Lokesh Kanagaraj and Kamal Haasan make history by giving Tamil cinema its first real genre-specific “action movie”

How was VJS? Was he effective?

LikeLike

Hari

Vikram

LikeLike

YAML92

Loved the movie. The main reason it works was that it had a watertight script with zero flab. No compromises whatsoever. Hats off to Lokesh for making a movie which had such a huge star cast and yet managing to make a satisfying movie across all aspects.

Yes, some people might complain there’s not much emotional depth/”dramatic acting” by Kamal – but given the genre of the movie, this was perfect.

There’s just so much more to say. Hope this goes onto become the biggest blockbuster Tamil cinema has had in the last 5 years or so.

LikeLike

Senthil S

Fahadh was so so good in this. Really made me wish for a full on commercial entertainer with him in the lead.

LikeLike

Ganesan Kandasamy

I watched the FDFS at 10am this morning in Singapore. I felt the movie itself was very satisfying, like eating a very good plate of biryani 🙂 I’m going back for seconds on Sunday. Meanwhile I look fwd to what everyone else thinks.

LikeLike

Siva

https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/vikram/

” You can read the rest of the review here:

”

BR: Remember when you used yo post this as the first line of the review?

Please bring that back.

We would always revist here if we want to post a comment.

Right now, the link to Galatta is not showing up in the email notification as it not on the top of the review. 😊

LikeLiked by 1 person

Sri Prabhuram

Glad I watched this FDFS. A Tamil film that I wanted to watch that did not disappoint at all.

LikeLike

ivan

Kamal’s milestone movies are usually packed with strong villains. Here, I think VJS wasn’t a total badass because he’s shown as a family oriented villain with a tinge of vulnerability (protective of his large family) and as someone who works under a menacing villain.

Do ask LK about his fascination with Mansoor Ali Khan. Chakku Chakku song from Asuran has MAK dancing to it and of course he was the first choice for Kaithi.

LikeLike

Anu Warrier

Oh, I so want to catch this one. The earlier Vikram was campy shlock but it eventually became my “It’s so bad it’s good” category. It was only from his interview at Cannes that I realized that Kamal had to make a lot of changes to the script. So glad that his version of the script found a director who could harness it. Looking forward to watching it – I hope it’s playing somewhere nearby.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Thupparivaalan

Spoiler alerts.

BR: you didn’t feel a bit underwhelmed by the action in the second half? Agent Tina’s combat was terrific, but the gun fights left me wanting for more. Also the final Kamal vs VJS fight was a downer. I’m really nitpicking here, but the reason I do this is Viswaroopam had really good action and I was looking for more of the same. First half interval fight was choreographed well but in general I felt a bit underwhelmed by the action. I think Hollywood has spoiled me.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Anuja Chandramouli

Spoilers alert!
I really enjoyed this actioner. It was like mainlining pure adrenaline! What a rush!! As a Rajini fan, I am usually determined to dislike KH’s performances and he often gives me good reason with his excessive affectations and elaborate mannerisms that compromise severely on heart and soul, but this is easily my fave performance of his and honestly, I was gobsmacked. Fahadh and VJS were outrageously good but they have nothing on the master. This was an effortlessly commanding performance and it was such a pleasant surprise. Really like this mellow version of him where he is content to let Fahadh have a big chunk of screen time (at least in the first half) but nevertheless manages to own the film plus the asses of his talented co – stars.
While the performances were exemplary, I had a few issues with Loki, though the guy has mostly done a fine job. Sentiment is one area where he always falls short. The whole baby resuscitation thing fell flat on its face. As for the half -assed romance, words fail me! The Fahadh – Gayatri portions with those godawful ‘baby’s being bandied about made me wanna puke. Another complaint is that of the main trio, VJS wound up getting the short end of the stick in terms of character development, though the man does some heavy lifting to set things right for himself. It is to his credit that he elevated the material to the level he did.
I also didn’t care for the elaborate build-up to the interval block. Seriously, did anyone in the entire audience actually think that Karnan had kicked the bucket? Or fail to recognise that distinctive voice behind that mask or the gleam in those extremely familiar eyes? Similarly, did anyone wait with bated breath to see if the baby would survive? This is exactly the sort of thing that makes me impatient and wish that Loki would pull up his bloody socks.

This stuff notwithstanding, the movie was tons of fun. I still can’t get over how brilliant Agent Teena was! She deserves a movie all too herself. As does the pint – sized dynamo from Paava Kadhaigal. Wish I could say the same about Suriya. The guy heaves and strains way too much to emote effectively and the result makes for painful viewing especially when juxtaposed against the incandescent brilliance of KH, FF and VJS. I kept wishing his stupid speech would end and Loki would get to the money shot already! But that final shot was totally worth it and almost made me forgive Loki for his other sins. Almost.
P.S: Can hardly wait for the next installment in the Loki verse.

LikeLiked by 3 people

Satya

The Man The Myth The Legend: Atleast for me, BR’s closing lines of the Kabali review are truly applicable to VJS here.

“For now, it must be said that Rajinikanth does more for the movie than the movie does for him.”

It is saddening to see VJS truly stretching for a role that, in writing, is as good as a cliched crime boss variation Prakash Raj would’ve played in his sleep.

LikeLiked by 1 person

TamilThanos

The movie had potential to become so much more. VJS character was weak yet I was blown away with the way they showed him and his huge family. The whole investigative piece in the first half fell flat (we of course knew Karnan was not dead) and yet the interval payoff was beautiful. This movie was almost there. It bothers me that we missed out on a Dark Knight level of epic by few inches.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Dhanda Soru

Saw the movie today. Here are some thoughts:

SPOILERS AHEAD

1.) What a disappointment. There is so much in this film, on paper at least, that should work brilliantly but I just never felt truly engrossed by it. I didn’t like Kaithi either, but I remember being riveted by the early scenes of that film. There were some interesting moments that would pique my interest, but at no point did I find myself truly immersed in the world that Lokesh had created.

2.) I felt like there was just very little genuine tension in this film, for whatever reason. I didn’t feel any sense of tension when Vikram had to stave off an army of goons to protect his grandson, even though his grandson’s condition should ideally lend itself to some truly tense moments.

3.) Did Lokesh really think that that reveal at the interval would pack a punch? I was half-hoping that Karnan would actually be reincarnated as a bloodthirsty soul seeking vengeance. Because otherwise, that was a pretty obvious ‘twist’ that could be seen coming from a mile away.

4.) I think a big reason for the lack of tension that I mentioned above is the fact that I didn’t really give a shit about any of the characters’ relationships. I didn’t care about Vikram and his son, I didn’t care about Vikram and his grandson and I sure as hell didn’t care about Amar and his wife.

4.) Speaking of which, how dumb do you have to be to stick with your husband even after you find out that he’s been holding someone against their will? Not saying that characters should always behave logically, but the film never gave me a compelling reason as to why this woman chooses to stay with this man beyond the possibility of shared childhood trauma and the fact that they’re in love.

5.) Vijay Sethupathi’s face when he comes across a photo of Amar’s wife is guaranteed to be memed. I don’t know what on earth Lokesh and VS were going for in that shot, but they’ve certainly made many meme creators very happy.

6.) And why so much bandha for a character who’s essentially a generic drug lord? Nothing about Sadhanam makes him particularly unique or menacing. Anbu from Kaithi had more menace than Sadhanam (in large part due to Arjun Das’ booming baritone, but still….)

7.) And why is there such a tonal difference in action sequences in this film? The action for the most is pretty believable and grounded, but when it comes to our hero and villain duking it out, it all of a sudden enters into mass masala mode. Why?

8.) As much as I appreciate the film trying to convey an anti-drugs message, can we talk about Vikram’s censor certificate? This is a film that has some truly grotesque violence at times, in addition to some pretty liberal swearing. And yet, it’s been given an U/A certificate. I’m not saying that consuming drugs is the same as being exposed to violent imagery. But I remember watching Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu and being scared shitless by the images of murdered women in the film. I pity the poor woman in the theatre who had to quell her child who was eager to know as to what had happened in the scene where Amar discovers his wife’s body.

9.) All of this may make it seem like I hated the film. But I didn’t. The stunt choreography was enjoyable, Anirudh did a good job with the background score and the cast was pretty good (except for VS, no idea what they were going for there). I just wish the film amounted to more.

LikeLiked by 4 people

Jay S

Spoiler Alert! I had no idea what happened to Kamal – For all I knew, the movie could have been a flashback. It was so surprising that despite the trailer and all the interviews I devoured, the movies stood up and drew me in. All the women were such a surprise. Fafa for me even beat Kamal (only due to the fact that I know every one of Kamal’s expressions). VJS somehow never made an impact. It was like his character or performance (not sure which) was floating above the movie and not really sticking to it. Again ,it didn’t spoil the movie.

I wish the second half didn’t have so many high points/action blocks… That’s a first where we wish for a little less. Suriya/Karthi/Kamal – Where will that take us?

Baddy – loved your comment about the spirit of Kamal making it a 100% Kamal movie. This movie seems like a crystal sample of the legacy and the impact this man has had on his fans. It is like his fans are unleashed (in terms of creativity and passion) and leashed (in terms of standards, integrity and ideology )by Kamal – Loki you represent all of us. Kudos to you for taking your inspiration to new places … I was overwhelmed by (y)our love for this man!

LikeLike

Yen Endra Kelvi

The emotional connect works big but I was underwhelmed by the stunts. I went in expecting a John Woo kind of action film in a Maanagaram setting. Or something like Prime Cut.

Girish seemed to just be capturing explosions and men firing guns in the climax action sequences rather than adding any extra layer to the action itself. The staging of the action sequences in the climax by Lokesh was basic in general – slo-mos of guns firing and Kamalish massy gestures.

But there was this one sequence where VJS & family try to rush outside their house which was reeally interesting. The entire space gets into this psychedelic background when VJS gets high! (Sidenote – Wish there was this psychedelic background every time VJS got high and entered the action zone)

And The Agent Tina sequence was awesome!

I felt the investigations part were edited really well – especially the sequences depicting the drunk and depressed Kamal.

Fafa seemed to cakewalk through the whole movie (or maybe he is just that effortless).Kamal aces the dramatic portions but his action scenes weren’t convincing. VJS may have looked the part but the character seems to not have any deeper motivations. Character development cannot be defined by the number of wives one has.

Minor protest 1 – The Black Squad backstory doesn’t add any extra layer to the story except that Kamal’s gang can kick ass too and has access to fancy guns. (But I understand that the Black Squad could be basically LKU’s Avengers Squad)

Minor protest 2 – The 5 min Kamal lecture sequence about his broader motivations for bringing down Santhanam wasn’t convincing. I felt the motivation could have just stuck to the emotional personal reasons. Why can’t the protagonist be selfish? (Its a commercial Tamil movie)

Minor protest 3 – Suriya is finally playing a really different role! But I felt that there could have been a proper finish to the movie and this sequence could have been a post-credit scene. (But I understand that the initial intention was to keep the Suriya cameo a surprise)

Minor protest 4 – Please stop making villains or antiheroes lick the blood to show how raw and monstrous they are. Its getting repetitive.

LikeLike

Dhanda Soru

Hi BR, did you receive my comment?

LikeLike

Dhanda Soru

Saw the movie today. Here are some thoughts:

SPOILERS AHEAD

1.) What a disappointment. There is so much in this film, on paper at least, that should work brilliantly but I just never felt truly engrossed by it. I didn’t like Kaithi either, but I remember being riveted by the early scenes of that film. There were some interesting moments that would pique my interest, but at no point did I find myself truly immersed in the world that Lokesh had created.

2.) I felt like there was just very little genuine tension in this film, for whatever reason. I didn’t feel any sense of tension when Vikram had to stave off an army of goons to protect his grandson, even though his grandson’s condition should ideally lend itself to some truly tense moments.

3.) Did Lokesh really think that that reveal at the interval would pack a punch? I was half-hoping that Karnan would actually be reincarnated as a bloodthirsty soul seeking vengeance. Because otherwise, that was a pretty obvious ‘twist’ that could be seen coming from a mile away.

4.) I think a big reason for the lack of tension that I mentioned above is the fact that I didn’t really give a shit about any of the characters’ relationships. I didn’t care about Vikram and his son, I didn’t care about Vikram and his grandson and I sure as hell didn’t care about Amar and his wife.

4.) Speaking of which, how dumb do you have to be to stick with your husband even after you find out that he’s been holding someone against their will? Not saying that characters should always behave logically, but the film never gives me a compelling reason as to why this woman chooses to stay with this man beyond the possibility of shared childhood trauma and the fact that they’re in love.

5.) Vijay Sethupathi’s face when he comes across a photo of Amar’s wife is guaranteed to be memed. I don’t know what on earth Lokesh and VS were going for in that shot, but they’ve certainly made many meme creators very happy.

6.) And why so much bandha for a character who’s essentially a generic drug lord? Nothing about Sadhanam makes him particularly unique or menacing. Anbu from Kaithi had more menace than Sadhanam (in large part due to Arjun Das’ booming baritone, but still….)

7.) And why is there such a tonal difference in action sequences in this film? The action for the most is pretty believable and grounded, but when it comes to our hero and villain duking it out, it all of a sudden enters into mass masala mode. Why?

8.) As much as I appreciate the film trying to convey an anti-drugs message, can we talk about Vikram’s censor certificate? This is a film that has some truly grotesque violence at times, in addition to some pretty liberal swearing. And yet, it’s been given an U/A certificate. I’m not saying that consuming drugs is the same as being exposed to violent imagery. But I remember watching Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu and being scared shitless by the images of murdered women in the film. I pity the poor woman in the theatre who had to quell her child who was eager to know as to what had happened in the scene where Amar discovers his wife’s body.

9.) All of this may make it seem like I hated the film. But I didn’t. The stunt choreography was enjoyable, Anirudh did a good job with the background score and the cast was pretty good (except for VS, no idea what they were going for there). I just wish the film amounted to more.

LikeLike

ivan

Dhanda Soru:

3 – We are a step ahead of Amar, obviously the audience know Karnan is alive. But the interval scene is for us to experience how that mystery will unravel to Amar and the villains.

