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Vetrivel review: Knotty plot and jerky script ruin this Sasikumar film

  • Gautaman Bhaskaran, Hindustan Times
  • Updated: Apr 22, 2016 17:35 IST
Sasikumar looks utterly jaded, essaying the same kind of a do-godder, talking morals and saving society. (YouTube Grab)

Vetrivel

Director: Vasanthamani

Cast: Sasikumar, Miya George, Prabhu, Samuthirakani, Ananth Nag, Thambi Ramaiah

Rating: 1.5/5

Vasanthamani has written and directed a film, Vetrivel, that appears to have been lifted in bits and pieces from several earlier works like Sundarapandian, Nadodigal and Thevar Magan, and what is worse, the lead in the helmer’s latest outing, Sasikumar, looks utterly jaded -- essaying the same kind of do-godder, talking morals and saving society. A controlled actor no doubt, but Sasikumar is not even willing to give up his beard, and in movie after movie, he looks the same, delivering dialogues in a sickeningly similar manner and getting into characters who look much the same.

Read: I come from a farming family, hence my rural themes, says M Sasikumar

Some bits of the plot are similar to Thevar Magan. Vetrivel loves a Malayalee girl, Janani but when forced by circumstances, has to marry another girl. (YouTube Grab)

Playing Vetrivel in Vasanthamani’s work, Sasikumar, is the eldest of two brothers to a father who is a respected school teacher in a small village, whose panchayat president is Prabhu. Vetrivel runs a grocery business, having disappointed his father who had hoped that his son would study and get into the teaching profession. Vetrivel falls in love with a Malayalee girl, Janani (Miya George), and is all set to get married to her.

Read: Vetrivel trailer | Sasikumar tells an old story the boring way

Vetrivel appears to have been lifted, in bits and pieces, from several earlier works like Sundarapandian, Nadodigal and Thevar Magan. (YouTube Grab)

But when a kidnapping to help his younger brother elope with his lover goes awry, and a wrong girl is abducted from a fair, Vetrivel finds himself in a dilemma when the victim tells him that she cannot go back home after having vanished for a night. For, that will raise questions of honour and chastity. Vetrivel has little option but to marry this girl, sacrificing his love -- in a sequence that reminded me of Thevar Magan, where a Kamal Hassan has to forget his love under a similar circumstance of honour and goodness.

Watch the trailer of Vetrivel here:

Though, Vetrivel raises pertinent questions about caste prejudices and how they mar young lives and their romantic dreams, the film is too messily convoluted with stupid songs and needlessly choreographed violence which hamper the narrative, making it jerky and cumbersome to follow. Pray, why must the plot and the script be so complicated that the very pleasure of watching a movie is lost. Rather it becomes a strain.

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