Valimai Movie Review

Ajith Kumar starrer Valimai has been a much-awaited one in the Tamil movie industry. The expectations never lost its intensity despite the long delay due to pandemic issues. Written and directed by H. Vinoth (Sathuranga Vettai, Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru, Nerkonda Paarvai fame), the film is produced by Boney Kapoor of Bayview Project LLP.

The film is about a miscreant (Karthikeya), who under the name Satan Slaves has a network that gets invovled in all sort of illegal activities under dark web. The unemployed youngsters (even the great professionals like lawyers) become a prey to his trap. They serve him as servants by committing murders, chain snatching and distributing narcotic drugs. When the crime rate gets beyond the control, ACP Arjun (Ajith Kumar) from Madurai takes up the mission to curb it down and handcuff the miscreant. However, things get worse when his younger brother (Raj Ayyappa) is trapped as the main culprit, cornered as the leader of this Satan Slaves group, and Arjun himself is pushed behind the bars. How he manages to come out of the troubled waters and settle the scores form the crux of this story.

As it happens with excellent, good, average or even bad films of Ajith Kumar, his screen presence turns to be the great strength for the movie. Director Vinoth always nails it down perfectly when it comes to pointing out the social evils in the contemporary society through his gripping stories. His first three movies irrespective of the previous one being the remake of Hindi film Pink proved to be the best examples. In Valimai, he has yet again presented a social issue that is prevailing amidst us. In fact, films like Metro had partially touched the concept of youngsters dragged into the world of chain snatching, but this one completely covers the entire scenario of how the youngsters in thr country are ruined. But what becomes a problem here is his ability to balance his brilliance in storytelling and handling the star value of AK. The star had transformed himself into a performer for Vinoth’s previous film Nerkonda Paarvai, but over here, he tries to flex the muscle that Vinoth gets uncomfortable to handle it. To be precise, this plot actually deserves an intense and gripping narrative, where even a single unwanted commercial element would ruin the show. But the first 20 mins of Hero intro, song and family sentiments hampers the intensity of theme. Vinoth had attempted the same in Theeran, where the hero’s professional and personal space gets mixed emotionally. The interval twist is very much predictable as few early scenes clearly indicate the signs. The post-intermission scenes too proceed in similar pattern. Yes, there are few smart moments of Vinoth that includes the racy pre-intermission action blocks that invovle some surprises. Yeah! They are available in second half as well, but in scarce.

Technically, the cinematography needs special mention. Nirav Shah has done a great job. The action and stunts team are the show stealers. The bike action sequence, the bus scene are the top picks of attraction. Yuvan Shankar Raja is disappointing.

As on whole, Valimai speaks about a sensitive social issue based topic, and H Vinoth deserves special mention. However, it would have been better if he had a better screenwriting to make it more engrossing.