08 September 2006

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly of Vettaiyaadu Vilayadu

Firstly,
The Good :
1. Ulaganayagan Padmashree Dr. Kamlahasan. Need we say more ? Quite a lot of people who walked out of the movie hall were heard saying "Kamal does not seem to be there". That IMHO is the perfect compliment an actor can get. A star makes the character bend to his star image, an actor bends himself to blend into the character. If you were not able to notice Kamalhasan, but see only Raghavan, isn't that the perfect compliment ? Notice the little things like how his voice breaks under emotion and then he clears his throat and says the lines Yaara Irukkum ? the second time, when he goes in the car with Prakashraj. That is Kamal touch ! I don't think the director would have even thought about these things.
2. To a large extent, a decent screenplay without much slackening of the pace. It does slacken a bit in the second half, but then i guess we can mannichufy (forgive) Gautam for this.
3. Pretty decent editing and camera work though the aerial shots sometimes tend to leave you a bit woggly ;-)
4. Decent performances from all and sundry, Prakashraj, Jyothika and Daniel Balaji including.
5. Continuity. Notice the fact that Kamal does not change his shirt throughout the entire initial sequence.
6. Usage of Tamil subtitling whenever the characters talk English. That lend a little bit more credibility. Still better would have been to let them talk in English in foreground and have a Tamil voice in the background for the benefit of those audiences who don't have the patience to read the Tamil subtitles.

The Bad:
1. Songs, i will even forgive the song between Kamal and Kamalinee, but the ugly graphics that accompanied the bike ride was simply bad.
2. Harris Jayaraj. Brother, you better see a few Illayaraja's movies to understand what is meant by re-recording. You are not supposed to grate all the metal instruments you have in your studio in the name of re-recording.
3. A little bit more character development of the villain. Why he became a serial killer and stuff. A few more minutes devoted to him instead of Kamal's first wife would have made quite a lot of difference. Would have made the movie more gripping.

The Ugly:
1. Kamal says "I think they are out there" and the camera pans to them. No Gautam. You lost it precisely at that point. A little bit more suspense build up would have done you good. Did you get bored ? ;-)

And finally, though the title says another episode in a police officer's life, i fail to understand why this has to be a sequel to Kakkha Kakkha. Gautam, you fell very nicely into the image trap. Just say this is no way similar to KK and this is just another movie, and it is a pretty decent movie to watch.
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 3:30 PM

1 Comments

  1. Blogger Balaji Chitra Ganesan posted at Monday, September 18, 2006 at 10:40:00 PM GMT+5:30  
    a late comment but saw vv only y'day! after Shankar now we have Gautham making several movies with a single story! (Shankar - Gentleman, Indian, Mudalvan, Anniyan, Sivaji?!) Except making the villain look a little more intelligent than the police, Goutham seems not to have too many ideas. Kamal was good, but perhaps we have come to except a lot more from him than going alone to take on a gangster (first scene) and making bravado speeches!

    -Balaji.

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