6 – VJS is not on par with Naseer (TM, KP) or Pasupathy (Vir) but I’m glad he’s not a buffoon like Daniel Balaji in VV.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Dhanda Soru

@ivan

I don’t find that to be good writing if I’m being honest. I guess the element of surprise was the fact that he was a rogue ex-secret agent, but it just didn’t land for me 🤷🏾‍♂️

LikeLiked by 1 person

Monnish

Just one small thing BR, Anbarivu are twins and in the review you refer to them as a single person. Thought I would point it out before someone gets offended.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Thupparivaalan

Watched it again, and I can see what worked and what didn’t for me much better. The myth building around Vikram was really cool, but there’s also a lot of clumsy exposition in the first half. He could have avoided half of it and just let us figure out what’s happening by just letting things play (cause he takes time to show everything painstakingly). The interval scene is pure dynamite, the action is good. But, when things get to second half, I was really disappointed by the action scenes. Apart from one glorious fight scene from Agent Tina, rest of it is executed shoddily especially when you consider the mouthwatering scenarios he has in hand – Kamal going to make some milk killing some goons, such a great idea on paper but the way they shot it, the excitement is just not there on screen. Even in the end when he weilds the gigantic gun the bullets coming out are clearly visible as VFX stuff, the bullets impact on the cars feel like VFX. The sound design when the bullets are shot was shoddy too. This was a bit surprising cause I know how talented Kamal is in choreographing these things in Viswaroopam. The gunshots felt real in that film, whereas this is more cartoonish – I wouldn’t mind that but it needed more finesse in those moments. Add to that during some moments like Fahad trying to revive the kid – while neatly completes his arc, doesn’t translate to nail-biting tension on the screen. Santhana Barathy’s brilliant second half role takes me to “Nobody” an action masterpiece, which again reminds me this movie deserved much better directing and action scene directing for it’s ideas, ambition and plot design.

LikeLiked by 2 people

vijay

There’s a reason why Lokesh wants you to watch Kaidhi and not John Wick or Departed or Kill Bill before watching Vikram 🙂

LikeLiked by 1 person

Dhanda Soru

Damn, is nobody commenting on this thread? I thought there’d be at least close to 40-something comments given the hype surrounding this film 🤔

LikeLiked by 1 person

amith

Did anyone feel Anirudh’s score was generic? I thought Santhosh Narayan could have really elevated this film. The score was a major distraction for me and felt like it belonged to some other movie with lesser ambitions.

LikeLiked by 2 people

YAML92

@amith: I felt this was one of Anirudh’s better efforts. His score worked big time – especially in the interval sequence.

Currently for these types of star vehicles which require a pulsating score, Anirudh is the best person there is.

Re. being generic, I feel both SaNa and Anirudh have a fairly standard sound for the movies they do and are generic in their own ways.

I think your opinion is these movies don’t really need a pulsating score – point taken. But that’s the flavor of the season 🙂

LikeLiked by 2 people

ivan

Dhanda Soru: Was it really a surprise element? Err, not sure because the trailer kinda gave away too much.

LikeLike

I’m amazed so many people are taking the first stretch so literally. The audience is not meant to think “Kamal is dead”. The audience is meant to think “Okay, so Kamal can’t be really dead, so what’s the deal with his character and what’s going to happen now?” It’s a classic set-up.

LikeLiked by 1 person

praneshp

@brangan: while the intent was great, do you rate the action sequences in the second half highly? I’m notorious among my friends for setting a low bar for action, but even I found them boring. They should’ve cut out some fights and spent more on the remaining ones, IMO. I wish there was someone with the physicality of Vishal and the rest of Kamal’s skills that made a movie like Vikram.

I’m also surprised people took the first stretch so literally. Given that everyone knows the masked man is kamal, the way they got to the reveal at the interval block was just amazing.

As an aside, on my current India trip, I’ve really hated the movie watching experience at sathyam/luxe. I’m curious if I just got unlucky or they’re in a slow decline. The worst was Santham, but even in other theaters, they seem to turn up the volume to 25 by default.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Satya

brangan: Agreed it is a setup. But is it foolish on our part to expect a film like, say, ‘Rukh’ where a man’s death hangs over our hero like the betaal on Vikram, leading him to the right path? Like an intuition or mind-voice that drives this Sherlock Holmes-like detective/cop in solving his case? Seen that way, Vikram as a title would make even more sense.

But it is a Lokesh Kanagaraj’s film. His brainchild. So, I cannot complain really. And what I got to see was great too, so no issues for me.

LikeLike

Mankfan

BR of late you have been a bit soft on big ticket spectacles or is it your love and bias for Kamal Cruise that has perhaps led to such glowing praise for Vikram.
I was sceptical going into the film because of your review but I was hoping i would enjoy it as much. I think it started off really well as a slick, fast paced soderbergish crime thriller but it culminates into a Michael bay actioner and that left me disappointed.
Plus Lokesh gives VJS a raw deal by casting him in a such poorly written character but despite that VJS manages to rev up the proceedings by bringing out the sheer physicality of the character.

LikeLiked by 2 people

vijay

I think for a lot of folks, not seeing Kamal on big screen for 4 years and then seeing him in an action thriller like this on a big screen along with screaming fans in a post-covid normal scenario could have skewed opinions.
And I am not sure in what way this is “history-making” as a genre action movie, it doesnt come out in the review. Even Lokesh’s earlier Kaidhi or Thoongavanam fall in this category. I am sure there are a few more.

LikeLiked by 3 people

Lurker

I found it an enjoyable popcorn movie, maybe not as groundbreaking as this review suggests. Also, the review mentions that there is no sentimental angle here a la Kaithi, but there is a very similar (and less affecting) track involving a little boy, and another forced romantic track (spoilers follow), the fate is more or less spelt out in an early scene with Narain and FF.

LikeLike

KayKay

Will only comment on the movie once I’ve watched it, my current schedule basically allows me about one movie a week at the cinemas and the current week’s schedule is taken up by a horde of rampaging dinosaurs:-)

But a few comments on the comments:

“The worst was Santham, but even in other theaters, they seem to turn up the volume to 25 by default.”

praneshp, totally agree. As someone who’s watched movies in Chennai and Malaysia, the decibel levels are off the charts in Indian Cinemas (I feel). in fact, years ago, actually caught my 1st screening of Avatar in INOX Chennai, then proceeded to watch it again in KL, and it was definitely louder in INOX. My Malaysian friends who caught a Vijay film in Tamil Nadu said they actually had to cover their ears at some point.

“I think for a lot of folks, not seeing Kamal on big screen for 4 years and then seeing him in an action thriller like this on a big screen along with screaming fans in a post-covid normal scenario could have skewed opinions.”

vijay, the shoe’s now on the other foot. There was a time when every Rajini release was greeted like the Second Coming, back when he was releasing movies only once every 2 or 3 years, where Kamal was putting one out annually. Now Rajini’s putting out (increasingly mediocre) films on a regular basis and the luster has waned. But for once we’re seeing a long gap between Kamal films. So, Rajini fans can now experience the same bemusement non fans felt when he released Chandramukhi 3 years after Baba to rapturous response, only to see it and go….”This???They think this is good???” 🙂

LikeLiked by 2 people

ivan

The movie was fully entertaining. No need to over analyse, to rephrase Kamal “Vikram patha anubavikkanum, romba aaraya koodadhu”

For a young woman like me, couldn’t have asked for more. The Kamal Hassan along with all the Handsome Machans…Perfection! 🙂

LikeLiked by 1 person

Alfred

LK must be a big fan on Nolan’s Batman Trilogy.. Felt a lot of inspirations from that with the Bane Mask, Kamal/Fahad characters similar to Wayne/Blake, the ending at the restaurant , something like a bat-mobile, Taking out the lights, even the BGM when Fahad is investigating. .. What works for the movie is the first half with 4 teams where one is made to guess who’s chasing who.. Also liked the fact that LK, kept it simple for the commercial viewers to connect the dots easily by leaving the bread crumbs (more like Vikram-Vedha) .. So while the viewer is not hugely surprised, the scenes leading up to unravelling, gives you the wow-effect (be it the interval scene or Agent Tina)..
This sets up a huge scope for LKU where one could a prequel to Dilli, Amar or even Rolex as well as sequels with Vikram and Amar separately.. The big question is can he keep up with the expectations…One can Critique this movie and find out a gazillion things what didn’t work in the movie but to cater a movie to the casual viewer and Kamal’s fans long wait as well as not deviate from his Universe, LK gets a thumbs up…

LikeLike

therag

@KayKay, yeah I think this is Kamal’s Chandramukhi. Well, Chandramukhi had that fantastic Vadivelu-track (the highlight of the film). I don’t think this one has anything that memorable. People are happy to see Kamal after a long time I guess.

Add me to the “ok, underwhelming” pile.

One more thing. Our censor board is so damn useless, in this blood-soaked drug filled film, they see fit to mute words like “mru”. U/A vaan U/A. Mru thaan. Can’t give this an ‘A’ I guess since business would be affected.

Are all of Lokesh’s films this violent?

LikeLiked by 1 person

therag

Sorry had some asterisks in the cuss word but guess it needed formatting.

LikeLike

Sai R

Can someone share past Kamal movie winks in this one ?

LikeLike

Jeyashree

I found the movie all worth my time and money…having missed kamal since many days it was so fulfilling to see him sell both emotional scenes (with a not so deeply sentimental set up ) and some great action sequences with regular hero dialogues after so many ages…one could see what conviction and emoting is required to sell it all and I happily bought it to all of it ignoring some flaws…

But boy was vjs a disappointment trying too hard..that guy could have aced this character in his dreams but he was so ill at ease in delivering the psychedelic tone of a villain on a high…and I loved and enjoyed Karthi singign form within a mud house more than all that built up, made up, effort loaded “look how I have changed for this character and look how I am going to do different ACTING’ type surya cameo..fell flat for me…

Fahadh was amazing but you don’t have to be a secret agent but could have watched a few tamil flicks to know that your wife/ any close one is going to get murdered the moment they are on the screen

LikeLike

Mankfan

@Vijay, I think what BR means is that Vikram is the first pure action film because of its editing pattern and every big moment/event in the film is centred around an action setpiece.

LikeLike

vijay

Mankfan,hmmm… not quite..its a stretch to claim that this movie is a first of anything

LikeLiked by 1 person

Mankfan

Kamal has confirmed his next with Mahesh Narayanan, hopefully that will be Adipoli. I would like to see Kamal playing strong character roles like Fahadh in Kumbalangi, Take off or Thondimuthalum.
Wonder when TN Superstars are going to be magnanimous enough to act in films not centered around them or their characters.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Wow. Just wow. Major major major major disagree. Very much in the same camp as vijay, mankfan and the rag.

Especially what therag said here:

“One more thing. Our censor board is so damn useless, in this blood-soaked drug filled film, they see fit to mute words like “mru”. U/A vaan U/A. Mru thaan. Can’t give this an ‘A’ I guess since business would be affected.

Are all of Lokesh’s films this violent?”

This so much.

And @therag, Chandramukhi is almost like some masterpiece compared to this. And you as well as the other regulars know I am not a huge Rajni fan as in not capital R and more of a Kamal guy.

I would add on the same lines that this makes Viswaroopam look like Nayagan and Virumaandi…maybe we need to go to Vertigo inducing heights to compare.

What seriously is the point of so much style in the filmmaking if there is zero commitment to storytelling? I am not saying I want very linear narration like 80s Kamal action/thriller starrers (though you are frankly better off going back to first principles and try making a Kaaki Sattai to start with if you make such an utter mess). But even Jaume-Collet Serra directed Liam Neeson starrers have more plot, more story than this. Nalla vella they had only two mini songs…gosh, I can’t imagine how bloated this would have been with full fledged three-four songs, that too with adidhadi Anirudh music.

The first half wasn’t half bad and carried very ably by Fahad Faasil who seemed to be acting in a different movie that he’d thought he was signing up for (as opposed to the one LK, Kamal and VJS wanted to make). But I said at intermission when Kamal revealed himself not to the audience but to Fahad, the police and the mafia all in one go that the set up was bad from hereon for the second half. Well, I supposed if your goal is to make a bigger racket than Slayer turned up to 22 and not 11, then it’s a ‘terrific’ set up.

Anyhoooow, consider this the last time I am going to be spending on watching a big budget Tamil star vehicle in theater for at least a while. If not just general audience but hardcore cinephiles in TN like this so much, I guess I am way too adrift from where Tamil culture is at to be able to relate anymore.

But I am not done just yet so…my parting shot is I could have been at day 2 of World Jazz Festival at St Andrews instead. The tickets were minimum 1k a pop and 1.5k if you wanted to be decently close to the stage. But yesterday’s show was so overwhelmingly brilliant the performers richly earned a superlong standing ovation and cries for once more. Difference between performers totally committed to their art such that they make 1.5k tickets feel like a steal and another set of performers spending hundreds of crores but pandering to fourth wall, fifth wall, nth wall in every frame. Because it’s not like this is what Kamal, Fahad and VJS need to be utilised for or this is the best LK can make. This is about feeling compelled to adhere to marana mass rules. As for cinema? Cinema is the ghost (vetal) that kept running away from Vikram whenever he (it) tried to get hold of it.

LikeLike

Aman Basha

@vijay: It will be the first film to outgross Master and Bigil to be the new Tamil Industry hit.
It will also be the first film to gross whatever huge number it will gross in Kerala (either
as a tamil film or in general)
The collection records this film will break and make will shock many for a long time.
Lokesh Kanagaraj is the first and possibly only director after Shankar to have back-to-
back Industry hits.
It is the first Tamil film to tease the possibility of a crossover and a cinematic universe.
Podhum ma, ila venum aa?

