Vaa Vaathiyar finally ends up a bland but fascinating iteration of a masala movie funnelled by the prism of a unusual humorist, notes Arjun Menon.

The MGR consider Vaa Vaathiyaar

The identify MGR reverberates throughout the historical past of Tamil cinema like a reminder of a previous time, the place cinema, social justice and morality bled into one another. The picture of M G Ramachandran, matinee idol-turned-politician, and his concept of heroism remains to be amongst a number of issues that everybody, on all sides of the political spectrum, can agree upon as an easier time, the place evil was mitigated by an immortal heroic determine.

Nalan Kumarasamy makes use of this historic and cultural context of Tamil Nadu and its individuals as a jumping-off level for his tackle the vigilante masala subgenre. Nalan imagines a world the place, virtually 40 years after his dying, what if the heroic, paternal spirit of M G Ramachandran got here again to see the state of issues as they’re at the moment?

What would he do? How would the morally upright hero of numerous morality tales couched in particular person heroism really feel a few corrupt cop who sides with the dangerous guys being the hero of the story?

What Vaa Vaathiyaar is all about

On paper, Vaa Vaathiyaar has all of the makings of a swashbuckling entertainer that inverts the stale tropes of masala cinema by some intelligent conceptual gadgets. However Vaa Vaathiyar takes an attention-grabbing logline of a corrupt cop Ramu (Karthi) having the time of his life as a morally compromised, money-hungry cop whose dedicates his life to selfless heroism by MGR’s effervescent spirit.

The central dilemma in Ramu’s life is his loving grandfather Bhoomipichai (Rajkiran), a faithful MGR fan, who sees his grandson as a reincarnation of the useless celebrity and God’s present to the plenty.

Ramu additionally has an incident referring to a lottery ticket win from his childhood, which assured him that typically it is best to be Nambiar (the legendary villain from the heydays of Tamil cinema) than being the uptight but penniless hero obsessive about social reform, performed on most events by MGR.

In a technology the place onscreen heroism is proscribed to sensationalised bloodshed and mind-numbing gore, it is a aid to see the tender, humble hero determine of an easier time make his manner again to the massive screens.

There is no such thing as a dialoguebaazi, vanity or abrasive line deliveries at work right here. Only a good old style whipping session and journey across the metropolis at night time for the hero using on horseback, saving individuals on the streets who name for assist with period-appropriate soundtrack blasting within the background.

Does Nalan Kumarasamy ship in Vaa Vaathiyaar?

Nalan rapidly runs out of concepts to make the preliminary intrigue final, and his writing could be very superficial to land the specified outcomes. Arising with catchy one-liners is one factor, however following them up with the identical conviction is one other. He will get to the purpose rapidly and doesn’t beat across the bush in terms of the storytelling.

There’s a completely different model of Vaa Vaathiyar that may have been a tiresome, clumsy iteration of a beguiling central concept in lesser palms. However Nalan Kumarasamy, with simply two movies underneath his belt, Soodhu Kaavum and Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum, has already established himself as one of the crucial attention-grabbing comedic voices in Tamil cinema. There’s a flavour and texture to his earlier comedies that thrived on being pitch black and emanating from the bizarre eccentricity of his loser protagonists.

Vaa Vaathiyaar is a lesser work in his filmography because it trades in populist beats for wider palatability and finally ends up being a tad much less sharp than his earlier work.

A rip-off involving the federal government and a rogue group of hackers/activists referred to as Yellow Face, who’re out to reform corruption by exposing a rip-off involving the chief minister and a businessman, Periyasaami (Sathyaraj), is the secondary story we’re following in Vaa Vaathiyar. That narrative taking part in out in opposition to the resurrection of the old fashioned, moralistic hero determine because the alter ego of the corrupted cop is a really artistic conceit for a vigilante movie. However Nalan is simply too unfocused to make the imaginative concepts come to their full potential.

Ramu creating an alter ego is handled as a really handy, rushed phenomenon, the place the strains between lazy writing and lack of creativeness blur. You do not get the hero’s battle of being pulled in two instructions by the flip sides of morality. It is all in service of flashy motion scenes with Karthi hopping on a horse and using all around the metropolis for individuals looking for assist from the brand new favorite social media sensation, Vaathiyar.

The prospect of seeing a dated fashion of heroism face off with the cutthroat, cruel evils of the present world is explored solely as an incidental element in Vaa Vaathiyaar.

Karthi carries the ‘happy-go-lucky vibes’ of the opportunistic cop looking out for the subsequent bribe or leftover crumbs from enterprise offers, tactfully inserting himself into sticky conditions on the proper place and time.

Vaa Vaathiyar‘s poor second half

The second half proves to be the undoing of Vaa Vaathiyar, because the movie nosedives into being a run-of-the-mill actioner. Nalan overuses songs, and the movie abruptly cuts to track and dance numbers in between as if stopping the momentum.

Understandably, the impulse is to recreate the construction of an older form of ‘business cinema’ that thrived on extra to drive the leisure issue. However the songs stand out oddly as Nalan inadvertently backtracks the environment friendly and no-fuzz writing with the distractions of the dance numbers that add little to something by means of temper or texture to the movie.

Karthi is robust because the hero caught between alternating egos and makes the superficial particulars stick, regardless of the hurried writing that leaves no place for introspection of any variety.

Common MGR songs like Raajavin Paarvai and Naan Ungal Veettu Pillai are thrown in on occasion in remixed variations, and the movie tries to tie within the nostalgic facet, however the wayward writing within the latter half makes the random scenes stick out as mere workout routines in fashion.

Krithi Shetty is wasted because the mystic however finally clueless YouTuber Wu, who finally ends up being a aspect character in Ramu’s tryst with the alter ego state of affairs. The one ‘shoe leather-based’ in Vaa Vaathiyar‘s screenplay comes within the type of the awkward interactions between Wu and Ramu, who look like diametrically reverse individuals.

The movie forcefully inserts the love angle, since ah, you guessed it proper, it is inevitable. Our mainstream movies simply do not know what to do with their main girls, do they?

There are involuntary callbacks to movies like Anniyan, the place the gadget of an alter ego was used to right a flaw within the hero to grow to be a extra actionable, socially aware vigilante. However right here it is all performed out for laughs, and Nalan breaks any logical explanations as to how some issues occur the best way they do to the hero.

The soar between ‘Vaathiyar’ and ‘Ramu’ appears underdeveloped, because the movie makes you wish to assume it is a spirit in addition to an alter ego residing inside the hero that’s bouncing between the 2 personalities. The back-to-back struggle scenes find yourself changing into punctuation to maintain the spectacle going, despite the fact that after some extent, the motion turns into cumbersome and repetitive.

There are attention-grabbing conceits misplaced in translation as Nalan juggles between the tones of a daily motion car and an idiosyncratic homage to a time and form of filmmaking that thrived in its earnestness.

Anyone might do the second half of Vaa Vaathiyar in its current state, but it surely’s painful to see a filmmaker of Nalan’s calibre squander away all of the build-up momentum and infinite potential of the one line for momentary style pleasures.

Vaa Vaathiyar finally ends up being a bland but fascinating iteration of a masala movie funnelled by the prism of a unusual humorist.

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