#Vettaiyan Review

#Vettaiyan

2024-Tamil

Starring : Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan , Rana Daggubatti , Fahadh Fasil , Manju Warrier , Dushara Vijayan , Rana , Rithika Singh , Kishore , Abhirami and Rao Ramesh

Directed by T.J.Gnanavel

Plot : Athiyan , a renowned Encounter Specialist faces moral dilemma when one of his encounters turns out of be fake. Pursuing the leads, Adhiyan uncovers a larger scheme and decides to right his wrongs.

Superstar as Adhiyan is good. Though there are less mass scenes , the performance tone is little bit less but perfect on screen. Amitabh Bachchan as Sathyadev is fantastic. His role is written in a great manner but due to the horrible lipsynch, the relatablity with the characters is reduced. Fahadh as Patric is absolutely brilliant. He is quirky , funny , intelligent and captivating. Rithika Singh as Roop is pretty good and gets a solid role. Dushara gets a meaty yet limited role and has done a great job. Rana is great but due to half baked and uneven writing the character doesn't provide the necessary punch. Manju warrier, Abhirami and Rohini wasted. In this lot , Abhirami gets a bit better written role. Kishore and Rao Ramesh limited role.

Technically the film is rich but not great. Music by Anirudh is decent. Manasillayo felt like it was a speed breaker other than that remaining songs are pretty okayish. BGMs especially during Investigation sequences were good. Cinematography by SR Kathir is average. Except for few stunt sequences, the camerawork was standard and didn't have anything extraordinary. Philomin Raj's Editing is good in First Half but felt dragged in Second Half. 

The First Half opens with Character introduction and gives us each and every character's motives and behavioral patterns. The First 20 mins purely felt a Superstar film then the film slowly shifts gears into a Investigative Thriller mode . Though the film movies in a predictable manner , the screenplay moves in a very racy way making it very interesting to watch . The Pre Interval 10 mins goes in a fantastic way and ends with a bang on interval twist . Honestly, the Twist was expected but the way it was placed it makes it interesting.

Then Opening with the Second Half the film starts to fumble lightly. While First half works as a proper Investigation film , the Second Half tries to balance between being a Superstar film and Director's Film. While the Second Half has a lot of interesting things to look forward too...due to the Stardom and forced Commercial aspects dumb down the seriousness of the issues spoken and only touches on them only on a surface level. The Main Antagonist is only revealed in Second Half, revealing key points mid way through Second half , the film starts to swing again from being a Commercial mass masala film to a Content oriented film . The Underlying layers of a Pro Encounter Specialist going through a Transformation is shown but due to multiple commercial distractions, the arc change of Protagonist is not felt properly. 

Director TJ Gnanavel has taken two very important topics such as Fake Encounters and Educational Scams and tried to fuse into one single story. He somewhat fuses them properly but his dilemma to make it is a Gnanavel film or a Rajini film makes him take the middle way that becomes confusing beyond a point. The Fake Encounter core merely becomes just a Plot Point to get into Educational Scams and eventually that becomes the core plot of story . There are some really strong dialogues and some wonderfully set sequences but the commercial aspects take away the seriousness essence. Kudos to Gnanavel for not deviating much from what he wanted to say but still the comprises he made dilutes the level of seriousness. The Climax which should work as the Soul of the film is unfortunately a huge let down as it goes with a very cliched approach.

Vettaiayan comes out as a 60% Rajinikanth film , 40% Gnanavel film that tries to talk about a very serious issue but unfortunately falls flat at certain levels due to compromises. Rajini & FaFa are seen in a completely different role that makes the audience forget the minor flaws.

Overall: Vettaiyan is a unique Rajinikanth film in recent times that boasts a strong storyline but is unfortunately diluted due to comprises. But nevertheless can be watched definitely for the strong message it is conveying and the subtle yet powerful performance of Rajinikanth after so long(Also FaFa).

Rating :3/5

Digital Rights : Amazon Prime

Television Rights: Sun TV

Also a Minor Recommendation/Word or whatever you can term it as : Directors please try to avoid S**ual Harrassment against Women as a Plot Device. If it is really unavoidable then please shoot it in a decent way and avoid repeated replaying of the scene multiple times.