Cast: Madhavan, Arya, Sameera reddy, Amala Paul
Direction: Lingusamy
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Rating:

Review:Vettai is no classic, but it is good fun

Lingusamy is one director who has the commercial formula down pat. And his latest, UTV's Vettai, is certainly among the most appealing mainstream fare he has produced so far.

The story is simple. Two brothers, Thirumurthy (played by R Madhavan) and Guru (played by Arya) are thick as thieves. Only, Thirumurthy is pretty much a wimp and needs his younger brother to fight all his battles, from quarrelling during a kite-flying expedition during childhood right up to adulthood.

Guru cajoles his brother into accepting a police post after their father's death and Thirumurthy, after much pleading, accepts the post along with the transfer originally assigned to his father.

And this is where the problem starts. Thirumurthy, who quakes with fear even if someone sneezes, find himself caught in the toils of the local bigwig (introducing Ashutosh Rana), who, of course, controls the area with his violent ways. Thirumurthy gets tangled up right away, and from then on, the story is a classic mixture of comedy and action, clearly taking plenty of leaves out of the K Bhagyaraj movie, Avasara Police 100.

Wimpy cop and courageous brother both run riot, leaving you in fits of laughter and touching you with great sibling sentiment. In the midst of all this are firebrand Vasanthi (Sameera Reddy) and her sister Jayanthi (Amala Paul), who have no great role to play except pretty up the proceedings.

The first half, peppered with dialogues and humour, moves at a fantastic speed, making you wait on tenterhooks for the rest. The second half has its moments but is considerably slower. Mindless masala takes over soon, leading to the completely predictable bash-fest.

Madhavan and Arya have a ball playing brothers. The two are perfectly in sync, playing off against each other. You have to give Madhavan credit for taking up the role of a wimpy policeman who shakes in his shoes, even as he lets Arya play the hero, walking, talking and even fighting in style. The two hit it off perfectly; the only reason you can stomach some silliness in the screenplay is because of their comic timing.

Sameera Reddy is dashing, as always. Unfortunately, just when you think she is going to have something to do, her role dwindles into nothing. Amala Paul struts, pouts and hams to the hilt. Her role is shorter; so are her outfits.

Ashutosh Rana looks far more dignified than a rowdy should, and is as clueless as they come, letting both himself and his henchmen get beaten up.

Brinda Sarathy's dialogues strike the mark when it comes to comedy and make you squirm a bit when it comes to verbal punches.

Nirav Shah's camera work has little to do in an action entertainer like this. The look of the film is clean, neat, and focuses completely on the actors. Anthony's editing works, except for the last half hour, which could have done with some trimming.
Yuvan Shankar Raja's songs, sadly, do not hit the bull's-eye here, despite his past track record with the director.

Lingusamy's strength lies in packaging actors who play to their strengths, and mixing comedy and action into commercial fare. Logic obviously goes for a toss many times, but there is plenty of entertainment.

This diary of a wimpy policeman may not be a classic, but is fun nevertheless.

Review 2

Vettai though does not promise to be a blockbuster, it is a clean entertainer. I’d put this film in the comedy genre as opposed to the action genre, as it is projected. The lighter moments in the movie were really interesting and appeals to all sections of audiences. For instance, the initial interactions between Sameera Reddy and Arya; Madhavan’s reactions to Nasser’s praises; initial interactions between Amala Paul and Arya; reactions of Amala Paul’s prospective groom from the US; and Paatti’s quips about Arya were really funny.

Arya, Madhavan, Sameera Reddy and Amala Paul give a very creditable performance well within the scope provided to them. Nasser and Thambi Ramaiah in their cameos add a lot of value and I felt that they should have been used more.

Villains Ashuthosh Rana as Annachi, Muthukumar as Mari and Sreejith Ravi as Suruli – all of them look fearsome but beyond that they don’t do anything worthy of their looks and they become caricatures as the movie progresses. I am certainly not sure why someone like Ashuthosh Rana was wasted in the role of Annachi. Remember Atul Kulkarni in ‘Run’ and Lal in ‘Sanda Kozhi’, we don’t have that presence here in Vettai.

To give you the story, Madhavan is a coward and lands up in the job of a police officer by chance and Arya, his younger brother is a ruffian. Arya does most of what Madhavan’s job demands and Maddy gets all the credits. This gets known to the bad guys and they almost beat Maddy to death. The rest of the movie is about how Maddy overcomes his fear and settles scores with the bad guys. During this period, Madhavan gets married to Sameera and Arya gets married to Amala and both the ladies certainly deserved better looks in the movie.

I am not sure about the guest roles done by Raju Sundaram and Lingusamy in this movie and the need for it. Choreography of songs was great and the background music by Yuvan was extraordinary. However, the quality of songs that we associate with Lingusamy was not to be seen here. It lacked the fizz and was pretty much influenced by songs in Lingusamy’s previous movies. The first song ‘Dham Dham’, for instance, is influenced heavily by ‘Theradi Veediyil’ song from the movie Run. Even a part of the lyrics resemble the same.

Overall, Vettai misses the usual touch of Lingusamy that we saw in Sandakozhi and Run. The tension that existed in those movies does not exist in Vettai. Overall, this should be a grand affair in the box office for its ingredients of comedy and glamour.



Happy Pongal to everyone!