Vettaiyadu Velaiyadu - Movie Review
6 Comments Published by Prasad Venkat on Monday, September 04, 2006 at 2:48 PM.
Kamal Hasan is a star and my definition of a star is one who can single-handedly make an average movie into a good one and a good one into a great one. And usually, the name of the star is flashed before the name of the movie - which is not the case here. I guess that means it's a message to audience that this is a director's movie and Kamal doesn't dominate 'Vettaiyadu Velayaiyadu'. And Kamal should be happy about it, because he won't have to take the blame for this crappy product.
Gautham, the writer and director of this movie has serious misconceptions about the elements that form a thriller. Gory murders, car chases, intercuts, jump-cuts, interspersed black & white images, fade-outs, hand-held camera with jerky shots.... Mr.Gautham, these are masala ingredients that are added to an already well cooked item to enhance the flavour. The masala by itself cannot be the food. To make a good thriller, first captivate the audience with a good plot and develop the character. Now, when you put the character into a tight corner, the viewer will feel his pulse racing. The basics of a good thriller are no where to be found in this movie.
The next couple of paragraphs reveals the storyline. For a virgin movie experience, read them after watching the movie.
Raghavan (Kamal) is asked to head an investigation into Madurai DCP Arokiaraj's (Prakash Raj) missing daughter. He finds that she was raped and executed (throat slit) with surgical instruments. So, it is narrowed down that someone with medical knowledge has done this. Later when Arokiaraj and his wife take a vacation to New York, they are murdered in the same fashion. Raghavan, who goes to New York to help their police solve the case, unveils four other bodies killed in a similar manner.
We realize that a couple of students from Tamil Nadu, studying medicine at Brooklyn Medical School are serial rapists and murderers responsible for all the murders so far. When Raghavan zeroes them in, they miraculously escape - not just from Brooklyn, but from U.S and come back to India. Meanwhile, Raghavan's brief stints with Aradhana (Jyothika) blooms into love and they both come to India. You can predict the climax - the psychopath students go on a rampage in India before holding Aradhana as a hostage. Our hero comes and kills the bad guys and rescues her. Subham.
Kamal's performance is poor. Gautham didn't even get the second best performance out of him and it looks like he slept between calling 'action' and 'cut'. Kamal is one of the ten best actors I've seen and is a rare talent in Indian cinema industry. He's already aging and he should stop committing his remaining film career to such lousy projects. I'm not demanding to tailor masterpieces in every outing - but anything of this quality is avoidable. But if the audience punish him for delivering 'Hey Ram', he wouldn't have the motivation to experiment. Anyway, if you want to see Kamal as a cop, go rent 'Khakki Chattai' - that's wholesome entertainment.
The plot is so thin that Hardy Boys would have figured out and caught the murderers earlier than Raghavan and detective Anderson (his partner in NY). The direction does not hold water because of an unstructured screenplay, which is based on a loose story, all of which are unsupported by some bad dialogues. You can thank Gautham for messing up in all these departments. Ravi Varman is the photographer and I frankly would like to talk to him about a technique he uses during a chase scene: the camera vertically rolls 360 degrees a few times and it adds head ache to the already pained head by the story. The saving grace could be Harris Jayaraj - a few songs stayed with me as I walked out of the theatre, and I guess it will be a few months before I forget them.
Hitchcock said something like "There is a bomb under the table, it explodes - it's action. There's a bomb under the table, it doesn't explode - it's suspense". Gautham thinks he has fused both action and suspense deftly in this movie. But there's no bomb here - only a table.
Gautham, the writer and director of this movie has serious misconceptions about the elements that form a thriller. Gory murders, car chases, intercuts, jump-cuts, interspersed black & white images, fade-outs, hand-held camera with jerky shots.... Mr.Gautham, these are masala ingredients that are added to an already well cooked item to enhance the flavour. The masala by itself cannot be the food. To make a good thriller, first captivate the audience with a good plot and develop the character. Now, when you put the character into a tight corner, the viewer will feel his pulse racing. The basics of a good thriller are no where to be found in this movie.
The next couple of paragraphs reveals the storyline. For a virgin movie experience, read them after watching the movie.
Raghavan (Kamal) is asked to head an investigation into Madurai DCP Arokiaraj's (Prakash Raj) missing daughter. He finds that she was raped and executed (throat slit) with surgical instruments. So, it is narrowed down that someone with medical knowledge has done this. Later when Arokiaraj and his wife take a vacation to New York, they are murdered in the same fashion. Raghavan, who goes to New York to help their police solve the case, unveils four other bodies killed in a similar manner.
We realize that a couple of students from Tamil Nadu, studying medicine at Brooklyn Medical School are serial rapists and murderers responsible for all the murders so far. When Raghavan zeroes them in, they miraculously escape - not just from Brooklyn, but from U.S and come back to India. Meanwhile, Raghavan's brief stints with Aradhana (Jyothika) blooms into love and they both come to India. You can predict the climax - the psychopath students go on a rampage in India before holding Aradhana as a hostage. Our hero comes and kills the bad guys and rescues her. Subham.
Kamal's performance is poor. Gautham didn't even get the second best performance out of him and it looks like he slept between calling 'action' and 'cut'. Kamal is one of the ten best actors I've seen and is a rare talent in Indian cinema industry. He's already aging and he should stop committing his remaining film career to such lousy projects. I'm not demanding to tailor masterpieces in every outing - but anything of this quality is avoidable. But if the audience punish him for delivering 'Hey Ram', he wouldn't have the motivation to experiment. Anyway, if you want to see Kamal as a cop, go rent 'Khakki Chattai' - that's wholesome entertainment.
The plot is so thin that Hardy Boys would have figured out and caught the murderers earlier than Raghavan and detective Anderson (his partner in NY). The direction does not hold water because of an unstructured screenplay, which is based on a loose story, all of which are unsupported by some bad dialogues. You can thank Gautham for messing up in all these departments. Ravi Varman is the photographer and I frankly would like to talk to him about a technique he uses during a chase scene: the camera vertically rolls 360 degrees a few times and it adds head ache to the already pained head by the story. The saving grace could be Harris Jayaraj - a few songs stayed with me as I walked out of the theatre, and I guess it will be a few months before I forget them.
Hitchcock said something like "There is a bomb under the table, it explodes - it's action. There's a bomb under the table, it doesn't explode - it's suspense". Gautham thinks he has fused both action and suspense deftly in this movie. But there's no bomb here - only a table.
Hi Prasad,
Did you watch Being Cyrus...what are your comments...I watched it, but will reserve publishing mine until you tell yours if you have watched it...
Cheers
Varahasimhan
Varaha,
Tell me if it's worth the time. If afraid of Hindi actors/technicians in an English film.
Prasad.
I think it was good, except the heavy Indian-English (read Hindi-English) accent...the kind of accent that would put Appu in The Simpsons to shame...
Cheers
Varaha
"He's already aging and he should stop committing his remaining film career to such lousy projects"
totally agree with you. horrible movie. but grapevine has it that kamal interferred to much with the direction. so much so that he and gautham had a stiff and hence gautham hasnt shown up in most of the celebrations/events surrounding the movie
Good write-up though I don't really agree with you. Kamal's understated acting shouldn't be mistaken for bad acting. Vasool Raja was disinterested acting; this is not.
hahaha
good one
N