Ippadai Vellum – Fairly engaging but quite some flab

Bharath Vijayakumar

The hero on the run is always an interesting premise. When the actor playing the part is not an action star then you are bound to be more involved with the proceedings as there is more scope of brain at play here. Ippadai Vellum employs this pattern and churns out a fairly engaging film but accompanied by some insipid humour.

The good thing about the film is that it keeps itself afloat during its running time. The plot involving Daniel Balaji as a terrorist on the run who inadverdently pulls Udhayanidhi Stalin and Soori into the equation does hold some water. The attempt to keep the film light-hearted is also fine. But most of the comedy hardly works and this puts the film in a no man's zone. It is neither nail-biting as it could have been nor really works as an exciting popcorn entertainer.

There is not much to complain about the easy coincidences that help the hero but the biggest issue with the film for me was how the actors/characters never looked under any sort of tension. We know that all is going to be well given the nature of the film but the funny part is that the actors on screen too look relaxed. More flummoxing is the characterisation of R.K.Suresh who keeps providing unintended laughter. He plays this police officer who is keen on bumping off Udhayindhi just because he is in love with his sister and seems oblivious of the lurking danger inspite of exactly knowing the extent of damage that could be caused. And please! Terming whatsapp is Tamil as 'Enna Mela' cannot even qualify as the lamest of jokes. Atleast this can be forgiven given that it is an attempted joke gone wrong but how long are we going to try and milk laughter by making a mockery out of specially abled persons.

The film shows glimpses of intelligent writing. For instance the fact that Soori playing a dubbing artist and that he dubs for Chotta Beem did not seem like a plot point initially. But it renders itself to a comedy scene much later and the the villain's name being Chotta adds some more to the fun. The dubbing artist angle also makes more sense in the climax.

Bottomline:

Ippadai Vellum ends up as a passable entertainer. This is good in a sense that it could have ended up being much worse but it is bad in the sense that the film could have actually worked much better given that it had the scope for it.

Rating: 2.5/5