Unlike most star vehicles which throw in offhanded, disconnected references to an actor’s filmography, Vettaiyan handles this with taste and grace. You think of Baasha when you see his cool glasses and later, when he isolates himself in a room to intimidate another man. You see Annamalai as an enemy rises in a lift and later, meets his comeuppance as he is forced to come down.
You see Sivaji, sorry, MGR, as Athiyan steps out of a helicopter. There’s even a Jailer reference somewhere when Athiyan assures that if he had a son, he wouldn’t hesitate to punish him. Even the mandatory Rajinikanth punchline, ‘Kuri vecha, erai vizhanum’, is skillfully woven into the film, and that final iteration when he doesn’t quite finish the line is a lovely touch.
Till Pa Ranjith showed us otherwise, we weren’t sure if it was possible to make star-centred cinema that could stand up for the downtrodden without feeling like escapist fantasies. With Vettaiyan, Gnanavel tackles many real-world issues, including the unfairness of the NEET exams, the oppression of police profiling, the burden of stereotyping, and of course, the problem of trigger-happy policing. Could Vettaiyan have been more?
Sure, but I thought the film must have been such a tightrope walk for Gnanavel, who seems to be engaging in fan service, while trying to retain his conscience as a storyteller as well. Is it a perfect walk? Far from it, but in those stretches when he does pull it off—when he’s not stumbling—the pleasure feels quite worth it all.
Director: TJ Gnanavel
Cast: Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Fahadh Faasil, Rana Daggubati, Ritika Singh, Dushara Vijayan, Manju Warrier
Rating : 3.5/5
