Vikram vedha - review

Tamil movie world is split across, those who’ve seen Vikram Vedha and those who are yet to. Such has been the response the movie has been garnering that, people are already awaiting the next release from the husband-wife director duo. More often than not, the movie that wins at BO is not always because of the uniqueness of the story, that is never told before, nor always on the strength of the leads. There are times when, despite being so ordinary and repetitive, the art of storytelling, carries the movie to its success. Vikram Vedha is a perfect fit for such a case to study.
Even with success of author backed movies, there is somehow a reluctant tendency amongst movie makers to opt for such scripts. Whatever the reason may be, its high time, the tide changed. Also, rather than aping everything from Hollywood and Korean movies, lifting scripts from international movie festivals, we need to see within our treasure trove of stories, is another lesson for others to follow, which the success of VIkram veda conveys to all. Story wise, it’s so simple and redundant that every single cop story follows the same pattern and it literally writes itself. You’ve an upright cop and an all-powerful villain (at least by projection). Be it the questionable moral fiber of the cop, flashbacks that kind of justifies the misdeeds of the villain and finally a lame twist of backstabbing, we’ve seen it all across numerous cop stories. But what works here is the way in which the entire story has been packaged. There are flashbacks, but instead of someone voicing out the reason behind the killings by the villain, we’ve the hero himself validating the situation and how he would’ve reacted in such a scenario – a take back to the way it happens in Vikram-vedal story series. The way each time Maddy catches up with Vijay Sethupathi and how he escapes each time by telling a story, leaving the justification part to Maddy is a brilliant synchronization with the original story telling technique.

Just like in the original vikram-vedhal series, despite the main characters being just the narrator and the listener, with the original story happening around so many other characters, we hardly remember any other character but for these two. Ditto for this story as well. Its where the screenplay scores heads and shoulders above every other movie that has been released this year. It can very well be a trendsetter movie in this regard and probably worth a lesson in study on how to make a gripping screenplay by using ancient techniques.

Gils verdict – the movie is already a blockbuster. What is interesting about the movie is not its story line but how its told. Wish this becomes a trendsetter for future storytellers to adopt and succeed.