Velaikkaran Movie Review
Director, Story, Screenplay : Jayam Raja
Producer : R.D. Raja
Writter : Jayam Raja | Subha | N. Baskaran
Cast : Sivakarthikeyan | Fahadh Faasil | Nayanthara | Prakash Raj | Sneha
Music : Anirudh Ravichandar
Cinematography : Ramji
Editor : Ruben | Vivek Harshan
Production company : 24AM Studios
Distributor : 24AM Studios | E4 Entertainment
Release date : 22 December 2017
Running time : 160 minutes
Last time, when Mohan Raja made his directorial comeback with the film ‘Thani Oruvan’, it boasted of many bright highlights. Be it the major premise or the characterizations, everything was so much strong and appealing. He picks up quite a sensitive issue of the contemporary times, which could be related and reflected by many of us. Velaikkaran features Sivakarthikeyan and Fahadh Faasil in lead roles with Nayantara, Prakash Raj and Sneha in important characterizations.
The film revolves around a responsible youngster (Sivakarthikeyan), who is born and brought up in slum backdrops. He owns an amateur radio station for the slum dwellers and urged by family situations and some pressures imposed by goon (Prakash Raj) decides to get into a job. He joins Saffron Corporate Food Company, where he comes across a smart talented team leader (Fahadh Faasil). But sooner, the protagonist’s life goes through turbulences of uncovering darkest secrets about the corporate world.
Mohan Raja definitely deserves tons of appreciations for picking up a much hard-hitting realistic theme as the premise. It is something that every individual would instantly feel related towards.
Certain dialogues in the film are stunningly crafted, which is so much appreciable. The lines like ‘A Kalam or Kejriwal cannot change the nation, the change must happen in everyone’. There are some loopholes and illogical quotients in the film, which might get eclipsed by the premise. On the other end, we get to see most of the talented actors are limited with minimal roles, especially Prakash Raj. Fahadh Faasil is the ultimate showstopper out here. He just carries off every scene with excellence and he is definitely going to rule Tamil industry for a long time.
Sivakarthikeyan has tried escalated his performance from his previous movie. But the problem is that he keeps talking and too much preaching throughout the movie. We have already witnessed the same with top league heroes and directors in the past, especially in Thailand. Nayantara appears for namesake and does nothing other than accompanying hero in all places. RJ Balaji, Satish and Robo Shankar are completely wasted. Sneha does justice to her role. Prakash Raj is excellent although his role is minimal, Mahesh Manjerkar is a huge talent, but is wasted here with limited scope. Rohini is appreciable for her emotional characterization.
It is slightly disappointing with Anirudh for his background score looks too mediocre out here. Even the songs aren’t pictured as whole. Iraiva is split in two different parts, which fails to gain our interest. Karuthavanlaam Galeejam could be a delight for single screen audiences. Cinematography by Ramji is artful as he tries experimenting with different tones and colours. Editing by Ruben misses continuity in many places.
On the whole, Velaikkaran holds a strong and commendable concept, which will be definitely appreciated by universal audiences. But it was nurtured with more drama than lengthy preachy dialogues, it would have been a brilliant racy drama.
