Hyper-link films like ‘Maanagaram’ have met with success in recent times in Kollywood and director Meera Kathiravan of 'Aval Peiyar Tamilarasi' fame has come out with his 'Vizhithiru' that aims to tell five unconnected stories that converge in the climax to amplify his theme that “If one does a wrong or right to another, that person becomes a part of his/her life”
The events of 'Vizhithiru' stories are set in one night. Muthukumar (Krishna) a call taxi driver who is getting ready to go to his village to visit his mom and sister loses his purse and to get the money to go home accepts an acting driver duty to passenger SPB Charan who is a brave journalist carrying evidence of a politician-cops nexus murder with the intent of exposing them. Chandrababu (Vidharth) a thief enters a house to find Saroja Devi (Sai Dhanshika) in bridal attire tied up and hearing her story of being married to a old man agrees to help her escape. Venkat Prabhu a blind man and his little daughter Sara are in search of their missing dog. Vicky (Rahul Bhaskaran) an arrogant industrialist tries to hit on a Catherine (Erica Fernandez) at a party who tells him that if he can impress her on the journey from Bangalore to Chennai in his car he can have her. These nicely sets up stories reach a high point in the interval when baby Sara is kidnapped, SPB Charan gets killed and Krishna is hunted for, the evidence, Sai Dhanshika is not what she seems as she sets a trap for Vidharth and how all these characters end up with Rahul and Erica forms the rest of the screenplay.The ensemble cast of Vidharth, Krishna, Venkat Prabhu, Sai Dhansika, Baby Sara, Erica Fernandez, Abinaya and Rahul Bhaskaran have put in neat performances and Vidharth especially scores in the climax when he realizes that he is the reason for the tragedy that occurs and when he makes amends. Thambi Ramaiah’s attempts at comedy fall flat while Sudha Chandran, RNR Manohar and SPB Charan make their presence felt.
The first half of the film is interesting when the stories are set up and the screenplay alternates between each helped to a large extent by the acting and camera work more than the script itself. The angle about an RJ (Abhinaya) getting connected to the man in danger on a radio program is quite interesting till it lasts. Meera Kathiravan’s moment is when in the climax he does drive home his theme.
On the downside the first half opened up many possibilities for the screenplay to travel in an engaging manner, but all that is lost to mediocrity in the second half. Krishna escaping from the hands of the police too many times and the encounter specialists bungling too often in pursuit of an ordinary man after a point becomes almost laughable and dilutes his character's noble gesture. Similarly Sai Dhanshika and Vidharth stick together for no reason and seem to go on in circles endlessly on a bicycle . The Venkat Prabhu and Sara episode is no doubt emotional, but still their actions lack plausibility. On the other hand the Rahul Bhaskaran -Erica Fernandez episode is more on a believable plane. The T.Rajendhar item number placed in the most inappropriate situation in the screenplay fails, just like the offscreen controversy that lit up and doused in a flash a few weeks back.
'Vizhithiru' is mostly shot at night and Vijay Milton and R.V. Saran have collaborated on the cinematography to give a flawless look for the film throughout. Similarly Praveen KL and Sreekanth have done their best to keep the proceedings on a crisp note. Nothing to complain about Sathyan Mahalingam’s music and other technical aspects. Meera Kathiravan deserves appreciation for attempting to convey a good theme and a few relevant messages.
Verdict : Go for it to watch neat performances from the ensemble cast and the few good messages the film carries.