LikeLiked by 1 person

“The score was a major distraction for me and felt like it belonged to some other movie with lesser ambitions.” – amith, the problem is less that the score is generic. It may be an unkind cut on my part but for THIS film, the score is fit for purpose. But my problem was the score (as well as all the action sounds) was turned up WAY too much in volume. So, to the comments above, it’s not just Satyam or other Chennai theater experience, even here at Inox Vashi, I felt the same. It’s not the theater, its how super-compressed the mixing is on the score. There’s so much ‘bleed’ in every sound emanating from that score it could fill up that hall in Kill Bill where Uma Thurman slaughters a whole gang single handedly. I could clearly tell that the dialogues weren’t so overpoweringly loud, it was just the score. Why, why, why? Ugh!

LikeLike

vijay

I never said anything about how much money this film made or didnt make. that was never the point. and thats not the ‘history’ BR was talking about..not interested in the BO collections business..if that were the case we will have to begin with or pull in Annathe, Beast , Valimai and so on all of which made upwards of 100-150cr as well..
so azhwarpettai aandavar club fanboys can save this 200cr or 300cr business for some other debate..

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay

“Lokesh Kanagaraj is the first and possibly only director after Shankar to have back-to-
back Industry hits.”

Not that I really care about BO fate of these type of films but this is flat out wrong..even murukkuvikkaradoss had Dheena, Ramana and Ghajini all hits.. back to back to back..one bigger than the other..and recently Sirutha siva had Viswaasam and Annathe..Nelson had given 2 hits back to back, which is why he got a chance to direct Beast in the first place..and so on and on..

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay: Even utterly butterly Atlee boy had back to back hits with Raja Rani and Theri.

LikeLike

Aman Basha

@vijay: “It is the first Tamil film to tease the possibility of a crossover and a cinematic universe.”-Singham doesn’t count.

“flat out wrong”-Industry hit is the highest ever grosser of the language up to that point; the latest highest ever grosser in Tamil Nadu was Master and now it will be Vikram (Monday will be deciding, but the weekend has been strong enough to say that it will). Directors can give back to back hits but no one except Shankar afaik have given two consecutive industry hits.

“Sirutha siva had Viswaasam and Annathe”-Annatthe was not a hit by any standard, a disaster in the Telugu states and is at best Below Average, only because Sun distributed it themselves in TN.

@Madan: Not just Tamil Nadu, Vikram is doing spectacular business in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, definitely a Pan South hit as of now. They haven’t been able to get screens in hindi because of YRF.

LikeLike

Aman Basha : I have no doubt it’s doing good business. When I say Tamil culture, I include those who live outside the state and may not even be Tamil but already have a buy in into this sort of movie making. I am Tamil but I might as well be Simon Pegg’s father in How To Lose Friends wondering if Brad Pitt is indeed a cave in Yorkshire when it comes to trying to make sense of this movie. In short, this movie is less for Kamal fans as in fans who liked his classic work and more for fans of Tamil mass movies who may also happen to be Kamal fans.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Thupparivaalan

Madan / Vijay: I wasn’t this disappointed with the film like you guys. It surely isn’t history making, but there’s still some stuff I liked. I feel like Lokesh had the right ideas but the execution was lacking in some places. I’ll also agree with pranesh that Kamal lacks the vitality he had before – how much of it is the direction, how much of it is him just getting older I don’t know.

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay

“The film grossed 57 lakhs on the 20th day bringing the total to 238.78 crores.[214] On the 21st day the film grossed 43 lakhs to bring the total to 239.21 crores.[215] The film also grossed 39 lakhs in Tamil Nadu thereby crossing the 150 crore mark in Tamil Nadu alone.[21”

the above is on Annathe from wikipedia..so count me as mighty unimpressed with even the BO score of Vikram so far..but thats anyway besides the point..’hit’ doesnt mean anything for me and thats not what I was debating about earlier..Murugadoss had more “industry” hits up his sleeve(Dheena, Ghajini, Thuppaakki)..’nuff said..
And Endhiran spawned its own sequel in a similar universe with 2.0..It even did better in the North back then without any big help from social media like Vikram had..These are’nt “achievments’ in my book and thats not the ‘history’ BR is referring to here..

Commercial success is a different debate altogether and not the one I would be a part of..

LikeLike

vijay

” It surely isn’t history making, but there’s still some stuff I liked. I feel like Lokesh had the right ideas but the execution was lacking in some places”

Thats exactly what I was saying..that this is’nt exactly history making in ANY way..even in terms of commercial success(that wouldbe Baahubali or RRR or KGF). It is maybe better made than Annaththe and had several stars in it to prop up thaatha Kamal in his late 60s..if this had been a solo show from him only his family would have watched it..And as if VJS and Fahadh was’nt enough they had to drag in Suriya as well for a cameo..the end result is middling(‘not bad, but could have been better’) like Lokesh’s earlier films..

LikeLike

Aman Basha

@vijay: Firstly, those are official figures given by the producer. Annatthe was controversial for having highly inflated official figures, sort of like Krrish 3. For someone who criticizes people for doing business with the DMK family, you trust their figures easily 🙂 The same hyperinflation happened for Petta and Viswasam, though both were successful.

Vikram has done 65 crores in two days and has had a 100 crore weekend without a holiday, it will easily cross even Kabali and Bigil, forget Annaatthe.
For someone who isn’t interested in commercial success, you seem to be making box office records on your own. Dheena didn’t cross Padayappa, Ghilli did so it’s not an industry hit. Same with Ghajini not crossing Chandramukhi or Thuppaki not crossing Endhiran (which were the previous industry hits/all time blockbusters).

I get you didn’t like or hated the film, but these are facts.

LikeLike

therag

@Madan, was there anything specifically Tamil about Vikram? I didn’t think so. I wouldn’t call the movie generic, but all the pieces were mostly culture-agnostic. There wasn’t any reference to a location in Chennai where this presumably takes place. Now that I think about it, they don’t even mention a place do they? This story could take place almost anywhere.

This definitely takes place in the Kamal-Haasan universe though (his usual set of artists, the extra-violent action, the callbacks).

LikeLike

vijay

..and Vikram was bought and is distributed by the same DMK family as well,,so the same hyperinflation counts..

Anyways the debate here was never about BO success and how much crores each movie would make, so not sure what point you are trying to make..that a lot of folks liked this film? well a lot of folks liked Annathe, Beast and Valimai as well..and a lot more liked RRR and KGF…so?

LikeLike

S K

I don’t understand the comments about the U/A certificate. True film fans will never complain about such things. If you don’t want to see it or don’t want your kids to see it then don’t.

LikeLiked by 1 person

hari

Absolutely loved this movie. Thankfully Kamal did not force-feed his ideology but for that one lecture scene. Came out of the theatre on a high and that much is enough for me and misses. Long time since I saw an unabashedly made action movie in Tamil without caring a hoot about the other essentials (comedy and dance). Hoping for many more such movies set in LKU.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Dhanda Soru

@S K

“I don’t understand the comments about the U/A certificate. True film fans will never complain about such things. If you don’t want to see it or don’t want your kids to see it then don’t”

You’re kidding, right? A U/A certificate is basically our version of PG, meaning it’s okay for kids to watch this film as long as they’re accompanied by adults. The ethical thing to do would have been to ask for an A certificate, but of course, we all know that that’s not gonna happen.

And calling out a film’s inappropriate age rating is not incompatible with being “True film fans”. If anything I’d have preferred to not have kids nagging their parents in the theatre, asking them to explain events in the film. Nobody is saying that Lokesh should not have copious amounts of violence, drug use and profanity in his films, just that kids shouldn’t be exposed to it.

LikeLiked by 1 person

ivan

Baradwaj: The comment section is getting unnecessarily chaotic. Could you please step in and clarify for us what you meant by “make history” ?

LikeLiked by 1 person

“I feel like Lokesh had the right ideas but the execution was lacking in some places.” – I think some places is being quite polite. But it’s not even execution but a general style and approach of making movies which I will come to…

” I’ll also agree with pranesh that Kamal lacks the vitality he had before – how much of it is the direction, how much of it is him just getting older I don’t know.” – So…the thing is (and because it’s made by LK and stars Kamal, Fahad etc people are going to vehemently disagree with me but I will still say it) this is basically the same kind of marana mass movie that Tamil cinema has been rolling out since Vedhalam, if not earlier. Where at least three quarters of the movie becomes a deafening fight scene and character development and narrative are either kept aside or compressed and squeezed to the extreme to keep the film from getting bloated. Now, in this world, enter Kamal, an actor who really acts out every frame. Maybe he does too much but that’s his style, he usually never leaves you in doubt that he is acting with a capital A. You take such an actor and put him in a context where he is only required to come across as brooding and gritty then he is very constrained. And it’s not his forte at all. Kamal with that Marlon Brando mumble trying to do Thala gets super boring (at least it was for me).

And since when was every Kamal scene tailored for whistles and hoots from the fans? THIS is a Kamal movie, seriously? I must have been watching a different type of Kamal movie all along. I take back my complaints about him indulging his sakkalakala vallavan-ness in recent movies. It seems like he has lost his confidence completely and simply placed his faith completely in a new, successful director and asked him to make whatever the f works. And it’s going to work, big time. What a sad way for a legend to go! RIP Kamal and thanks for the memories.

LikeLiked by 1 person

@therag: As I said to Aman Basha also, I mean this kind of marana mass ethos which seems to be particularly popular in Tamil Nadu. But I guess I am wrong because a Telugu friend just told me he saw Vikram and thought it was better than KGF2. Now I am wondering how bad KGF2 would have to be. And that was a major pan India hit? By Jove this is going to usher in the “leave your brains out at the door” brand of cinema with a vengeance. Guess I am gonna stick to OTT going forward unless the reviews convince me this is more of a ‘multiplex film’. That much derided term, because making a film about the relationships of grounded characters with no superhuman powers is such a bad thing.

“This definitely takes place in the Kamal-Haasan universe though (his usual set of artists, the extra-violent action, the callbacks).” – He’s got the superficial trappings to evoke nostalgic memories for a certain type of Kamal fan. But I usually expect at least something interesting from a cinematic point of view in a Kamal movie…and a reasonably strong script. Neither was to be found in this movie, at least from second half up. It was going along nicely up to the interval but from that point on, it was an endless orgy of fight, fight, fight. I was a bit thankful the secret agent finally brought out some top secret rusted 1980s weapons because I couldn’t figure out why secret agents, corrupt police and drug mafia all love hand fights so much??? If this was supposed to be like Hollywood action, where were the thrilling car chases and jumping off buildings? There was no dynamics to even the action. It was so repetitive.

LikeLike

Dhanda Soru: The ratings mean nothing in our culture. Everyone watches everything, especially when big stars are involved. I would say it is incumbent on parents to shield their children, but today, kids will find other ways of watching what they want to. So…

ivan: I truly consider this a historic film. We do not make genre-specifoc films. A KAAKHA KAAKHA for instance has the action genre AND the romance genre. I think KAITHI was the first true action-genre film to an extent, but even there the daughter was used in a sentimental way. And the daughter was kept outside the genre: i.e Karthi portions were “action”, daughter portions were “drama”. So again, not a “pure” genre film.

But in VIKRAM, everything — even the baby — becomes part of the genre, becomes part of the action.

It is not a “mass” movie (which it might have been with a Vijay) but a Hollywood-like streamlined spectacle that focuses only on the mission and stays true to the genre. The “save the baby” scene is not separated from the genre but is actually woven into the action. Even when a wife dies, a husband does not break down – but instead, here is what happens. Only then does he register what Narain said, which were just empty words to him until he experienced the same feeling. And this leads to another genre (action) moment. And so on.

The only non-genre thing sticking out was “Pathala Pathala”. But even that was taken into the space of the story by a cutaway scene later that showed that Karnan/Vikram had used the song to do something.

So for me, at least, VIKRAM is a historic film — whether it works for you or not is a different story.

PS: Just thinking about this now, but perhaps VISHWAROOPAM was another history-making film — in the spy-espionage genre. The “Unai kaanadhu” song is actually part of the world of the film, because it is a deception.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Actually, ANDHA NAAL beat VISHWAROOPAM to it in the spy/espionage henre. (Though it was more stagy…)

LikeLike

Padawan

Which Andha Naal? The S Balachandar directed one or the Prem acted one?

LikeLike

urbanacharya

Solid mass entertainment in Tamil after a long time. But had 3 issues that really took me out of the movie:

VFX: Tamil cinema has shown zero efforts to make an even passably good CG sequence (except probably shankar films). It’s not like we don’t have the capability or the budget. We just don’t care. The climax was supposed to be the big payoff and what we get? My Dear Bootham level VFX of bullets and cars exploding.

Action- We’re dealing with military agents and top tier professional rowdies. And yet the action we see is like any other action we’ve seen so far. Each rowdy runs towards the hero armed with a war cry and sickle and gets punched across.

I’m not expecting John Wick for sure. But not even a generic hollywood movie where there seems to be some fluidity and inventiveness with action?? Again, it’s not about capability. We saw a glimpse of high quality action more than a decade ago in Endhiran Train Fight.

VJS – He tried something that didn’t land. His character was about a vulnerable and unhinged generic gangster hyping up Rolex than anything else. And the mannerisms? It was a sore thumb amidst FaFa and KH calibre of acting.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Ashwin Kumar

Oh boy, this was such an engaging and satisfying movie. Totally agree with BR with “history” and amazed at Lokesh’s confidence in executing an all out purely plot driven action thriller. Past action movies in Tamil would have so many nonsensical elements and action for the sake of this. This was truly novel and hope sets the bar higher. I could not watch ten mins of KGF1 for the mindless build up so didn’t bother with KGF 2. I did re watch Kaithi a day before and it was really really good! I have reached a point where I am truly bored of Hollywood and Koreans thrillers with a sense of having seen them all. The thrills in a local milieu was so refreshing in a Tamil movie. It gave me vibes or dark knight in the first half and guy ritchie action in the second half. No flab indeed. Loved the agent Tina action piece. And it was superb to see the world building towards the end hinting at the coalition of heroes towards the end like an Avengers universe. How I wish to see Kamal taking on a captain America like role with younger heroes against a thanos like Rolex. Mouth watering indeed. And yes, the bgm was a bit loud but didn’t feel so distracting though. And I did hate to see parents bringing their children. What can one say when so called educated people do this. Take a bow Lokesh for raising the bar!

