Vettai Movie Review

Quick Synopsis: Thiru(Madhavan) and Guru(Arya) are brothers. Thiru becomes the police officer after their father dies. Unfortunately, his utter lack of courage makes him coward at his new job and the criminal element takes advantage of the situation until Guru steps in and begins to wield a heavy fist of justice. The romantic elements and brother relationships are weaved in the storyline.

What Works Well

Vettai's treatment of individual scenes are different and technical elements are of high quality as one would expect to see in Lingusamy's movie. Director Lingusamy has taken special care and attention to give fresh perspectives to familiar scenes with crisp dialogues. For example, the romantic scenes between Arya and Amala Paul are engaging. It is interesting to see how the director takes a very common scene(e.g.,Amala towel scene) and makes it interesting by revealing it in an unexpected manner. Arya and Sameera Reddy(sister-in-law) having a cat and mouse relationship is interestingly constructed and executed. 

Cast and Acting

• Amala Paul expressions will be a major draw in this movie. Amala Paul emotes and plays her role as required in the commercial cinema format. This probably is the first movie where she makes the leap to a heroine and the movie offers all elements (dance, modern outfits, traditional dance, folk dance, lip-lip kiss etc). The only department where she has ample scope to improve is her dance. But, her expressions in scenes and songs compensates for any short-comings. 

• Arya fights, dances, romances and does all these with ease. The man has come a long way since 'Ullam Ketkumey' in every department. But, we need to wait to see whether Vettai will take his career to next level. Madhavan portrays the role of a likeable timid guy very well. But, why Madhavan decided to act in this movie is a mystery. His character is weak -- physically and intellectually. He almost plays second fiddle to Arya in the climax scenes. 

• Sameera Reddy has done the role given to her appropriately, emoting as needed, especially in the scooter scenes involving Arya. Nasser is top-notch in a small light-hearted role where he shows a lot of ease in comedy timing. Thambi Ramaiah is becoming one of the most reliable character artists in Tamil Industry.

Music and Songs

Yuvan background score does its best to build the momentum starting from the title and does it right for action sequences. But it is the songs that do not make you sit up especially for the first-time listeners. Vettai has better quality of music and vocal quality with respect to his recent movies like Rajapattai. The self-hyped 'Papaarappa' song is pedestrian in the picturization since the dance choreography and locations are similar to the "Gopala Gopala" song from Kadhalan days. 

Technical Value

So, what doesn't work

• Due to lack of uniqueness in the antagonist thread, the movie struggles to sustain interest even though individual scenes are treated extremely well with lots of care and freshness.

• There are some logical loop-holes especially how goons are unable to differentiate the physique of Arya and Maddy. In Payya, the hero escapes from the villain by walking past a toll booth with an umbrella covering the face. Here, Arya plays a body double for his brother by wearing a rain coat that half covers the face. Due to good technical values, this may not bother the general public.

• Most important scene in the second half showing Madhavan's transformation to a "bold" police officer is not convincing enough.

The level of creativity the director showed in the first half progressively wanes in the second half and comes to a screeching halt at the climax portions.

Bottomline 

Lingusamy has tried to make a movie with the intention to create the same impact that 'Run' made. The director has the right mass elements intelligently weaved in the storyline. Though, he seems to have forgotten that 10 years have passed and tamil cinema/cine-goers have evolved since then. Overall, Vettai may be slightly better than Payya. But, the movie's performance at the box office may be uphill due to the timing of release (Good news is that modest production cost and Entertainment Tax Waiver granted by the government should take the distributors to safety zone within the first couple of weeks)