Veerame Vaagai Soodum Review  - Vishal's yet another Misfire!

Ashwin Ram

Introduction: Veerame Vaagai Soodum is a crime drama directed by debut filmmaker Thu. Pa. Saravanan. The film stars Vishal, Dimple Hayati and Raveena Ravi in the lead roles. Vishal in his tailor made next door boy role, Dimple Hayati is his love interest, while Raveena Ravi plays Vishal’s younger sister. Music is scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

Premise:

Vishal is a middle class man who is waiting for his Sub Inspector of Police posting. Although he wants to question and go against all the crimes happening around him, his situation stops him from doing so. But one day when there arises a threat for his own family, the angry youngster jumps into the issue to save the day. Unfortunately, it’s so late by the time he gets a hand to it, how he deals with the personal loss and how he takes revenge forms the remaining story.

Writing/ Direction:

Plot-wise, it stays basic and usual, yet convincing enough to form a compelling commercial flick. But the problem here is, it tries to cover so many areas with no proper clarity. It touches on many clichéd topics, sticking in the template is not an issue, but the treatment being familiar and lack of depth is the actual reason for the failure. This film can be termed as the watered down version of Naan Mahaan Alla and Pandiyanadu, but the subplots had neat establishments and connected well with the core in the above said two movies, here there’s no focus in any aspect of the storyline. The tagline of the film is ‘The Rise of a Common Man’, the impact isn’t faithful to what it promises, there is no strong connection that we get to feel for most of the characters in the film. The pre-interval setting is quite interesting though the coincidences are a bit conveniently written. It leaves us at the halfway mark by revealing who the baddie is and what crime he has committed, also how it links to the protagonist, so obviously the screenplay of the latter becomes very challenging as things are open to the public now. But sadly, the bunch of clues which Vishal follows one by one to crack down the villain, basically the cat and mouse game is fragile and a steady grip is absent. The funny part is, the antagonist who is said to be powerful with the potential of a future politician is scared that the hero would reach and screw him at one point of time, so to cut off the links he kills his own men and safeguards himself. The dialogues took me back to my school life, to my value education classes to be precise, as each and every character speaks in a philosophical manner by giving out examples and stuff. Also, the runtime is an overly long 165 mins and it literally feels like the movie is running for one whole day, of course the duration wouldn’t have been a disturbing factor if the screenplay was packed with worthy situations. The way evidence got covered up at the end was damn impressive, this particular smart idea was equivalent to the one in Papanasam climax. But just a couple ideas alone can’t save any film. This one is no exception.

Performances:

Vishal in a tailor-made role for him is in fine form. His efforts elevate the action stretches several notches higher, the fight scenes are presented very well and was a treat to sit through. Dimple Hayati hardly appears for three scenes and just like the majority of commercial films, she is a needless addition coming on-board as the heroine for namesake. On the other hand, Raveena Ravi who plays Vishal’s sibling gets decent enough importance as her character takes the centre stage in the plot, she has done her job well by performing her role pretty neatly. There are so many side characters with very minimal screen-time, and with very less to offer to the story. Yogi Babu exists just as a filler and none of his jokes are funny or enjoyable.

Technicalities:

Thankfully there’s just one montage song in an already lengthy flick. Yuvan Shankar Raja usually produces some bang-on theme for Vishal, that’s significantly missing here but on the whole his background score isn’t bad. Infact, he has tried to uplift certain sequences by his decent music especially compared with the input he had been given to work on. Camera work in the fight sequences are solid, the single/ slow motion shots create some tension. DI work is very poor, a few day sequences were too bright and the colours are totally gone, all we see are just white tints appearing on-screen. Editing is messy too, it is evident at the very beginning in the opening title card where the prelude takes place in the middle. Kudos to the stunt master ANL Arasu for choreographing some topical action portions that ended as the main highlights of the film.

Bottomline:

What might have been a simple and relatable actioner, turns into a lengthy boring fair as the movie takes itself so seriously by trying to touch and bring together too many needless topics.

VEERAME VAAGAI SOODUM - Vishal’s yet another Misfire! Rating - 2.25/ 5.