LikeLike

vijay

” Each rowdy runs towards the hero armed with a war cry and sickle and gets punched across.”

this is what happened in Kaidhi too..they will all line up one by one in a queue to get bashed up ..like in pretty much any other mass film..

LikeLiked by 1 person

ivan

urbanacharya: Maybe that’s precisely what he’s suppposed to do – lay low be vulnerable and hype up Rolex. VJS seems more like the “ullooru” Penguin Man (weird mannerism fat dude who loves his family instead of birds) whereas Surya as the Joker.

The lack of depth in VJS role was counterbalanced by the terrific Fafa. So, overall VJS role didn’t come across jarring for me. But do you think the original choice, Lawrance or a low profile actor would been better? Can we blame the director for casting this guy – he was literally begging LK to be in this movie, lol.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Thupparivaalan

Vijay: Agree on that Kaidhi had similar fights too. But Karthik is one of the very few existing heros that can pull that off without too inducing eyesore. Our mass films need to do away with such generic stuff. I don’t have a problem with hero vs many guys fights. It’s the way it’s shot so blandly like they queue up in a school assembly. Directors need a way to shoot it in a exciting way. The best action stretch I’ve seen all year was in RRR where Ramcharan takes on a whole crowd, and comes out of it. I think it’s more a case of vision and ability to pull off such things convincingly.

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay

Thupparivaalan, but then when you are making genre action films , the focus should be mostly on making the action top-notch right. This is not a generic mass film where you have all elements besides actrion like comedy, sentiment and so on..it is a pure action film and the bar is naturally set much higher for action scenes than it is for a Master or Annathe..

LikeLiked by 1 person

Anand Raghavan

After RRR , KGF2 Tamil film industry wanted a similar all India movie, may be this gives them some satisfaction..though it is performing well in south and overseas and not much in North.
What i feel is the trend of audience wanting every scene of a movie to be adrenaline pumping, goosebumps inducing moments which actually might not be something positive always…
That leaves little space for characters to breathe, develop , and minute nuances. I can hardly hear a silence, a pause with wall to wall high inducing bgm..

There is a question on who PS would end up satisfying , a common viewer (including actor fan base too) would be expecting a elevated scene every few minutes or novel lovers would want character to develop like it did in book ? Since the stakes are high every market would need to be tapped.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Anand Raghavan : You hit the nail on the head. This requirement of wanting every scene to be amped up to max, it’s now a pan India trend and not limited to Tamil alone. It’s the movie industry version of loudness wars. When you have no troughs to balance the peaks, then the relentless adrenaline loses its sting and becomes repetitive. At least for me it does.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Akash

I saw Beast(which was okayish till the fighter jet climax) and KGF 2 (I got put off totally when he called Reena as his entertainment at the start which changed nothing in the plot) in the theaters recently. Both movies were insanely loud with the bgm being nearly deafening.
Why can’t they use silence or atleast build up the music? Seriously every time Rocky turned or moved, some thunderous music was played. Same with Beast. Was it the same for RRR as well? Why are filmmakers doing this?
Also why can’t we have 1 interesting character apart from the lead actor’s character? Even Vijay Sethupati’s Bhavani in Master was very one dimensional and lacked depth (which was the case with Vijay’s JD as well)

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay : That’s why I am not convinced about this notion of Vikram being a pure action film. It may be that in terms of not having a comedy track or only a half hearted, uncooked romance track. But the tone is totally mass. You are supposed to feel awed because thalaivar kamal is doing the bashing, not because the stunts are spectacular to behold. And that’s why it gets super boring unless you are already used to and like this mass film tone or you are not just a Kamal fan in terms of liking his movie but feel like whistling at the mere sight of his on screen.

A constant refrain of Mayank Shekar in his reviews of mediocre Bollywood action /masala films was that he thought we had left these kind of films behind. I used to find that a little negative then but I totally see the point now. Summa whistle podu moments use panni you can’t run away from trying to make an actual film. Even Petta had an interesting flashback and a cunning rather than obese and obscene villain in Nawaz. In Vikram, almost every character other than Faasil’s (including Kamal himself) was super half baked.

LikeLike

vijay

I watched Heat for the nth time recently..that bank heist scene..for all the Hollywood wannabeness that the Lokeshs and Nelsons of the world possess, the intensity and authenticity of that shootout scene in Heat has’nt even been reproduced partly in their current Tamil films..for how long you are going give budget/tech as an excuse? that movie was made 27 years back and VFX use was minimal..if you have a vision and spend on action choreography smartly maybe you dont even need to spend on VFX that much in the first place..
wondering if some of our directors can take a sabbatical and apprentice under somebody like Mann or anybody else from current gen for a few months and then come back honed..Almost never happens here.

LikeLiked by 2 people

ivan

Vijay: That’s a noble thought. But why do you think any of these guys would hone the skills given that their existing movies are well received.

LikeLike

vijay

“watch this from 3:00 onwards, Viggo fighting off 2 russian gangsters butt naked….no VFX shit here, just brutally realistic hand/knife combat ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-rFIKfWrKc”

they would’nt, even if their films bombed..

LikeLike

Akash

A kind request: Please don’t compare Annatthe with any other movie (not even Darbar).
Siruthai Siva buried the aura of Superstar alive with that movie.(in tamil – uiroda podakirudu) He single handedly accomplished the task of making Rajinikanth unwatchable.
Annatthe had no good comedy (Soori screeching Pachakili, Annakili is NOT comedy), no good sentiment (the sentiments were horrible), no good romance (Nayanthara flirting with Rajini was not romance, it was torture for the audience), no good action scenes as well.
No way Vikram is worse than Annatthe.

LikeLike

Jay S

A fun review – https://youtu.be/i5NIE4TUiRM

LikeLike

madhusudhan194

Completely disagree with most people here on the action. I thought the action was spectacular except for the climax sequence which was a complete downer. I think the idea was to kind of mirror Kaithi climax but this ended up being a pale shadow of Kaithi where the whole vintage gun thing at the end was a big surprise. Otherwise, the action was just relentless and choreographed brilliantly. It’s better than what you see in 99% Indian films. But if your benchmark is Tom Cruise, then I don’t have anything to add. I also loved the way LK establishes the connect with the 1987 film. And the way he seamlessly brings this film into the Kaithi universe (or vice versa).

However, my big issues with the film apart from the climax are:

1) Ultra loud BGM. There were places where I could just not hear the dialogues because the BGM was just so loud. I don’t know if that is how the sound was mixed or if it has to do with the theatre I saw the film in (Devi). But that was a big letdown.

2) While I found the film to be supremely entertaining overall, it was also quite unmemorable. The Agent Tina sequence was fantastic and landed brilliantly. The interval sequence was another fantastic bit. The rest of the film just wasn’t memorable. You can’t really say that about Hollywood action films like Mission Impossible or John Wick.

3) The baby angle towards the end just didn’t work.

Overall I found the film to be quite fun but also not very seamlessly Indianized. But far from a bad effort when you take into the genre account – pure action.

LikeLiked by 1 person

https://www.greatandhra.com/movies/reviews/vikram-review-heavy-dose-of-many-things-121450

A review that is not well written but reflects my views in many respects (other than the comparison to KGF2 which I can’t comment on). Yes, afterwards, thinking about the scenes, I felt like so many of them made no sense. Least of all the incredible nepotism of making secret agents sacrifice their lives to protect Vikram’s grandson.

LikeLike

@madhusudhan194: I don’t need to compare it with Cruise. It falls flat compared to RRR. The scenes are very predictable and repetitive and the over reliance on hand combats was gratuitous or maybe another nostalgia churner device to evoke 80s films with hero beating up 50 people simultaneously.

LikeLiked by 1 person

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/tamil/movie-reviews/vikram/movie-review/91974358.cms

Times of India giving an appraisal of the film that agrees with mine? Who woulda thunk it!

LikeLiked by 1 person

madhusudhan194

@Madan: I did mention that the action in Vikram is better than 99% of Indian films. RRR does fall under the remaining 1%. I loved RRR more than I enjoyed Vikram but you have to remember RRR was made on a budget five times as that of Vikram. RRR is easily the pinnacle of action choreography in Indian cinema.

The hand combat is so violent and visceral here which is far from what we got in the 80s. Plus, If you take Mission Impossible, the plot is simply an excuse to stage some breathtaking action set pieces. To me, Vikram also falls in that category. Which is one of the points where I disagree with BR because this is not a Martin Scorsese territory at all. This is very much a Michael Bay film but with more effort.

While in MI, you get different things like jumping off skyscrapers, holding breath underwater etc, here as you mentioned it is mostly hand combat. But even that is well choreographed (like i said except for the climax) that it didn’t, at least to me, look repetitive.

LikeLike

madhusudhan194: So there you are. Michael Bay. In the first place, like many others, I have moved on from Michael Bay. Not all Hollywood is made equal. Hollywood also made Texas Chainsaw Massacre and you couldn’t pay me to watch it again.

Secondly, I don’t think the characterisation of Vikram as a pure action film sustains when you consider that the first half focused on the investigative track. You can’t really make a 3 hour film that’s pure action. That’s why the Liam Neeson capers barely touch 90 minutes (which happens to be the length of the second half of Vikram). The problem is Vikram is one decent investigative film in the first half conjoined at the hip with an action film in the second and in the process, doesn’t really cohere, doesn’t amount to more than the sum of its parts. I would say it’s less than the sum of its parts.

LikeLike

As for repetition, I do find the nth instalment of VJS taking the drug and bashing up people super grating. I also don’t rate their choreography as all that amazing. It doesn’t even feel hyper kinetic at any point. Ellam line la vandhu adi vaindu poranga. Very little of stalking and hiding either, mostly combat in plain sight. I get it’s a film but some concession to reality would have made those scenes more palatable.

LikeLike

Mankfan

@Madan – Even a pure action genre film can be consistently engaging, case in point the Hollywood action films BR has actually compared Vikram with like Die hard and the mad max films of the 80s. Unfortunately, Vikram ain’t that film, Lokesh is more content with the explosion and artifice of Michael Bay actioners in the second half rather than the purity and inventiveness of those 80’s action films.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Hum

Vikram is a mass movie.
A pure action movie won’t take almost three hours to accomplish what it set to do. Case in point Hollywood and Korean movies.
The slow walking of Kamal and VJS just there to give the theatre audience to do their thing.

So, no history making but masterful marketing. There is a difference in being best of the best and just average in worst of all.

LikeLiked by 1 person

TamilThanos

‘The audience is meant to think “Okay, so Kamal can’t be really dead, so what’s the deal with his character and what’s going to happen now?” It’s a classic set-up.’ Agreed BR. That’s exactly why I didn’t understand having the whole first half from Fahad’s point of view. Wouldn’t have been nice to know how the masked men are planning to take down the bad guys? Maybe those scenes could have been staged better? There could have been a lot more tension. But one could argue that the unmasking scene in intermission wouldn’t have had such a big payoff. But I think part of what makes the interval banger is all three of the characters connecting at a common point. That would have still been retained IMO.

LikeLike

Kumar

I agree that Vikram is Tamil cinema’s first genre-specific action movie, but the action scenes in Vikram (even for a budget-lite movie industry like ours) did not match some of its well-choreographed Indian contemporaries like WAR or even Dhaakad for that matter. The Fast and Furious franchise made me appreciate that a pure action movie can work even if it had a wafer-thin storyline as long as the action set-pieces were lit. Unfortunately, the action in Vikram was monotonous and unimaginative and did not captivate me enough to forget about the storyline. It just made my mind wander to search for purpose behind every character and their story arcs amidst all the gunfire.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Vijay

I just wanted to compare Vikram with Petta (the other distinct fanboy sambhavam) in terms of fanboy-ness. I felt both the movies had enough call-back scenes – paambu paambu, num-chuk fight, multiple gate/door openings, kadhalin dheepam ondru walk, muslim uyir nanban, bharatnatyam/kuchipadi katthunden (tongue-in-cheek) etc. vs. nallavara/kettavara, nermayana komban, aboorva sagodharargal laugh & scream, gym fight, moondram pirai mannerism, devar magan fight (lunging on a moottai), etc. But where Vikram really stood apart was in the amount Kamalisms seamlessly folded in to the screenplay in the form of kattipudi vaidhyam, Darwin theory reference, naa dhaan onakku mela irukken repartee to mela irukkaravan paathukkuvaan, humanizing the sex worker, subversion of his public image. Other than a throw-away song line (evanda mela…), I did not find any Rajinism in the movie itself (is the kambli siddhar dance a Rajinism that comes from elsewhere?). Now integrating all these ideologies along with call-back scenes into a signature screenplay/leitmotif plus world building plus not shortchanging any major cast makes Lokesh Kanagaraj’s achievement a historical feat. If the next Karthik Subbaraj movie with Rajini takes a leaf out of Baba (which had a lot of Rajinism) and recreates what he did in Petta in terms of callback scenes, that would be interesting.

PS: Interestingly both these movies have the lead hero undertaking a mission from start to finish motivated partially by protecting a family member.

LikeLike

“I still have no clue how and why the action shifts to a particular place for the big climax. I’m still trying to figure out the relevance of a bugging device that got a lot of importance early on and I’m not really sure why a mother would forget to take her son into a panic room during a crisis. Even if one assumes a second viewing will give you these answers, there’s always the feeling that you’ve already moved on to the next big action set piece, even before you’ve truly understood the point of the previous one.” – Vishal Menon.

tbh, I echoed with this (re)view more.

When I was asked what was my favorite scene, two scences that came to mind were (a) Vijay Sethupathy’s intro – who’s character was a letdown as the movie unfolded and (b) Surya’s end – which really is a setup for the next movie. Neither that really worked for this movie.

LikeLiked by 1 person

@ BR: You had mentioned this in your Masss review: “You have to watch the scene that references Engeyum Eppodhum. It’s a madly inventive bit, and it made me imagine what it would be like if characters from a particular film kept drifting into other films, like ghosts.”

