For long Road trips have been the envy of Hollywood and then Bollywood joined the bandwagon too, and in a similar way Transporter has been one of the finest franchises in Hollywood too. Vijay Milton has somehow put both these concepts in a blender, added some Tamil cinema's stereotyped commercial elements like item songs, a zillion villains, occasional adult jokes, action and all that to give 10E. Vikram making his appearance after the magnificent "I" stands tall with his style is paired with the gorgeous Samantha who might have grabbed her biggest role in Kollywood till date, given equal importance and also present is Pasupathy in a different avatar.
Vijay Milton has treated the storyline rather simple and straightforward with the only twists coming in late towards the climax. What happens when a stylish driver capable of doing those fast and furious stunts gets acquainted with a charming lady who has failed 15 times in driving test? The plot is as simple as that, add some villains (Rahul Dev and Abhimanyu Singh) who is some 3000 kilometers away sketching a plan aided by his agent Pasupathy and a few other goons here and there, that's 10e for you. Milton has put his foot down on the screenplay and the lead pair of Vikram-Samantha, their meetings, conversations, journey and finally a twisted climax, surely you would want to go and watch it without the spoilers.
Vikram is not the usual street fighter kind, who gets into a brawl right away, instead sips his tea when the assailant leaps with the knife and simply moves away taking cover, Milton establishes the character's mindset from the first frame with the amount of jokes and occasional gigs. For instance there is this scene when Pasupathy's henchmen abducts Vikram to beat him black and blue, but instead the guy starts building comical conversations and everyone forgets the world around him, so its work while work and fight while fight for Vikram and there is no single name that he carries through the flick – Michael Jackson, Kamal Hassan, Bill Gates, so on.. so good luck in finding that.
Contrast to him is Samantha, she is that lovely energy popped out candy girl who refuses to sink in on her negative past and enjoys failing the driving test, embarks the journey with Vikram and for a change Milton has given her the edge in pulling legs, for she continues to irritate Vikram and of course eventually fall in love too. With a female character needing such importance, the dubbing falls flat and at many scenes the lip sync is totally off-the-wall. That said, this might be one of the best roles she has grabbed so far, the part of an irritating, innocent bubbly geek girl seems to have suited her good enough. Also present is the usual surprise package Pasupathy, the funny villain might be the right word, proves yet again he can invoke laughter at ease.
From the day the trailer came out, the expectation was to witness some high voltage car chases, action sequences and all that, but somehow the CGI/VFX plays big time spoilsport with camera work saving the day now and then. Probably the wait for some good action packed sequence itself could have made the movie lengthier added to the placement of songs in the first half simply drags it down. Apart from Aanalum intha Mayakam, the other songs don't dwell well in the visual segments. Some of the lush locations through the north are worth mentioning with landscape like scenarios very lively.
The whole movie itself is saved by the lead pair of Vikram-Samantha who continue to pull each other's legs, make some witty statements at each other and continue to keep the movie alive. Surprisingly Samantha steals the show from the usual show stopper Vikram with her bubbly performance, a little more attention on the lip-sync and voice re-recording could have done wonders. The villain elements, climax fights, length and CGI sequences pull down the movie from being a commercial blockbuster.
That said, the movie is a good watch this festive season for there is no plot, just the screenplay which flows like the journey with some comic elements here and there.
Verdict : A jolly ride with a few speed breakers.
