Velayudham - a review

I got to watch this movie, Vijay’s 52^nd release, only yesterday- a good 11 days after it hit the theatres. After some 2 and half odd hours, I tried to recall something of the film’s story or the characters. But all I could remember was Vijay, Vijay and Vijay. The movie makes a God out of him!

The film made at a cost of a whopping 40 crores is loosely based on the Telugu flick "Azad".

The  story….

Bharathi (Genelia) a freelance journalist tries making a difference in the society by laying bare its villainous side. In the process, she gets hounded by goons who kill her aides. Minutes later, a grievously wounded Bharathi finds her attackers killed in an accident. Seizing the opportunity, she holds a fictitious hero named Velayudham responsible for the goons’ death and leaves a warning that Velayudham would continue his actions against such criminals.

Around the same time, a villager called Velayudham (Vijay)  happens to be in town to collect the chit fund money he’d deposited for his sister’s (Charanya Mohan) wedding. He inadvertently prevents a few mishaps and is mistaken for his superficial namesake. He tries to evade his destiny but a tragedy forces him to don the hat and he ends up joining league with Bharathi to bring the goons and their bosses, a Home minister with a bad Tamil lip sync and an Afghan terrorist who speaks grammatically-correct Tamil, to justice.

I lost count of the number of comedians cast alongside Vijay. The main track is by Santhanam who like always, makes his comedy click with his mocking dialect and poker-face expressions.

Genelia is a misfit for the serious role of Bharathi and is clearly overshadowed by the second female lead. Her performance is quite mature though.

And then there’s our chinna kushboo Hansika Motwani in the guise of a village belle ‘Vaidehi’ (?!) who vies for the attention of her “maama”. Though she doesn’t come across as a Tamil village girl at all, she’s adorable and sizzles on-screen in the sets of the beat-thumping “Chillax” song!

The climax is sprinkled liberally with huge doses of Vijay heroics.  The director Raja could have underplayed some of the violence and gore in the innumerous fight sequences. But what’s a Vijay movie without all the adrenaline pumping action??? The train sequence does more than justice to his action hero image!

Music director Vijay Antony’s “Mayam Seidhayo” and “Mulachu Moonu” are thoroughly hummable and visually appealing too.

Velayudham is an out and out Vijay’s film- where the hero is given more importance than the screenplay. So the movie is a clear winner when it comes to his fans. 

If I were to rate “Velayudham”, I’d give 3 stars out of five, purely for the extravaganza and fanfare!