Vikram Vedha (2017)

Director: Pushkar and Gayatri

Story: Pushkar and Gayatri

Cast: R. Madhavan, Vijay Sethupathi, Shraddha Srinath

Music: Sam C. S

Time: 147 minutes

Bottom-line: Thoroughly entertaining; bonus points for the climax

The much anticipated film of the year, Vikram Vedha stars two highly popular actors: R. Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi, in the lead roles, with a lot of new faces: Kathir, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar and Shraddha Srinath, in the supporting roles. The story takes its title from the classic tale of King Vikram and the ghost Betal; the king was given a task of capturing the ghost, who would narrate a story to the king on every attempt, and ask a riddle at the end, and would escape if the king answered right.

 

Madhavan as Vikram

Inspector Vikram (Madhavan) is brave, honest, and most importantly, clean as a whistle. Vikram and his partner, Simon, are part of an encounter operation to capture the dreaded criminal, Vedha (Sethupathi). Vedha is not present, but soon after the counter, Vedha himself surrenders himself to the police. When interrogated, he reveals nothing; when Vikram talks to him, Vedha offers to tell his life story, and asks Vikram a moral question at the end. Immediately after, Vedha is bailed out by his lawyer, Vikram’s wife, Priya (Srinath). This causes tension inside the household as well. As the story progresses, Vikram and Vedha play a game of wits against each other. As Vedha questions Vikram further, the latter realises that nothing is as plain as it seems, and no one is as clean as they seem; not even himself.

 

Sethupathi as Vedha

This is one of those films that is understood better in retrospect; it starts to make more sense when you discuss plot elements, and when you sit and think about the story. The structure of the story – and the tales within the tale – is really good. On hearing Vedha’s first story, Vikram understands that no one is born a criminal; by the second story, he finds himself saying that he killed an innocent victim, and by the end of the film, Vikram realises that everyone is a “grey” character; no one’s purely innocent, no one is purely guilty. The humour bits are well-written, and the romance doesn’t take up too much time. The film deserves brownie points for the climax: the cliff-hanger ending keeps tension at screaming point before cutting to black. This is similar to the last scene of Thegidi, but I hope neither film gets a sequel; that would really spoil it.

 

Madhavan, with Shraddha as Priya

The cinematography is good, and I like the way a lot of subtle hints are given – all of which are certainly noticeable and give way to the final plot twist. The few “insignificant” lines of dialogue, the camera shots that capture something off-focus matter too. The standard character intros are craftily created so that they receive maximum cheer from the audience. Sethupathi’s entry is essentially identical to John Doe’s intro in Se7en. Another interesting thing the camera captures is how in the first meeting between Vikram and Vedha, the former wears a white shirt, and in the second, he wears a grey one, and finally, black – corresponding to his change in perception too!

Madhavan has done a decent job playing the protagonist. It was good to see him play a non-chocolate-boy role (his other notable “grey” role being Inba in Ayutha Ezhuthu). Vijay Sethupathi is the star of the film: with his style, cunning, stories and punch lines, the way he toys around with Vikram is downright brilliant. One thing about the casting that I didn’t like is that there are too many characters with minor roles: it is difficult to follow who’s killing whom, who is chasing whom, as well as to keep track between Vedha’s story in the past and Vikram’s doings in the present.

The plot also gets a bit too complicated, but it is nicely patched up in the end. There are too many plot devices though – too many things happening in an illogical manner, just for the sake of the story to go the way it did. But, if you let them all go because they add to the drama, then the storyline is pretty solid. The killer background score, the action and excellent acting are the other things that you should look out for.

My Rating: 4/5