Dussehra marks the victory of good over evil & to celebrate this festive season we have one of the most awaited anticipated flick of the year hitting the screens. It is none other than T Gnanavel's "Vettaiyan", which has quite an enviable star cast headlined by Big B & Rajini with Fahadh in a supporting role to name a few. I was quite curious to check out the flick primarily because I had loved Gnanavel's "Jai Bhim" & see as to how he was going to do justice to his story without being forced to celebrate their stardom. It was definitely not going to be an easy task.
The theme of the story is pretty much set in the opening sequence as Justice Satyadev (Big B)in a lecture to aspiring officers makes it vehemently clear that he abhors the idea of encounter killings & the celebration of such officers as heroes. It was essentially a reference to SP Athiyan (Rajini), encounter specialist who had recently busted a drug mafia ring in Kanyakumari with the help of his informer, 'Battery' Patrick (Fahadh) a thief/tech genius on the basis of a complaint from a school teacher, Saranya (Dushara Vijayan). As usual, Athiyan manages to get scot free much to the chagrin of Satyadev. However, things take a turn when Saranya is murdered & Athiyan is called in for the investigation.
Recently, I had come across an interview clip of director Tamizharasan who stated that that the characters in his "Lubber Pandhu" was inspired from Sachi's "Ayyappanum Koshiyum". In a way, it seemed like Gnanavel must have been inspired by Dijo Antony's "Jana Gana Mana" which dealt with a similar theme. In an industry where killings are glorified especially when the protagonist is a police officer, Gnanavel's effort to put in a moral compass to that was appreciable. It was essentially an anti-thesis to Rajini's previous release "Jailer". However, in an effort to establish his cause & still satisfy the Superstar's fans, he is invariably stuck in a place that is in between both of them. This was not the case in "Jai Bhim" where he used the star power of Suriya to push the topic he wanted to convey. But then we have to accept that pulling off something similar with the stature of Rajini is easier said than done. In the end, we are left with a movie that is neither able to convincingly establish his relevant topic nor give us genuinely goosebumps evoking mass moments.
On the technical side, it was average at best with Anirudh Ravichander's music being quite ok though 'Manasilayo' track is a chart buster. Except for a couple of scenes, his BGM failed to elevate most of the mass moments. Thalaiva was as always has done utmost justice to his part & does the heavy lifting even when the screenplay failed. The choice of Big B made complete sense & he provided the aura that the character demanded, however the impact that his face off with Rajini lacked the punch & that was another example of the flaw in the writing. In terms of who actually provided the cheers, then it goes to Fahadh who rocked even in the supporting role with Dushara Vijayan doing a fine job as well. As for the rest of the cast, Manju Warrier did what was possible in a rather insignificant role, Rana Daggubati was the victim of a poorly written role while the others were ok.
Verdict: Despite the shortcomings, it is still a decent movie that is worthy of one time watch. However, there is a good chance that it might falter at the box office if the fans go with the expectation of watching another "Jailer"!!!
Rating: 2.5/5
Regards...Ben
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