I felt maybe Masss was sort of in the same vein but half-hearted attempt, whereas Lokesh’ cinematic universe is obviously more deliberate and detailed.

LikeLike

doppelgänger

OMG… I made a great discovery today and I need to share it asap. I found this Turkish actor who looks like Fahad Fasils’ twin. His name is Halit Ergenc.
SInce this movie has Fahad, I think this is an appropriate place to share the info. Seriously.. google him. I cant get over how similar they look, especially his thinner , younger pics.
My mind is blown at the resemblance.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Sachi

Is there any other Kamal’s cinema fan who felt Vikram was not upto the standard the master has never failed to entice upon us?

fanboy’s piece vs master’s piece

LikeLiked by 1 person

Sachi : I said it upthread. This film is for either those who like mass films or those who like mass films and are also Kamal fans. But main criterion is being able to like mass films. If you come at it having liked AS or Virumaandi or even Vettaiyadu Vilayadu or Viswaroopam and expect anything remotely on those lines, this will be a major disappointment. The thing that still boggles my mind is for the first time this was a Kamal fan without a purpose, a raison d’etre. Even in Viswaroopam, he had a point to make but there was nothing here other than the feebly articulated drug free society (I was like, yo, Kamal, when did you become Ronald Reagan) motto. It was a film made to recoup losses from past disastrous ventures and, yes, to salivate the fanboys.

LikeLike

Ashwin Kumar

I find it very amusing reading statements making assumptions about who is this movie is for or the kind of audience who are likely to like this movie :-D. There are so factors that go into someone enjoying a movie. For example, the mindframe the person was in, who they watched it with, the previous movie or genre of movie they watched etc etc.purely subjective. I am sure there are so many people who have fine taste in cinema who would have enjoyed this movie.( And many of them who may not even be actively commenting on this blog)

LikeLike

Ashwin Kumar: Well I am glad you found it amusing but you see, the problem is up in the review, it says this is a 100% Kamal film. If you agree with that, you have to allow for myself and others to also come out and say that as Kamal fans, this is nothing like what we thought we’d get from a Kamal film. You can’t have it both ways – and in the same vein, you can’t nod heads to the references to Scorsese and 80s-90s Hollywood action films and then tell people not to compare it to MI.

Just referencing past Kamal characters and dialogues and giving Santhana Bharathi a role doesn’t make it a Kamal film, let alone a 100% one.

LikeLike

Ashwin Kumar

Madan, I am an active reader of the blog and a passive commenter. I usually comment only when I strongly agree or disagree with BR on some reviews. This particular review resonated with me compared to other half baked reviews from other review sites. One for example asked how could a mother forget to take a child into the panic room. that’s a nonsensical question because the mother herself was pushed into the room in a hurry.

I have admired your comments on many topics and I have great respect for readers like you who make this blog so enriching. I only wanted to surface the negative narrative that seems to be building up here about the quality of this movie comparing it other mediocre mass movies and implying only people who like mass movies or die hard Kamal fans would only like this movie. My view is that while the movie is not perfect or intellectual, it’s not insulting the intelligence of the viewer unlike other mundane masala movies. In fact its expecting the audience to keep up with the narrative. These are movies that need to be celebrated and not demeaned because they are changing the audience taste incrementally.hopefully we will stop seeing the silly masala movies in a few years. And pardon me, I don’t have the desire or energy or probably the articulation skills to debate this further with you. So let’s leave it at that.

LikeLike

“. I only wanted to surface the negative narrative that seems to be building up here about the quality of this movie comparing it other mediocre mass movies and implying only people who like mass movies or die hard Kamal fans would only like this movie. ” – Yes and this is the point. Nobody has a problem with the dubious superlative. Overhype is fine, only pointing out the flaws is the problem, is it not? Why does a film like this have to be talked up into something it is not, is the question. I don’t have a problem with making a Vijay/Ajith type of film and then casting Kamal in it but then describe it as such. A film does not automatically become a different animal just because it has Kamal in its cast. So please understand that my critique is the counterpoint to the attempt to hoist the film into something more than it is. If you tell me this is a 100% Kamal film, I am going to object and if my objections come across as negative or insulting, I am sorry about that but I am not going to take it back either.

LikeLike

Jeyashree

Will Tamil cinema in any age grow out of its obsession with “appan peru” as the biggest insult that can be doled out and as a proving point right before you kill the person who slaughtered your son? Really?
Also the personal side, especially a female partner,as the only weakness that a no nonsense cop can have?

Our new gen creators can do better than these

LikeLiked by 1 person

ivan

Madan: I have to agree with Ashwin Kumar. I’m sorry this movie didn’t work for you but it worked for the majority of us.

I don’t watch mass movies and I liked the Kamal movies you’ve mentioned yet I liked this movie. It wasn’t a flawless movie but the positives outweigh the flaws making it entertaining for me. So which category do I fall here? I get you find the “100% Kamal movie” misleading, but how does that translate to your assumption of who’d enjoy this movie and who wouldn’t?

LikeLike

therag

@Ashwin Kumar, just to support Madan here since I sort of share his opinion…

There is no comparison to other mass/action movies of Vijay/Ajith/anyone-else because we stopped watching those a while ago. We went out to watch this one because of Kamal. If you claim this movie is much better than other recent star movies, I’d believe you. But this really doesn’t have to be said. The fact that KH is part of the movie pretty much guarantees this. I am sure a lot of people enjoyed this movie for what it is. Good for them.

But Kamal, over the years has also spoiled us with some incredible films across genres (maybe action is not one of them? I can’t actually name a Kamal action film that is up there with his comedy/drama films). In his Viswaroopam 2 interview with BR, he said Vikram was half-baked because he couldn’t find a director to execute his vision.

With Lokesh, he found his director, but perhaps the vision itself was not quite there. So, us Kamal fans are a little disappointed. Uttama Villan also felt half-cooked, but there the execution was the problem, not the vision. I definitely liked UV a lot more than VIkram.

On the positive side, Kamal Haasan is back with a resounding success. Hopefully this gives him access to money and talent to execute the good stuff.

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay

“Hopefully this gives him access to money and talent to execute the good stuff.”

you mean makkal needhi mayyam? I thought he was doing films to fund his political campaigns..what happened to that, all wrapped up?

LikeLike

Madan: I don’t usually get into these arguments because I neither have the energy nor time — but here i feel compelled to, because you label this a “marana mass” movie when it is NOTHING like Tamil cinema’s hero-worshipping “mass” films.

I see “marana mass” movies all the time, and those “rules” and “must-haves” are very different — and largely predicated on fan service. Also, they are written as a bunch of punchy “scenes” rather than as a “plot”.

In VIKRAM, there is a coherent, focused plot towards which EVERYTHING leads. There is no slo-mo nonsense in the fights. The only “mass” element is the intro song — the rest of the film is exactly what Kamal would have written (in a lighter VISHWAROOPAM mode, as opposed to a heavier UTHAMA VILLAN mode) and Lokesh would have made. It has both their DNA. Lokesh has written a “Kamal film” in his own way.

Again, you are entitled to your assessment. Hate the film all you want. But it appears that you are determined to beat down into submission anyone that thinks VIKRAM is a reasonably special film.

It did not work for you. Fine, we get it. But It worked very well for many of us who routinely see Tamil films every week. You cannot “logicalise” this. From your comments, you almost seem to be on a mission to prove VIKRAM is nothing special. Hence this comment.

Plus, reading one of your comments above, just wanted to add this: the procedural is a subset-genre of the detective/noir sub-genre, which is a subset of the action genre. So there is no genre inconsistency here at all.

“Action” does not literally mean action all the time. ALIENS is one of the all-time-great — IMO — action films (in sci-fi mode) and it takes a good one hour to get to the pure action parts. In ALIENS, the lead-up to the full-throttle action bits is drama. Here, the lead-up is a procedural. But even in this lead-up, there are action bits (like the people descending in ropes in Casino theatre and so on).

I could go on but… EOM.

LikeLiked by 3 people

“because you label this a “marana mass” movie when it is NOTHING like Tamil cinema’s hero-worshipping “mass” films.” – It is a lot like it and I am going to disagree with you on this. Especially second half was full of moments designed to entice whistles from the fans.

“In VIKRAM, there is a coherent, focused plot towards which EVERYTHING leads.” – Focused yes, coherent, no. For eg, there is just one reference to the video made about Prabhanjan’s death having been faked by the police. There is not even a passing discussion about the other deaths. Yes, we can guess that Vikram’s squad decided to imitate the tone to stage his death and then make the third and fourth killings. But if you start with a procedural tone, you should continue with the theme of logical deduction and account for the details, not simply skip it and move right ahead.

“But it appears that you are determined to beat down into submission anyone that thinks VIKRAM is a reasonably special film.” – Eh, I haven’t responded to literally any of the comments that expressed positive feelings about Vikram WITHOUT seeking to address mine or others’ less favourable views. I only engaged Ashwin Kumar because he addressed what I said. Likewise with madusudhan’s comments. OK, if it offends you so much, then I will step aside from this comment section and you can have your Kamal fanboy echo chamber to yourselves.

And again, Aliens is just over 2 hours long. There are no Hollywood action films that run to three hours. Because they won’t have a ten minute long ‘cameo’ when everything is already done and the movie has already had one ending just to introduce Surya. You CAN start out with a not-pure-action premise if you are going to still keep the film crisp. If you spend 1.5 hours pre-interval, post should have been shorter to maintain the tempo. Making it exactly as long as the pre-portion is overkill.

LikeLike

Dhanda Soru

“Dhanda Soru: The ratings mean nothing in our culture. Everyone watches everything, especially when big stars are involved. I would say it is incumbent on parents to shield their children, but today, kids will find other ways of watching what they want to. So…”

I don’t buy this at all. Of course, any responsible parent would regulate the content that their child consumes. But ultimately it takes two to tango and the filmmakers must also share some of the responsibility. You cannot use cultural indifference as an excuse to not give your film the appropriate age rating.

LikeLike

Dhanda Soru

As an aside, I find this practice of Tamil heroes lecturing the rest of us about social evils while they themselves are unwilling to do the bare minimum to be very tiresome. Like, thanks for telling us about the pitfalls of drug use, but do you think you could ensure that kids aren’t exposed to inappropriate content while watching your film?

LikeLiked by 1 person

ivan

therag: Maybe it’s not a ‘vision’ kind of movie in Kamal’s mind. He gave a one liner and expected a better version of Vikram 1 or Soorasamharam to suit the current gen and evidently this type of movie is LK’s forte.

LK made is clear it’s 100 % his movie and this movie didn’t deviate from his previous movies. At the same time, the Kamalism was intact without any exaggeration (i.e., ulaganayaganey song, cheesy one liner – raghavan’s instinct, 1kg makeup, mutiple young female companions).

I guess, I went in knowing what to expect so it worked. I would been totally disappointed if it’s a Kamal’s vision kinda movie where he’s hands on yet being a dud like Dasavatharam.

It’s refreshing to see him collaborating with a new director and like you, I hope this trend will continue with him working widely with directors of different genres and of course in his ‘vision’ movies.

LikeLike

Dhanda Soru

@Jeyashree

“Also the personal side, especially a female partner,as the only weakness that a no nonsense cop can have”

LOL, from the moment I saw her, I knew that she was either gonna get killed or she was gonna disappear after a while. Such a dumb character to boot as well, sticking by her husband even after he violates her trust on a number of occassions. And the film expects us to feel all sad and angry when she’s murdered. Such cliched, lazy writing.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Special shout out to the Panchathanthiram gang for that inventive promo..

LikeLiked by 2 people

Marsant

After reading the discussions here, the excitement was high going in to the movie and boy it was an exhilaratingly bittersweet ride!

The movie worked for me perfectly in it’s execution, and I now sort of see what BR meant by saying that this is a history-making film. This kind of out-and-out action film has never been made (or at this scale at least) in Kollywoord. The narrative was highly focussed (sans the short romance which added to the plot later but was still not convincing) and not once did the film deviate with unncessary sentiment/comedy. Even the baby bits were brilliantly ordered into the story. But to what extent does this history-making matter or how does this open new grounds for upcoming films, I don’t know.

The first half was way better than the second half (where it turned into dumb kindapping action film) save the climax action seq. which I devoured with VIKRAM going god mode. The first half was fantastic with Karnan (as adopted father lol), FF’s investigation was superbly handled and the fact that we kinda knew VK wasn’t dead added made the proceedings so much more interesting.

Now coming what didn’t infuriatingly work, why are the recent movies high on drugs? I mean it’s not wrong or a poor choice, but there are lot of them (Kabali, VC, Durbar, Master) addressing this topic that the effect has waned off and Kamal lecturing about drug-free society had me going ‘wtf was that’ (they made no effort to establish any pain point and just picked the low-hanging fruit of drug-villian so he automatically becomes a villian which is so un-kamal). The story itself lacked any originality. Have to disagree with BR on 100% Kamal movie (is it because Kamal provided the basics of the story?), it’s not even 50% Kamal movie going by his standards (and screen time).

This film suffers from weak plot nonetheless manages to execute it in style with stellar performances and interesting narration style.

The movie-goer in me is more than satisfied but the Kamal fan in me sings Andavare innum ethi paadu but this time even the Andavar can sing only so much! Pathala Pathala ftw.

LikeLike

Marsant: In your drug-movie list, you forgot THOONGAVANAM 😀 Plus you could see the VIKRAM character as an extension of the UNNAIPOL ORUVAN character: a society cleanser.

LikeLike

Marsant

Oh yes, BR (I think that’s the only one from the list that didn’t have any sermons)! But there we could see the pain and the angst of the character and could subsricbe to his views and not feel that as a ‘speech’ because it felt he genuinely wanted to get that off his chest (and it is all the more ironic that these directors didn’t find a better sub. with the fact being the topic of UPO were & are more pressing today than ever).

Here it’s as if the director went ‘as well all know drugs are bad…’ it feels like big downer.
Seems all the directors are at ecstasy and love this subject (is it because it gives them the green ticket to fix it and other issues are ambiguous and take more effort to handle properly?)! They are doing a disservice in the name of addressing it (FF joining the gang was simply for revenge, he didn’t give two hoots about the drug issue and none of the members of the gang did for that matter).

