Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu - movie review

[Other transliterations for this movie name could be "Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyadu", "Vetayadu Vilayadu", "Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu". Added here so as to make search engine searches for any of these terms shows this page.]

 

I believe that the story of the movie for the director to unveil during the process of the movie, and hence knowing the story, or part thereof,  beforehand would strip you of the whole movie experience. Hence you wont find any details of the story, let alone any spoilers.

 

I see Tamil movies only when it is made by a good director. This time it was Gautham Menon, whose Kakka Kakka had impressed me. As mentioned at the start of the movie, this movie is about "an episode in a police officer's life". However, this episode spans a couple of years, I guess.

 

Though at times the frequent cuts and zooms does distract you a bit, Gautham has been very successful in telling a story, where one can identify with the characters involved. Since you feel so much attachment to the characters, every scene and every dalogue builds up the tension during the latter part of the movie. This is one of the very few action movies where I really bited my nails - not much because of the action itself, but because of the good story telling. In fact, in my opinion, for a movie the story telling is primary. Everything else is secondary.  

 

This movie is not for the feeble hearted. It contains lot of graphic violence and gory sequences. I guess this movie would have been rated with an "A" certificate. Even though there are a couple of holes in the plot, everything else outweighs that. 

 

I was just meserised by the performance of Kamal Hassan. His emoting is so subtle that you never feel that it is Kamal Hassan, and you would never feel that he is "acting". To me, that is the quality of any good actor. On the other extreme is Prakash Raj, who only has a small role in the movie. In my opinion, he is one of the most overrated actors. His emoting goes to the extremes of overacting that by watching him on the screen, you know that he is acting, or trying to act. Everyone else is some where in between these two extremes.

 

Some of the songs are likeable. I particularly like the frequenlty recurring background jingle, although it remind of one of A R Rahman's songs.

 

Overall, this movie is a must for the action movie buffs and serious moviegoers as well, but the feeble-hearted please stay away.