seen a nicely woven Tamil racy thriller.

DSP Raghavan gets involved in the investigation of his mentor’s (Prakashraj) daughter’s brutal murder. Later, he is forced to go to US to co-ordinate in the investigation of his mentor’s murder as well. By co-incidence, he meets Aaradhana (Jyothika) and moves around with her. The way, he is tracking the killers and the subsequent follow up in India, has been narrated in a tightly knitted screenplay.

Kamal fits the stone faced police officer’s role to the core. This has resulted in his dominance thru out the movie. He doesn’t have much scope for his emotional expressions, except at the time of his ex-wife’s death. Balaji, who appeared as the police officer friend of Surya in ‘KK’, has violently taken up the role of the maniac killer. He fits the role perfectly. Jo & Prakashraj make their presence felt in this hero dominant subject.

Even though Gautam has specifically mentioned that it is another page of a police officer’s life, he has taken more care to ensure that the hangover of ‘Kaaka Kaaka’ is not revealing anywhere in the movie. The impact of that treatment could be observed in the lack of romantic encounters with Jo, which was felt very much in his earlier venture.

In a thriller movie where you could see less romantic scenes , it would be hard to find comedy. It’s the same story here. I could observe only two passing comments, which made me to smile. One, when Raghavan was wondering on a beggar’s remarks about policemen taking bribe from him and another, when he corrects Jo that he is not a software guy, but a police officer “alias hardware guy”.

Harris Jeyaraj’s re-recording is excellent and the songs have been picturised very well thru Ravi Varman’s lens.

’Karka Karka..’ title song starts the proceedings with a bang.

Kamalinee Mukerjee is very cute & expressive in the ‘Paartha Muthal Naale’ song, with the only odd factor of Kamal’s oversized body in the frames. If some technical expertise had helped Kamal to portray a slim / young body in the flashback scenes of 8 years back, it would have been great.

Newyork’s night life has excellently been captured in that ‘Manjal veiyal..’ song, even though the Goan song of ‘Sikki Muki..’ is not at all required.

The movie appears to be very long (2hr 45 min). But Gautam’s favourite editor Antony has made it interesting to watch like a close one-day cricket match or like Federer Vs Nadal’s Wimbledon’06 finals. Ravi Varman’s camera work is excellent. You could observe an international excellence thru his lens, while observing the American cities, towns and suburbs.

Strengths:
1) The Technical excellence of the team - Tight Screenplay of Gautam, Crisp editing of Antony, Excellent Camera work of Ravi Varman, Catchy tunes & re-recording work of Harris Jayaraj
2) Kamal’s screen presence through out the movie

Weaknesses:
1) Too much of realistic brutal murders, may make someone sick


The movie is a Slick, Crisp, Racy Entertainer… which can raise up the B.O. collections in ‘A’ centres, since it is more of an urban oriented subject. For those, who love to watch a racy movie with an excellent crew, it would be a treat to watch this for its technical excellence in all departments.

But, I could sense that the family audience, especially ladies, may keep away from the halls, because of the realistic portrayals of gory attitudes of maniac killers. It was not the case of ‘KK’ in which a sensual line of romance was running till the end of the movie.

My Earlier Reviews - Limited edition (munch them, if you hvn't)
Imsai Arasan 23am Pulikesi / Thavamai Thavamirundhu / Majaa / Ghajini / Anniyan / Ullam Ketkumae / Sachein

273rd post

9 Comments:

Blogger Vinesh said...

Oh cool! Yours is the first positive report I've read about the film. I was wondering whether to watch it, but if there's so much blood and gore, I'd better not..

Tuesday, August 29, 2006 1:11:00 PM  
Blogger Cogito said...

saw it.liked it.good movie.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 6:14:00 AM  
Blogger Arvind Srinivasan said...

Hi Ram,

Yes, story, screenplay, dialogs, editing, camera and acting - are all the strengths of the movie.

BGM was ok as well.

To the drawback list, i'd add - the songs - man, were they re-re-re-re-re-peat of his songs and this movie had no scope for songs.

The movie ended in the first-half, and second half was totally along the KK'ish lines.

btb, ATB at Bangalore :)

Sunday, September 03, 2006 12:50:00 PM  
Blogger Speech is Golden said...

A lot of the reviews kept reiterating the hangover of KK and u say it doesn't show.

Lemme watch the movie soon. I am all excited.

Thursday, September 07, 2006 8:51:00 PM  
Blogger mitr_bayarea said...

Ram-

good summary. Although, the storyline of Gautham and Kamal's presence added flavor to the film, the blood and vulgarity could have been avoided in some scenes, there wasn't a need to show it to that extent, I felt like throwing up sometimes.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 11:38:00 AM  
Blogger gurru1987 said...

i so want to see this movie. trying hard to find online.

Sunday, October 26, 2008 10:02:00 AM  
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