I don’t have an issue with society cleansers at all (UMT, UPO etc.), they can all show how conscious and concerned they are, but we already had Rajni as the dope Aditya the drug-cleanser cop, JD the master drug-cleanser etc., just that Kamal grinding the ground stuff 😃felt a bit odd?

LikeLike

JPhil

Sort of lateral thinking from LK’s interviews here : who would he have cast if Fahadh has turned him down ?
FF adds a layer of sheer class to his performance that can’t have been written on paper . Mallu fans will see sparks of his ‘Varathan ‘ alter ego in this. For me , he elevates even his generic scenes to some level of epic , even if the other two are way more bigger stars in the Tamil film world . A lady next to me in the cinema positively gasped and started sobbing as he runs to his wife s car to see her as she has been left . That s sheer masala magic !

LikeLike

Marsant: The movie-goer in me is more than satisfied but the Kamal fan in me sings Andavare innum ethi paadu but this time even the Andavar can sing only so much! Pathala Pathala ftw.

Studness! 😀

LikeLike

Vijay

Leaving a link to this unraveling of hidden details. May clear up a lot commenters’ perception of inaccuracies and emotional loopholes.

LikeLike

vidyakar

I enjoyed the movie but even after watching twice I couldn’t understand the logic behind many of the scenes (e.g., Uppili leading Amar to the sex worker doesn’t seem to make sense in hindsight). Can someone post the detailed plot (even Wikipedia hasn’t dared go there!)? Punniyamaa pogum 🙂

LikeLike

Jay S

This is a bane that Kamal’s movies face. While he moves seamlessly from Hey ram to Tenali to Vishwaroopam to Uttama villain, his audience are slow to follow. Trying to dissect this movie like it is the next national award winning best picture is bizarre. It makes us look like a pseudo intellectual audience who can’t fathom the difference between Mission impossible and Malcolm X. This is like Die Hard and MI… MI has succeeded with some less than stellar performances than this movie. While I just started questioning fafa Gayathri love angle, FaFa mentions that she has been with him from the orphanage. That totally explains the dynamic like Dhanush, the orphan in kadhal konden ( unusual life circumstances, extreme life choices) and then their whole arc sits convincingly.

It excels at what it sets out do. To keep you glued to the screen without shifting in your seats. It does it with a certain quality of execution, nifty writing, performances and so much more. Trying to say that the woman (Paula Patton) in MI4 sucked at acting and hence the movie sucks is laughable. What this movie lacked in MI quality stunts, it made up with a screen play that has a clear arc and depth to every scene. It is cause for celebration not for Kamalospection or debating on the semantics of history. It is historical for the true multistarrer this movie turned out to be, for what lokesh has achieved with the time and resources he had. Most of all, we, the audience should shift gears, be open and enjoy all the treasures that cinema offers – from kidaisi vivasayi to Vikram without prejudice.

LikeLiked by 3 people

Prat

I was very excited for the movie because of all the hype but after watching it I’m mostly indifferent to it. The movie is so inspired by Hollywood (Nolan especially, of course) that so many dialogues are unnecessarily in English, as are more than half the songs. It seems to be completely moulded with American sensibility – from ‘Attaboy!’s and very heavy -handed Dark Knight-isms and drug addiction being the biggest problem in society (how are we supposed to take that seriously given that it’s set in Chennai??) to endless scenes filled with gratuitous violence. The movie might have been better off made in English. VS may be the local Escobar but I don’t get why he had to physically resemble him so much. Didn’t really get how he was supposed to be evil.

I didn’t feel any emotional connect with the movie and was so not invested in any of the characters or what happened to any of them. Someone here mentioned a lack of tension in the movie and that was exactly how I felt. No emotional stakes.

Loved the ‘pathala pathala’ song and the theme song, though! The interval action scene was very well shot and I dig the angles. With respect to a cinematic universe, too many cooks ..

LikeLiked by 1 person

Toasty

@praneshp Agree about Sathyam cinemas theatre quality. Its been crappy since issues with the Sasikala group and eventual PVR takeover.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Macaulay Perapulla

The Internet has defiled the movie-watching experience. I watched the movie yesterday on the 5th day and by the time I was in the theatre, spoilers were strewn all over the Internet. It is to the film’s credit that the screenplay swept me by the gushing force of its narration, leaving no time to think about logical loopholes which people have commented about here. It is to the film’s credit that it works despite the spoilers that were strewn all over. Since I had learned a few things about the plot, the movie allowed me to enjoy the meta references as well.

Did VJS channel Indrudu Chandrudu while essaying the role of Sandhanam? I am surprised BR didn’t write about how the silent child could be read as the original silent movie baby whose legacy had to be protected by Kamal, followed by FaFa. I saw the child as the spirit of the true silent cinema world who had to be protected by the loud Anirudh music and at one point, when Kamal was down in his spirits, thanks to VJS channelling his hippo-like drug-fueled energies, FaFa had to remind him that he had indeed resurrected the child alive and Kamal’s 30 year career graph ( Kamal talks about his 30-year struggle at one point) could also be revived, now that the child had been given CPR by FaFa. It was fun to read the movie as a 68-year old’s desperate struggle to remain relevant to the times he lives in and save the spirit of the untouched silent movie baby.

As one commenter reminded elsewhere, much like Kamal made Devar Magan to celebrate the spirit of Shivaji, the next generation has made Vikram to celebrate this artist called Kamal hassan. Movies embalm collective memories and this movie has rightfully won plaudits for celebrating the artist who strode the world of cinema once upon a time like a colossus.

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay

“and drug addiction being the biggest problem in society (how are we supposed to take that seriously given that it’s set in Chennai??)”

pretty much nothing in his films is meant to be taken seriously, nothing is rooted in reality, even the setup. Take Kaidhi, the implausibility of it all. After a point all this Hollywood wannabeness tires you out..you are better off watching the originals

LikeLike

Akash

This movie is most probably the first Tamil mass movie in recent times where the mass is from the character and not the actor. Definitely history making in that aspect.
And someone needs to sit with Anirudh and tell him that sometimes less is more and, more is torture. He nearly made some action scenes unwatchable with his way too loud bgm (which makes zero sense and adds nothing to the scene)
And Agent Tina was awesome. Too sad that she got killed so quickly. We need more cool female characters.

LikeLike

Akash

I don’t know why some young directors (Karthick Naren, Lokesh) write dialogues which have no reason to be English.
It is time that they get inspired by Hollywood movies and not copy them in the name of inspiration.
Even KGF seemed to be “inspired” by Mad Max: Fury Road.
Why don’t these guys make a Synder’s Watchmen-like movie about Indian politicians? (obviously without the superhero stuff). Make stylish looking movies about Indians, not Indianized Hollywood plotlines.

LikeLike

I liked the movie. It is a proper masala movie retrofitted to Kaithi to make it a multiverse. It has quite a bit of deliberate fan-pandering, logic-missing masala moments but overall it worked. But no, it sure isnt genre-defining, history making etc – those are from fanboys. Just similar to the way “Annaththe” worked for me.
But perhaps from creating a multi-verse platform point of view, this might be the first of its kind in Tamil cinema. One from this series every year can keep the box-office coughing silver. Possibilities are many.

LikeLike

Seeing this multi-starrer celebration on screen reminded of this lovely line from Nallai allai (KV).

“Ennai natchathira kaatil alayavittai” ❤

LikeLiked by 2 people

hari

When MR made Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (which I liked) everyone cribbed that he should be making “Meaningful/classic/worldclass” movies (which we bombed) instead of CCV.

Now here as well same crib that Kamal should make “Meaningful/classic/worldclass” movies (which we also bombed) instead of “MASS” movies like Vikram.

LikeLiked by 4 people

ivan

“Kamal Hassan gifts Surya Rolex Watch”

I hope that’s a kind gesture and not to reinforce his over the top acting. Surya isn’t a powerful thillalangadi to act as an antagonist against someone of Kamal’s calibre. Even a less successful movie like Vetri Vizha had a sophisticated menacing villain, Jintha. Boggles my mind why LK didn’t take extra care casting someone more appropriate. I hope not to see him in the sequel if Kamal remains the protagonist, a voice over would do.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Satya

I now wish to see Rajini and Kamal act in the official adaptation of Heat, though I doubt if even Vijay and Ajith would consider doing it now.

Or, Kamal could play an old Indianised Mullah Naseeruddin in a comedy film where Rajini can play the good old neighbour / friend who had enough of this eccentric man’s shenanigans and tries to teach him a lesson when duty brings them back together.

PS. As I typed that, I felt thousands of voices wailing and disapproving in my head. But, as I have already typed, I saw no use in erasing that. So, here we stay.

LikeLiked by 1 person

jeevan

June 10, 2022

Why my comment i posted yesterday haven’t shown up?? Should i post it again?

LikeLiked by 1 person

Jay S

June 10, 2022

This thread of comments explains why India has not had many genre specific movies. We might need a primer to enjoy these movies… Yes, most of these movies using trope story frames – almost every action movie in Hollywood is set against the real/imagined cold war nuclear threats, middle east conflict, drug wars – pretty much. These backdrops are just like the metal support that a roller coast ride has. It can be boring and not what you get on the ride for. All the creativity in these movies is focused on the ride itself. The ride itself is dizzying fast, a quick thrill that doesn’t emotional drain you, doesn’t deeply affect you but one you look back at and look forward to with a tiny anticipation. You don’t have to be emotionally connected to the characters, you don’t have to have a hard hitting realistic narrative… How do you explain a roller coaster experience? Feels like time flew by, feels like you are lifted out of your seat at times and most importantly it keeps you in the present moment for the duration of the ride … Roller coaster rides work only when you know what you are getting into…. if you thought you were getting a 3d documentary you are in the wrong place.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Ram

Watched Vikram Wednesday with my wife. I haven’t seen a movie in the theaters since the pandemic started. Finally broke the spell with this movie, as I’ve been looking forward to this movie since the teaser came out. Thought I’ll dodge the crowds by watching on a weekday noon show – but at least 100 other people had the same idea!

I loved the movie overall, and would recommend it for action movie fans.

SPOILER ALERT

The first half was setup elaborately. Kamal makes a few appearances and makes them count with his acting. Fahadh and VJS dominate this half. You wonder whats going on with the multiple tracks, and then the interval block reveal happens. Not as surprising as (say) Yuddham Sei (which IMHO has the best whodunit buildup in Tamil movies, right until the last 30 minutes or so), but still effective.

The second half is straight up shoot ’em up stuff from the 80s action movie heydays. Great to see Kamal play a “one man army” role in this segment – think Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Die Hard Bruce Willis rolled into one – though it does stretch the imagination at times.

What worked:
The setup. Lokesh has spent decades watching Hollywood action movies. He’s also a big fan of Scorcese and Nolan. You can see traces of Dark Knight first half in the first half here, where he builds the momentum towards the interval block.

The whistle worthy moments. Entry scenes for Kamal and VJS. The interval block. Agent Tina. Surya’s cameo. The LCU references. Lokesh focuses on such “payoff” scenes.

All those one-on-one scenes between two good actors. This is straight up from the best Hollywood movies. In particular, FaFa and Naren. FaFa and Chemban Jose. FaFa and VJS. Kamal and Naren. Kamal and Kalidas. Kamal and Fafa (though very short – wish there was more of this).

The LCU. Yes, some folks are ridiculing this, but why cannot an Indian director indulge in his own cinematic universe? Great to see a director think at this scale (finally). It was good to see references to Kaithi, and Lokesh has now confirmed we’ll have more movies in this LCU. As long as the LCU references are quick nods to the previous movies and not dragged out, we’re good.

The BGM. Anirudh was pretty awesome in this movie. The first half especially was terrific in large part due to his score. Looking forward to his BGM release on youtube.

The cast and the acting. While this movie was an action movie, it offered many of the actors scope for brilliance. What also worked was the rare multi starrer in Tamil movies, with 4 major actors in the mix.

The action scenes, wherever choreographed, really stood out. The bike chase to capture Naren

What didn’t work but is understandable:
There are few scenes with CGI which are added to enhance a few scenes, but don’t have the expected finish. I found out from Lokesh’s interview with Baradwaj Rangan that these were done under extreme time pressures and budget constraints. 30-member CGI team and less time, vs the standard 2000-member CGI team and several years production timeline for the big budget Hollywood projects – think Avengers etc.

What didn’t work:
We’re increasingly getting used to extreme violence, drug use and vulgarity on movie screens. This unfortunate trend probably started with Nayagan, and is only growing with each such movie. This is not good, as it makes the viewers numb, accepting and indifferent towards such disturbing aspects.

References to other movies:
Dark Knight – setup for first half. The final scene with Kamal and the kid
Dark Knight Rises – the masked men and Kamal’s voice in this segment
Tenet – the masked men using ropes to get down
Limitless – VJS character using a magic pill to get superpowers. Bradley Cooper’s character uses this pill to become more intelligent and write books etc 🙂
Seven, Kaaka kaaka – the cop and his wife, and what happens to them
80s action movies – second half action. Think Rambo and Commando
I’m sure there are many more, which I’m missing.

LikeLiked by 1 person

jeevan

https://boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=6148

Regarding the movie collections, @Aman Basha said here that “Lokesh Kanagaraj is the first and possibly only director after Shankar to have back-to-back Industry hits.” Also said, “Industry hit is the highest ever grosser of the language up to that point; the latest highest ever grosser in Tamil Nadu was Master and now it will be Vikram “.
It is not true as of now. Lokesh Kanagaraj last film Master was not an industry hit. The industry hit in tamilnadu as of now is still Bahubali2 (2017) with about 155+ Cr gross collections from the state. (Just like in Hindi where Bahubali2 is the current industry hit, not Dangal although Dangal was the previous IH). Now if you only consider only films made from tamil film industry, Bigil (2019) with about 140 Cr is leading State collections. Next is Viswasam with 132 Cr (2019) and 2.0 (2018) with 128 Cr gross. Master (which released in 2021) is having nearly 125 Cr, which means it is not even in top 3 highest grossing movies of Tamilnadu, though it may be a blockbuster. (Some of these films nett figures may be bit different due to reduced tax rates in recent years).

