Family, sentiment, love with the right dosage of Drama always make up a great ingredient for a good movie, newbie Vasantha Mani has taken up the director’s seat to mix up all these with the help of some power packed performances from the entire cast of ‘Vetrivel’. Sasikumar after his daring ‘Thara Thapatai’ with Bala gets back to his original avatar, the feel good Samaritan as always but also little more soft spoken and rising to the occasion when it matters the most. Set in rural milieu, the movie is a good example of how the movie can be more than just what we just take back from the trailer. With D.Imman and a prominent cast to aid, let’s see how Sasikumar & team has fared out.
If you have seen the trailer of Vetrivel, you obviously would have felt the notion of knowing the whole story from the sneak-peek itself; a caring brother who is ready to travel that extra mile for his brother’s love, opposes the girl’s father, incurs the wrath of his parents and falls in love too. Yeah, most of it is true, but there is more than what just meets the eye, the director has cleverly put in twists and turns in this family drama with the perfect amount of sentiment and values to make this more interesting, which is what makes Vetrivel a decent watch at the end. A clean family drama is always driven by familiar scenes that take place in our daily lives, and Vasantha Mani looks to have captured that aesthetically, take this scene for instance – An irritated father (Ilavarasu) throws the cellphone at his son in a fit of anger and in the next shot he is seen trying to assemble his phone back scenes like this make 'Vetrivel’ more than just that average flick.
The director wastes no time in taking through the love story of Sasikumar and Miya George, captures the rural theme spot on. Sasikumar has improved a lot in the romantic segment but there are faint glances of the actor struggling when it comes to love, but the director saves it by moving on to the plot quickly enough. With both Sasikumar and his brother smitten by love, the elder one decides to take matters up for his brother’s love which is surrounded by a cloud of caste and sentiments. Yet again it’s like Dejavu, ‘Sundarapandian’ and ‘Nadodigal’ immediately spring into your mind with all the abduction and chasing sequences, but somehow the twist comes before the interval block with the director taking a U turn from what we would have expected and gets the screenplay completely engaging. The director leaves for intermission with a great deal of predictable plot at disposal, however the screenplay which took the story till then leaves us expecting more to come.
Sasikumar’ s movies always scream out variety, especially in terms of content not falling out on the sentiments too. ‘Vetrivel’ too has its moments, like a brother who takes the heat for going to an extent of losing his love for his sibling returns a with a smile in the end, the mother who fumes at her daughter in law, then talks a simple line on morals and welcomes her back, and also that light hearted comedy which always makes the perfect backbone served in the form of the talented Thambi Ramiah who makes us giggle back and forth through the first half. ‘Vetrivel’ s biggest plus is the cast and their prowess in rising to the occasion, AnanthNag as a faithful brother, Miya George’s cute expressions, Nikila’s sullen but powerful silence, Ilavarasu & Renuka as the perfect middle class parents, Prabhu as the village head, Samuthrakani’s quick cameo, they all have their parts sketched out with perfection and do it extremely well.
One of the weakest links of ‘Vetrivel’ is surely the villain character, it lacks the punch and is rather made too much predictable, also hindering the length of the movie with fights and what not. The music apart from Adiye Unna, don’t do much justice and the BGM is average on what is required.
The movie has a lot of good things to take back. Even though it’s essayed on lines of ‘Nadodigal’, Vetrivel has its moments. Sasikumar stands out with his performance, shows why the B & C sections simply adore him. The engaging screenplay in the first half takes a good chunk of credits aided by some good performances from the cast, the first half is a clear winner. It’s the second half’s predictability, length and poorly framed villain segments that doesn’t go down well. Vasantha Mani’s vision of a good rural movie is aided by Kathir’s good work behind the lens who captures the long shots and village essence neat and clean.
Verdict : Vetrivel is a neat family drama sure to entertain the needs of all types of audience with its clean content and engaging screenplay.
