Veeramae Vaagai Soodum: A 'hyperlinked' action movie that is entertaining in parts

Cast: Vishal Krishna, Baburaj, Dimple Hayati, Raveena Ravi, Marimuthu, George Mariyaan, Kumaravel, RNR Manohar, Akilan and Deepthi

Director: Thu Pa Saravanan

Music director: Yuvan Shankar Raja

Synopsis: Three different crimes that affect ordinary people converge at a point where a common man takes revenge on the person responsible

Vishal Krishna’s collaboration with debutant Thu Pa Saravanan went on to become one of the most hyped releases ever since the weekend curfew was lifted. Billed as an action entertainer, Veeramae Vaagai Soodum starts off with three different storylines – Parisuttham (Kumaravel), a social activist staging a protest to shut a factory down; a middle-class family where the Porus’s (Vishal) father works as a police constable (Marimuthu); and a father-daughter duo (George Maryaan and Deepthi) leading a normal life. They have one common thread between them—a wannabe Member of Parliament.

The story goes backward, where we are introduced to Porus aka Purushothaman who is awaiting the appointment order as a sub-inspector. Unlike Vishal’s other films where the camera pans in all angles and we see a goon flying before we finally catch the first glimpse of the angry man, this film presents us with a mellowed-down hero who is aspiring to become a police officer. Simultaneously, a social activist protests against a chemical factory (an idea that has been done to death since the Sterlite issue in Tamil Nadu), and a girl is harassed by a group of youngsters at her college.

The first 45 minutes of the film set up the premise, including introducing the heroine Mythili (Dimple Hayati). The plot picks up the pace just before the interval and the manner in which Saravanan brings these parallel stories to a converging point. The hero’s family faces a loss and is put in a tough situation. Porus takes up these issues and starts investigating them by himself. One loss leads to several other losses around him, which is when he learns that all these crimes are interconnected and, in fact, take place at the same milieu around the same time.

The second half begins on a slow note but gets interesting with a couple of well-choreographed action sequences. The bottle fight video that created a lot of hype around the film prior to its release has been placed well in the story.

We are introduced to several characters in the second half despite knowing where the story is heading. When we see Baburaj’s name as the villain of the film, we expect it to be on the lines of Arvind Swami in Thani Oruvan or Vinay in Doctor. But his character falls flat in the cat-and-mouse game that ensues. Though the age-old sister sentiment has worked to an extent in the film, we are left wondering why this film needs a heroine.

There are a few high points in the film. Thu Pa Saravanan has managed to pack commercial content with a message and a few strong dialogues. Vishal as an action hero impresses us again apart from his performance in the climax. The stunt sequences and Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music are the saving graces. The editing and the outdated cinematography have done no good in elevating the message that Saravanan wanted to convey. Overall, Veeramae Vaagai Soodum is watchable and it’s good to see Vishal’s career arch move up with a performance-based role.