(I am citing boxofficeindia reports as this seems to be relatively the most trustable box office source without too much exaggeration).

https://boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=6237

https://boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=6146

https://www.boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=5657

In all India collection also 2.0 leads and next would be Bigil.

Now if you’re to consider worldwide collections of movies from tamil industry, ofcourse 2.0 has a huge lead with 600+ Cr where no other film comes close (I think Bigil or Kabali with around 300 Cr worldwide may be next). Master is below 250 Cr worldwide.

Now, Vikram may most probably become the highest grossing tamil film in Tamilnadu soon, by beating Bigil. And there is a high chance that it may become the Industry Hit also by outgrossing Bahubali 2 gross collections from Tamilnadu. But we have to wait and watch for few more days to see how it goes as Vikram’s current gross stands close to100 Cr gross from 7 days.

So my point is even if Vikram becomes an IH in Tamilnadu, it will be Lokesh’s first as a director, as Master was not an Industry hit nor the highest grossing tamil industry movie till now.

Further if we look worldwide collections of tamil films, Vikram is almost sure to become the 2nd most collected tamil movie well behind 2.0 but well ahead of Bigil/Kabali .

“It will also be the first film to gross whatever huge number it will gross in Kerala (either
as a tamil film or in general)” : As a tamil film, definite yes. But in general, no. It has already become the highest grossing tamil movie in kerala with around 23 Cr from 7 days (beating Bigil which had nearly 20 Cr). It is expected to get to around 30-35 Cr or maybe even slightly more , but that cannot be compared with highest grossers in the industry (Pulimurugan has 87 Cr, Bahubali2 has 76 Cr and KGF2 has 70 Cr in kerala).

“Not just Tamil Nadu, Vikram is doing spectacular business in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu”. Yes spectacular in Tamilnadu and Kerala. But in
Karnataka performance is really good but not that spectacular i’d say. In Karnataka, it has already become the highest grossing tamil movie in 2022, but trend shows it will not be among the top 3 highest tamil grossers ever (or maybe even top 5) in Karnataka by the end of its run .

LikeLike

jeevan

https://boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=6148

Trying to republish the comment in 2 parts as my post is not getting published even after repeated trying…

Regarding the movie collections, friend Aman Basha earlier said here that “Lokesh Kanagaraj is the first and possibly only director after Shankar to have back-to-back Industry hits.” Also said, “Industry hit is the highest ever grosser of the language up to that point; the latest highest ever grosser in Tamil Nadu was Master and now it will be Vikram “.
It is not true as of now. Lokesh Kanagaraj last film Master was not an industry hit. The industry hit in tamilnadu as of now is still Bahubali2 (2017) with about 155+ Cr gross collections from the state. (Just like in Hindi where Bahubali2 is the current industry hit, not Dangal although Dangal was the previous IH). Now if you only consider films made from tamil film industry, Bigil (2019) with about 140 Cr is leading State collections. Next is Viswasam with 132 Cr (2019) and 2.0 (2018) with 128 Cr gross. Master (which released in 2021) is having nearly 125 Cr, which means it is not even in top 3 highest grossing movies of Tamilnadu, though it may be a blockbuster. (Some of these films nett figures may be bit different due to highly reduced tax rates of late than during earlier years).

(I am citing boxofficeindia reports as this seems to be relatively the most trustable box office source without too much exaggeration).

https://boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=6237

https://boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=6146

https://www.boxofficeindia.com/report-details.php?articleid=5657

In All India collection also 2.0 leads and next woild be Bigil.

Now if you’re to consider worldwide collections of movies from tamil industry, ofcourse 2.0 has a huge lead with 600+ Cr where no other film comes close (I think Bigil or Kabali with around 300 Cr worldwide may be next). Master is below 250 Cr worldwide.

Now, Vikram may most probably become the highest grosser in Tamilnadu from tamil film industry soon, by beating Bigil. And there is a good chance that it may become the Industry Hit also by outgrossing Bahubali 2 gross collections from Tamilnadu. But we have to wait and watch for few more days to see how it goes as Vikram’s current gross stands close to100 Cr gross from 7 days.

So my point is even if Vikram becomes an IH in Tamilnadu, it will be Lokesh’s first as a director, as Master was not an Industry hit nor the highest grossing tamil industry movie till now.

LikeLike

Shankar

I loved the film. Does it have issues? Sure, but which film doesn’t? And this was as far from “mass films” as it can be, especially the Tamil ones. I kept thinking of Guy Ritchie’s films, while watching this one. It wasn’t noir by any means, but the focus on the genre, was superb to watch. Lots of great things in the film, including a superb score that fit the film to a T. One of the things I love about Bourne films (though the hand held camera work in it is not really aging well for me) is the pulsating score. I thought Anirudh did a great job in this one. As for it being loud, I’m not sure if it’s the theater owners cranking it up or the original mix itself. Where I watched, I did not have a problem of it being too loud. The performances were great and I loved the fact that each got enough screen time to make a mark, rather than being dominated by Kamal. These are early high level thoughts, will write more detailed ones after second watch!

LikeLike

hari

June 13, 2022

I leave this tweet here – https://twitter.com/tamiltalkies/status/1536159721522360321

LikeLike

“பைத்தியங்கள் வெறி பிடித்து திரியும் ஊரில் , முட்டாள் பைத்தியக்கார மனநிலையில் இருக்கும் இன்னொருவனால்தானே அவர்களுக்குத் தீனி போட முடியும். இந்தக் கூத்துக்கு நடுவே எப்போதுமே சூம்பி சூம்பி இன்பம் அடையும் ஒரு முகபாவனையுடன் பரத்வாஜ் ரங்கத்தனங்கள் . நன்றாக விளங்கும் போங்கள். இவ்வளவு வருடங்கள் தமிழக மக்கள் கமலை சீத்தடித்தனர். ஒரே நாளில் , ஒரே படத்தில் கமல் ஒட்டு மொத்த மக்களையும் அதே சம்பவத்தைத் திரும்ப செய்தார், லோகேஷின் பேருதவியோடு. ”

LikeLike

Writer Araathu slams Vikram movie and immatured 2k kids.

'Vikram is one of the worst movies i have ever seen. 2K kids doesn't know anything except shouting 'vera level'.

To read the full content in FB: https://t.co/LaCMpbFeXo #Vikram #VikramHitlist #KamalHaasan #2KKids pic.twitter.com/jE9XBsLwyo

— Blue Sattai Maran (@tamiltalkies) June 14, 2022

LikeLike

Oh sweet Lord. What hate! What rage! What a sense of “I am right and everyone else is wrong” entitlement.

And all over a movie 😂😂😂😂😂

Note to self: Start getting ready for the GVM film and PONNIYIN SELVAN barbs! 😜

LikeLiked by 10 people

vijay

Araathu makes a lot of relevant points..both about the movie and especially about the ritualistic movie-watching herd mentality of a lot of these movie goers who succumb to the hype

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay

The likes of Beast and Valimai have set the bar really low for action masalas than when a slightly better made multi-star wannabe masala comes along it automatically becomes “vera level” as Araathu mentioned.

LikeLike

jeevan

Having now seen the movie, i liked and enjoyed it. But didn’t feel like it was the first of a kind in anything (except maybe things like such a huge starcast joining together for the first time in Tamil cinema of 21st century and that too with such lavish production values or first time setting up a multiverse of characters, where audience already now craving for more of Lokesh Kanagaraj Universe characters in his upcoming films).

Kamal really rocked in the film and it gave a special happiness to see him receive the roars and whistles of the audience throughout. Having said that, some of the references like that nallavana kettavana dialogue, Fahad’s dialogue of being a fan of your work, etc seemed jarring and forced(or even silly) in an otherwise serious movie like this.

The biggest show stealer in this movie, however, I felt was Vijay Sethupati’s Santhanam. His screen presence and menacing performance evoked goosebumps in literally every scene he appeared. All of my nearly a dozen pals whom I watched with too rated his as the most astounding performance and character in the film. The cheer from the crowd whenever he appeared too indicated that.

Fahad Fassil didn’t give much impact but him and Chemban Vinod kept up the proceedings engaging. Surya kept us waiting to give us a final exciting high and when it finally came up, it’s impact was bit limited. But it was really good to see his star charisma was back again after what felt like a long time.

About the film, as many here told, the movie/director seemed heavily inspired by Nolan’s Darknight. I also sensed a high vibe of Tarantino style making especially of Kill Bill. Seeing Sethupati’s Sandhanam character, i was reminded of the character O-RenIshii, the leader of Yakuza, in Kill Bill-1. The faceofffs were excitingly shot.

It was indeed a brilliant idea to bring in and connect characters from his earlier Kaithi (or even the old Vikram) to this and to take it further in the next installments.

LikeLike

Still dying of laughing at the Kim-ki duk reference in that FB post but had to stop for a second to type this.

Whatay fun to see the stern, beard-stroking guardians of “high culture” emerge and strive so hard to protect us common-trash from movies that entertain us (eg Vikram), music that is fun (Anirudh) or what have you.

(grabs popcorn and hopes for a long thread – oh and kim ki duk 😂😂😂😂)

LikeLiked by 1 person

vijay

oh, talking of music, its an earsore at best..even the reviews that praise this film have carefully avoided talking about the songs and music 🙂 In fact, i cant remember the last time any of these star vehicles had a memorable soundtrack

LikeLike

June 15, 2022

Boss, I’ve seen his guru, Charu, too write/ talk in elaborate on Kim-Di-Kuk’s movies. Also our Koreo-Jap Myshkkin has talked somewhere about him. I got scared after all these high-praises from these people and never ventured to watch one of Kim’s movies. Is there any simple movie of Kim (Kim-Di for dummies) that can be a starting point for commoners like me?
@vijay, I too agree that he has a lot of valid points on the movie. I too hate this “vera level” comments in general, KGF2 and even RRR were below engaging to me. Just the moral high ground that he takes combined with the kind of pseudo-intellectualism that he and his guru professes (with exceptions in a few writings) makes me dislike the post. It is easy to write a similar post on his or his guru’s writings too. But I wouldn’t as I am on no pedestal compared to people who like their writings.

LikeLike

H. Prasanna

June 15, 2022

My favorite line from the Facebook post was “Like this, many absurd scenes have been made to look like good scenes by good cinematography and good acting.”

LikeLiked by 1 person

Krish

June 17, 2022

Think VJS performance not getting his due because people are seeing a master hangover. Actually the VJS in master was more extrovert, this is a fine internal performance and you could see him having a slouched body posture and a very different walk ..almost worried about his own family every minute… The only time the master of VJS comes out is when he takes that drug.

LikeLike

ivan

June 17, 2022

Krish: I doubt it’s the hangover. Although he perfomed well it didn’t leave a lasting impact because the role as a whole is restricted. I feel the second half was a little underwhelming mainly due to VJS – nothing terrifying/intelligent about that character (he was predictable), so it weren’t edge of the seat moments when he killed Fafa’s wife or after the baby.

At the extreme end of the spectrum, I personally find villians like Mansoor Ali Khan in Captain Prabhakaran or Radharavi in Amaran more deadly.

On the other end, the villains can be subtle yet scary. Do you remember the scene in Mahanadhi where his daughter meets the villain for the first time in the room? Nothing is shown explicitly yet the door closing scene sent a chill down my spine.

LikeLike

Honest Raj

By any chance would you be doing a piece on fifteen years of Sivaji?

LikeLike

The Ghost Who Walks

@ivan Do you remember the scene in Mahanadhi where his daughter meets the villain for the first time in the room? Nothing is shown explicitly yet the door closing scene sent a chill down my spine.

The one scene that really creeps me out is the one where the villain comes to the opening to kamal’s business. The way dhanush introduces Manju to him, with “do you recognise her” and the villian remarking something on the lines of how grown up she looks now. Seems pretty innocuous at first but given what we learn of them later, this leads to a totally different reading.

Oh, and if it hasn’t been said enough, Mahanadi is fucking Masterpiece!

LikeLike

ivan

The Ghost Who Walk: Totally agree with you. On a lighter note about “you’ve grown up”. While judging a dance competition, SJ Suryah said to a female participant “are you the one who played the kid in Suryavamsam..you’re so grown up now”. Considering the types of movies he was making at that time, that line surely raised eyebrows.

LikeLike

Rahini David

Honest Raj,

I thought you didn’t even like Director Shankar movies. Is piece on 15 years of Sivaji even needed? It wasn’t a great movie, no?

LikeLike

Satya

Honest Raj: BR seemed to hate the movie in his review, and it would be repetitive. I guess you can write one, it would be nice to hear your perspective on that film.

BR’s Sivaji review: https://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2007/06/17/review-sivaji/

LikeLike

Karthik

June 21, 2022

Anuja: Word for word, I felt the same way about this movie as you did. It was a thoroughly enjoyable ride with some really inventive moments. (And yeah, +1 for a movie on Agent Tina, but maybe one written by Kamal instead of Lokesh. )

I liked that the narrative was focused and didn’t sag, but the movie had its fair share of problems— too much buildup for an interval surprise that was really no surprise, poorly written romance (and female characters), and a strange lack of tension with a baby supposedly in danger (and what an inopportune, inappropriate moment for the nallavara kettavara line, like throwing an Easter egg at the audience). And really, whats with all the one vs many hand combats (To quote a world famous reviewer, “These larger-than-life fights, with a superhuman in front, are tonally at odds with the gritty texture Lokesh seems to be going for”).

Its hard for me to define what a Kamal-written movie is, there’s just so many kinds, but Vikram comes nowhere close unless we stretch that definition to include films like Vishwaroopam 2 and Thoogavanam. Lokesh’ s writing doesnt really have the kind of dense world building or character definition that Kamal movies do. And even Kamal’s lighter ones give importance to relationships between characters which the entire Lokesh oeuvre lacks (save for the solely sentiment serving ones involving children). The only part of Vikram which reminded me of a Kamal movie was the post interval segment where the whole “Ghost” lecture is given by Fahadh, which reminded me of the needless FBI interrogation segment in Vishwaroopam (After 25 years and a hundred mass films since Baasha, we apparently still need a big “Oh, he’s not who you think he is” narrative).

