Over the years, the Tamil film industry has been graced with the creations of Mani Ratnam, K Balachander, Balu Mahendra etc to name a few. Another name that I am confident which is going to feature pretty soon in that illustrious list is Vetrimaaran, who has given us some brilliant movies ever since he burst into the scene about a decade back. Hence when his latest project " Vada Chennai" was announced, I was pretty sure that it will be yet another classy effort. So will it be a critical as well as commercial success???
At the start of proceedings, the events are narrated from 1987 with four men sitting around a table with blood stained knives & attire. From their conversation , it was evident that they had killed someone influential & they plan among themselves as to how to absolve themselves of the crime. However, things doesnt quite pan out as expected as Senthil (Kishore) doesnt keep his part of the bargain which makes his friend Guna (Samuthirakani) into a sworn enemy for life. In due time, they form gangs of their own & they constantly clashed with each other in their fight for supremacy. About a decade later, Anbu (Dhanush) makes his presence felt in the locality as the most promising carroms player who seemed poised to move into the national league. However, destiny had other plans for him as he gets dragged into the gang wars.
This is Vetrimaaran's fourth movie after "Polladhavan", "Aadukalam" and "Visaaranai", and it is on par or even better than the others. What makes this one stand apart from other similar gangster movies is the thought that Vetrimaaran has invested in the story as well as in the development of each & every character. The relation between the characters & the plethora of human emotions such as greed, envy, betrayal etc., is showcased adequately & aptly. At one point, there is even a fleeting reference to "Hamlet". Similarly, if "Aadukalam" had the cock fight sport integrated into the script then this time around it was carroms which had significance to the story. Another person who has done a brilliant job is Velraj whose visuals were exquisite especially the fight sequence under the collapsed cloth ceiling which was just WOW!!!. Santhosh Narayanan's BGM was spot on & G B Venkatesh deserves a pat on the back for his excellent editing which was surely difficult considering the numerous switching of time lines.
The Dhanush-Vetrimaaran duo has always created magic & it even gave the former the National award for the best actor in "Aadukalam". He was fantastic as Anbu & his performance here is likely to win him a lot of laurels. Equally impressive was Ameer who is the pivotal character that takes the story forward. Giving both of them able support was Samuthirakani, Kishore & Daniel Balaji. Among the female performers, it was refreshing to see Andrea do utmost justice to a meaty role while Aishwarya Rajesh also did her part well.
Verdict: The film got off to a bombastic start making it the bigger ever initial for Dhanush. It has all the ingredients that will keep the audience engaged & is undoubtedly one of the finest ever gangster movie that I have watched. As has been trend in the past, it has all the makings of impressing the awards committee yet again. In short, dont miss it!!!
Rating: 4/5
Regards...Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment