Haricharan Pudipeddi
Chennai, 05 Feb 2022 1:00 IST
TP Saravanan’s Veeramae Vaagai Soodum has interesting as well as predictable stretches. While it unfolds like your regular revenge-based vigilante drama where a common man decides to go against the system to get justice; it works in parts because of the narrative style.
TP Saravanan’s Veeramae Vaagai Soodum (2022) has interesting stretches as well as predictable ones. While it unfolds like a regular revenge-based vigilante drama with a common man deciding to go against the system to get justice, it works at least in part because of the narrative style. Instead of building a story where a hero takes on a villain in a straightforward way, Saravanan builds the tension with multiple crimes colliding to create a domino effect. If not for the multiple crime angles, the film would have been just another story of revenge. Still, you can’t shake off the predictability in places.
Vishal plays Porus alia Purushothaman, who is getting ready to be a police officer. He is the kind of guy who believes in flexing his muscles when it comes to dealing with injustice. His father, a constable, feels his anger will someday land him in trouble and end his career even before he can don the khaki.
Baburaj plays a lawless local politician who is eyeing the region's parliamentary seat. His younger brother uses his clout in college to do pretty much as he pleases. In one incident, Baburaj’s brother gets embroiled in an MMS scandal involving a collegemate and it escalates into a police complaint. At the same time, Porus’s sister is being harassed constantly by a local thug, When the harassment goes out of control, Porus gets involved and takes matter into his hands. Meanwhile, Baburaj must deal with an employee from his factory who has been protesting against its closure for polluting nearby villages with hazardous waste. All three incidents are connected and collide to create a domino effect.
Vishal is dubbed the action star of Tamil cinema and he tries to live up to that image in most of his films. His films never let fans down on the action front, but Veeramae Vaagai Soodum stands apart with some decent action stretches and even some moments of over-the-top action that work only because they feature Vishal, who has always succeeded in pulling off stunts and making them look believable. Vishal’s character is written in a way that he also uses his future skills as a police officer to look at the crimes and connect the dots.
Unfortunately, like most Tamil films, Veeramae Vaagai Soodum has poorly written female characters. The mother is sidelined to doing kitchen chores while the sister is awkwardly portrayed in the harassment scenes. Another female character is used in the most uncomfortable fashion for a subplot involving an MMS scandal. Dimple Hayathi as the heroine gets a decent introduction where she calls out the behaviour of her manager. However, no scene thereafter has much for her.
As a vigilante action film, Veeramae Vaagai Soodum makes for a decent watch. It does feel long-drawn at 2 hours 46 minutes, but the action will keep you pinned till the last minute.