One of the most awaited movies of the year, "Vikram" hit the screens & created a frenzy among the audience. Was it surprising??? Of course not, especially since it marked the return of the Ulaganayagan back to celluloid after four years & giving him company were two powerhouse performers in Fahadh Faasil & Vijay Sethupathi. The talented director who took on the herculean task of ensuring that he did justice to their talents & lived upto the insane expectations was Lokesh Kanagaraj. Well it would be fair to say that he has done a fantastic job in providing a high octane thriller that works in most accounts.
For the benefit of those who haven't watched "Kaithi", as Lokesh mentioned in his tweet it would be helpful if you check it out as it picks up from the events that unfolded there. A group of masked vigilantes had taken down a couple of officials from the Narcotics division such as Stephen Raj (Hareesh Peradi), ACP Prabhanjan (Kalidas Jayaram) & his adopted father, Karnan (Kamal Haasan). This prompts Police Chief Jose (Chemban Vinod) to call in a special task force headed by Amar (Fahadh) to nab the culprits behind the crime. It soon dawns upon Amar, that the murders were committed in relation to a missing container which belonged to Sandhanam (Sethupathi) who ran a drug syndicate. But what didn't make sense was the murder of Karnan who seemed nothing more than an alcoholic and womanizer or was there more than what met the eye???
Without a shadow of doubt, Lokesh has done a fantastic job in coming up with a script that ties together both the movies. He sets the ball rolling in the opening sequence itself with Fahadh taking center stage in the first half as he goes about figuring the plot. There is a whole lot of content packed in the first half which after a point of time kinda get tiresome despite the thrills. This is what I felt was the flaw as Lokesh & Philomin Raj ought to have kept it crisper. But the interval block sequence inspired from "Dark Knight Rises" marks the beginning of taking the thrills up more than a few notches. The second half was full on with exquisitely choreographed action sequences, some delightful surprises, cool cameos & to add onto the spice, top notch performances by the cast. Anyway the stage is set for a goose bumping evoking sequel with a massive star cast. On the technical side, pretty much everything was excellent be it Anirudh's BGM (definitely his best work to date) which elevated the effect of many of the sequences, Girish Gangadharan's excellent frames & the action choreographers.
There is no point in even mentioning how brilliant an artist is Ulaganayagan & despite being away from the screen for so many years, the legend was fantastic as the protagonist be it in action or the emotional sequences that he shared with his character's grandchild. Fahadh was brilliant & I personally felt that he was the best among the lot which in itself is a huge compliment considering that he was sharing screen space with the legend. Sethupathi did his part aptly though I felt his character wasn't etched as well as the other two. Even his dialogue delivery wasn't quite legible & his portrayal of it felt like an extension of Bhavani from "Master". As for the rest of the cast, Narain, Chemban Vinod, Kalidas Jayaram etc did their parts well while Suriya's cameo was impressive.
Verdict: At close to 3 hours, it does drag quite a bit in the first half though the latter half was impressive. Over the course of the last few months, we have had huge blockbusters in the form of "KGF-2" & "RRR" and in all probability, "Vikram" will follow suit. Hmm...it's time for our Malayalam industry to conjure something similar & hopefully we will get to celebrate that soon. Anywaz definitely check out this flick & that too in theatres!!!
Rating: 3.5/5
Regards...Ben
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