Vel

Vel is Suriya’s second film with Hari after Aaru (2005) and like Aaru, is one of those “mass entertainer” films he has done to expand his market by reaching out to the front benchers and go beyond the ‘classes’. Suriya succeeds brilliantly carrying off playing the mass hero(s) in style but the film, sadly, leaves much to be desired.

Unfortunately, Vel’s story is as old as the hills. Barring the angle of the city bred Vasu using his brains instead if brawn to tackle the villain, the film fails to bring any freshness to an otherwise standard double-role saga in its treatment and style. So, of course, we have the twins separated at childhood, the boys growing up in diametrically opposite environments, enough scenes of mistaken identity, them switching roles at a point before finally getting together to fight the villain. Yes, it’s that typical and even the narrative flow is largely predictable with very few unexpected elements. I suppose one could say the ending is a little different but somewhat expectedly so if the idea is to keep everyone happy. Worse, like Aaru, the film numbs you with its violence. Blood flows freer than water, arms are hacked off, women are slapped repeatedly, countless vehicles blown up and what have you. What is really disturbing is that not just the action scenes, but even Vadivelu’s comedy scenes are centred on violence and bloodshed and this is supposed to be funny.

On the narrative front, Hari by and large keeps things moving at a rapid pace so that even if the story is creaky beyond repair, its events keep unfolding quickly one after another in a solid masala mix of action, comedy and romance. Undoubtedly, frontbenchers would applaud some of the more chauvinistic dialogue and references made to the great ‘Tamizh’ culture and tradition.

And then there is Suriya’s central act(s). What more can one say about his incredible ability to rise above the script and breathe life into every scene with full conviction? He makes a fine angry man screaming punchy dialogues and deftly handling a sickle as the author-backed, standard action hero Vetrivel but for me, it is as the comparatively more sober city bred Vasu that he really scores. In the few performance scenes he has here, he is absolutely brilliant be it his realization he has fallen in love with Asin or the hurt he feels as she asks him to fudge the character report of her intended groom since she doesn’t want to marry, not knowing that he is the man in question. Not only is he perfectly understated, he even manages to prevent the obvious emotional scenes around both his characters from slipping into crass melodrama, no small achievement in a film as unsubtle as this. Still, one cannot help but be disappointed in Suriya’s occasional choice of films such as this but then in this line, box office success overrides everything else. Oh well…

Of the rest of the cast, Asin suffers from a sketchily written role being there for the romantic track and moral support for Vasu and little more. She is as usual over the top in her lighter scenes and adequate enough thereafter. Lakshmi is actually likeable enough as the matriarch of the large rural joint family but one was most disappointed by the way Kalabhavan Mani’s character was sketched. He is even comical (unintentionally) and caricature like and this somewhere defeats the impact of both the Suriyas’ victories. Hitchcock always said stronger the villain, stronger the film and hence the hero since he has to overcome a powerful nemesis. Vel fails big time here and Mani too can do nothing with the weakly written role as he is made to ham till it hurts. Vadivelu’s comedy too largely fails to be funny. Saranya and Charan Raj are so-so as the biological parents of the twins.

Technically, Priyan’s cinematography is efficient; the editing maintains the energetic flow of the film pretty much throughout but Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is ok enough nowhere near his best. True, the joint family song Aayiram Jannal Veedu, as Vasu charms Vel’s family, is the  most tuneful song and frankly, easily the best picturised song in the film but the others like Ottraikannale Une Pathe and Kovakkara Kiliye work just about well enough  while watching the film. The romantic songs are too routinely picturised with regular not-so-innovative choreography and have no nice moments in them whatever thus ruining the impact of the scenes leading to them. Not only that, they are the specific instances where the narrative comes to a grinding halt and you wish they’d just get on with the story. The action sequences are adequate enough for a film of this sort with enough blood, gore, shattering glass and vehicles being blown up to keep the front benchers whistling.

Overall, the film is really not worth watching in spite of Suriya’s rising-above-the-script act. Take him out and Vel would collapse like a pack of cards.

Tamil, Action, Drama, Color