All that said, I am really happy that this movie’s doing so well, if for no other reason than that Kamal’s poured his heart and soul into Tamil cinema for the better part of five decades, and he can really take this win.

LikeLike

Akash

June 22, 2022

Vikram(2022) is now the highest grossing movie of all time at Tamilnadu BO, dethroning Bahubali 2 which held the position since 2017.
The last Kamal movie which held this record was Apoorva Sagorthargal which released in 1989.

LikeLike

Thupparivaalan

June 22, 2022

Karthik: I’m totally feel the same – Kamal deserved this Win for all the heavy lifting that he has been doing for decades to raise the bar. This movie might not be hitting the highs that his previous films did, but that’s irrelevant considering how much risks he has taken with his ventures before, trusting our audience only to be let down repeatedly, but this time things have clicked for him with the audience and I’m just very happy that happened.

LikeLike

KayKay

June 23, 2022

What happens when the unstoppable force of a young, up and coming film-maker who’s proven himself adept at crafting solid action thrillers comes up against the immovable object of a multi-hyphenate Screen Legend
notorious for the level of control he exercises on his films?

Well, thankfully, a lot of good things!

I enjoyed this rock solid action thriller which like the excellent Kaidhi (which, I re-watched before watching this film) marries a nail-biting, propulsive plot to the Epic Crime & Action Epics of the 80s and 90s. If Kaidhi was Con-Air merged with Assault On Precinct 13 with some sprinklings of The Departed and capped off with a delirious homage to Predator and Terminator 2 Judgement Day in it’s climax, then Vikram owes a few hat-tips to the Dark Knight,HEAT and once again, Misters Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the climactic showdown. The fact that LK inserts a Chuck Norris quip to illustrate a malfunctioning gun demonstrates a keen understanding of the Action Iconography of the Titans who once strode across a carnage-strewn landscape, armed with Uzis and a cool quip.

And roping in an Icon known for commanding the screen with scenery chewing performances and has him play it low key intense throughout not to mention have him be a part (albeit an important one) of an ensemble is a master stroke, but one I suspect forms part of the ire some have towards this movie. It’s not a Kamal movie, just a rocking action movie that features him.

And man, the Lokesh Cinematic Universe! Am digging this big time!

Having seen it though, I am a little flummoxed by the extreme views Vikram has amassed. I want to tell both sides to just chill the fuck out. To the devotees who herald this as “historic” and “path-breaking”, I wanna say, “Chill bro, it’s neither. You must have forgotten the Kamal filmography isn’t new o crime procedurals nor thrillers. Remember Kuruthi Punal also played out almost like a pure genre film along with more recent examples like Thoonga Vaanam?”

To the Haters, I’d say “Dudes, I respect your right to dump on this film because it did nothing for you, but some of your reasons are a bit of a head scratcher. I mean, slamming it for an obvious twist that fooled nobody? Dude, that was never meant to be a twist. I mean you might as well say, those Avengers who got blipped out at the end of INFINITY WAR wasn’t such a great twist cause they all came back in ENDGAME.

The twist was never about a supposed Lead Character dying. It was about how the movie unraveled the mystery behind his ‘death’ and how 3 disparate plot threads eventually coalesced. And statements like Vikram is Kamal’s Chandramukhi or maybe better made than Annaathe smacks of some serious condescension.

Maybe onnum illa, Kanna! 5 minutes of Vikram display more cinematic craft than the entire 5 hours of Annaathe’s lame-ass reheated 70s era Paasa Malar style turgid melodrama!
And statements like, if not for FF & VS, nobody would have turned up to watch Taata Kamal is some next level snark. Eh, it can equally be argued, if not for Bobby Simhaa, VS and Nawazuddin, nobody would have turned up to watch Periya Taata Rajini in Petta.

Once again, I respect your right to dislike this movie, but you just gotta bring something a little more solid to back up your apathy towards the film. Comments like this tell me,
either the dislike for Kamal is overpowering or the bar for him is set absurdly high, like nothing short of an untrammelled, path breaking, genre defining Masterpiece is expected from a Kamal movie for it to make the cut, whereas Rajini just needs to turn up, remember his lines and not over strain himself during the dance and fight scenes”

In short, Vikram reached out, located my viewing G Spot and left me supremely satisfied. So much so I went back for seconds!

LikeLike

June 23, 2022

I hope Lokesh gets straight to the action w/o buildup for his next film or learns how to write more interesting plots and characters. Kaithi worked because it got to what Lokesh’s heart is obviously in right away.

LikeLike

Sai Ashwin

One cannot reform a society that is hell bent on celebrating mediocrity.

LikeLiked by 1 person

therag

@KayKay, better than Rajni thatha is not much of an argument. He’s made like 2 good movies in the last 20 years. And this is also not about holding Kamal to a much higher bar. Well maybe in some sense it is, since the main argument for this film is that it is so much better than the usual mass films.

I also like action films that are done well. In fact, I am very forgiving of plot holes, bad acting etc if there is even one great action set-piece in a film. In my opinion, Vikram had zero.

I like all the films you cited in your post and think they are great action films. In fact I think action done well is liked by most people. Vikram was pretty violent, but the actual set pieces were pretty meh. The Tina fight was well choreographed, I’ll give you that. But a “rock solid action thriller” needs better action and better thrills.

LikeLiked by 2 people

Does anyone think Tamil cinema is overall mediocre nowadays? The films aren’t even bad enough to parody…they just sit in this boring space of not bad enough to watch ironically and not good enough to watch unironically. Maanaadu was terrific, but after that I haven’t seen a single impressive product, and the last great film before Maanaadu was, I think, Kaithi.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Srinivas R

@Cholan Raje – tend to agree, there is an overall blandness, tough I will add the caveat that I haven’t watched a lot of movies off late. This is just an observation from what little I have watched.

LikeLike

Severus Snape

Cholan Raje: I don’t know if the relative success of the Telugu and Kannada films makes you feel that way because I thought Sarpatta Parambarai was near-perfect(but it was released in July 2021). I haven’t seen Maanaadu, Kaithi and Vikram yet, so I can’t really comment on them

LikeLike

sanjana

Vikram is good inspite of much violence. There is a good story beneath all the violence. FF is fabulous. Kamal is charm personified. RRR, KGF2 all pale before Vikram. It is somewhat like ghajini but much more violent.

LikeLike

Is RRR really inferior to Vikram though? Is there a single scene in Vikram as mass as a guy jumping out of a car and catching a gun, or as imaginative as the bridge scene or jail escape scene? Except for Agent Tina all of the fight scenes, save camera angles, were meh.

I seriously do not understand the love for this film. The story is very boring and very simple (my family is convinced it’s complex simply because of the Kaithi connections), and unlike Kaithi none of the characters are relatable— Kamal speaks like a sermonizer, FaFa has no personality, his wife is a loosu, and VJS I guess is relatable enough but he’s just a boring average thug. Contrast this with Kaithi where the biryani guy, the cop and the engineering students remind us of people we know. That’s why it was easy to care in Kaithi, and that’s why Vikram feels soulless in comparison. Action is supposed to be the saving grace of both movies, but in Vikram it wasn’t good enough to make up for everything else imo.

LikeLiked by 1 person

sanjana

I did not watch Kaithi. I watched Vikram as a fresh film. It is a very violent film. The last scene was overlong. And the cpr for the baby part was ridiculous. And there are some other scenes which looked implausible. I am slowly getting used to these things because of RRR, KGF2 and other recent films. Larger than life? Finding something good in something bad!

LikeLike

KayKay

sanjana, Cholen Raje, first off, why even compare RRR to Vikram? Have seen both and enjoyed both.

RRR is the ultimate epic masala, a delirious mixture of patriotism, historical thriller and mythology powered by a Mega Watt Bromance with a hefty side order of Jingoism.

Vikram is a gritty suspense thriller, a combo of De Palma/Scorcese style Gangster saga, Mann style Cop Drama and Stallone/Schwarzenegger style one man army actioner.

Rajamouli’s influences are the classic Masala Movies of the 70s and 80s, albeit gorgeously slicked up by a gargantuan budget and set pieces.

Lokesh Kanagaraj’s influences are obviously the aforementioned Stallone/Schwarzenegger/Norris 80s actioners, John Carpenter, Nolan and even John Woo. And he possesses the talent to yoke these influences within a uniquely Indian framework.

You may like the one and hate the other, but makes no sense in comparing the both. Comparing Vikram to Kaidhi makes more sense, but I loved both, acknowledging that Kaidhi was a leaner, tighter construct, but Vikram is operating on a broader canvas, expanding the “universe” so to speak.

Sorry the action didn’t work for you, but it did for me. And FYI, I love screen violence, the bloodier the better. In fact, how refreshing for a thriller to actually lean into some good old fashioned brutality. Those “bloodless” mass movies bore me.

LikeLiked by 1 person

sanjana

July 10, 2022

RRR was charming in its own way. But somewhat predictable story. I enjoyed it while watching.

LikeLike

kaizokukeshav

July 10, 2022

This is the first time I hated BR’s review. How was Valimai with all that mother sentiment became a sob fest, while Vikram with all the son sentiment became an amazing film ? I felt Valimai far better with those stunts and stuff.

It’s almost feels like a sexism in the garbs… when a woman cries that’s old school and man cries it’s the best movie of the year.

LikeLike

anon

July 10, 2022

I didn’t like the movie at all – did not engage me. FF was good in the beginning. What really annoyed the shit out of me was his girlfriend and the way she was written. Maybe Lokesh can watch Gone girl along with all the other Hollywood films that he’s watched and ripped off from. This was the walking talking version of the Gone girl cool girl. I’d rather have the loosu ponnu that I don’t have to take seriously.

LikeLike

Satya

kaizokukeshav: That is a very unique comparison, but isn’t that a normal thing now in the film writing circles? So much so, that in the recent Thor: Love and Thunder, Christian Bale and Chris Hemsworth were appreciated and bashed simultaneously for being vulnerable and emotional. Forget the story, ugly crying and self-pitying men seems to be the new sexy, and Bale pulls all the stops in the film (which I watched).

LikeLike

anon : Getting back in this discussion only to say that FF’s wife was just a vanilla nice girl and nothing at all like the Gone Girl protagonist unless you are thinking of a different film. The GG protagonist, played by villainous role specialist Rosamund Pike, is so dark and ruthless it’s both fascinating and disturbing. FF’s wife is just yet another underwritten female character who’s there just to tick a box and adds nothing to the story, such as there is one in the film.

LikeLike

anon

Thanks for the mansplaining Madan. I suggest you watch the famous cool girl monologue from Gone girl. spoiler: cool girl is not the protagonist

LikeLike

anon : Oh, mansplaining is it now? You made no reference to the cool girl monologue in your original comment so even if a woman who has not watched Gone Girl read the comment, she would have ‘womansplained’ you, assuming you are talking about the protagonist.

Asking for a friend : is there a charge one has to pay these days to have their courtesy reciprocated? It wouldn’t take me a minute to be needlessly rude, you know, so please don’t interpret my choosing to not be rude as a weakness.

LikeLike

Ram

The one problem I had with the movie was this, in some scenes, there was too much going on too quickly the same time that before you absorb and process it fully, the scene changes.

For instance, the scene where Amar discusses the audio bug with his team, or even for that matter the visuals showing how Vikram began investigating his son’s murder case and tracked down those involved. They felt rushed, not detailed enough and required multiple watches (thanks to Hotstar) and it was absolutely impossible to get all of this in the first viewing in the theatre itself. Sample the other scene when Amar and his team laughs off (condescendingly IMO) the IT guy when he asks whether they were discussing about 25kg cement bags. I still did not make the connect back to this scene in the 1st half, when Jose and his team later discovers in the 2nd half that about 25kgs of explosives were missing, because the previous scene did not register at all considering the overall pace of the film.

Usually in Kamal films, we miss the nuance, but not the plot details in the first watch, but here the plot details themselves did not register fully in the first watch. Maybe it was just me..

LikeLike

kaizokukeshav

@Satya: It’s would have been totally sexy if the writers left initial portions of family sentiment with Kamal. The second half of the movie became drag fest with respect to ‘saving the kid’ genre. This was quite unnecessary sentiment given the fact that the antagonist VJS’s family was not killed. Instead they could have taken the mind games to another level.

But now that both Vikram and Valimai ended in the same category and Valimai got a ‘sob fest with mother sentiment’ tag with all those cool bike action scenes, why didn’t Vikram get it. Even there was a scene where Kamal justified he was doing not for revenge, but only for society…. so was Ajith.

LikeLike

As much as I look down on Vikram, it is far beyond Valimai’s league. There was no scene as stupid as the family being hung from the ceiling or Ajith reforming thousands of chain smugglers by asking them to see their mothers.

LikeLike

Kaushik Bhattacharya

August 14, 2022

Finally got around to watching Vikram and it was brilliantly entertaining.

I can see why there might be folks who didn’t like it but genuinely can’t understand why so many of them are trying to convince others that they shouldn’t like it too or to provide reasons for why they liked it. Since when has logic/reason got anything to do with how you feel about movies in this genre?

LikeLike

ravenus1

September 5, 2022

Saw Vikram on Hotstar last night…or should I say endured it?

Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Kaithi was an entertaining masala film that had an organic build-up of scale and made you feel for the main characters so much even the exaggerations towards the end of the film could be easily taken in stride. Vikram is the other way round, so labored and contrived it is sad to think that it came from the same guy. The effortless flow and interlocking of scenes in that one is now replaced by a jerky unstable narrative struggling to do justice to its star lineup. It launches with full swagger, starting with a ‘mass’ song by ‘Ulaga Nayagan’ Kamal and then killing him off before the twist that everyone saw coming. There are very few Kamal scenes in which he doesn’t come across as a twat (and some, like the one where he is arguing his ideology are beyond insufferable). ‘Makkal Selvan’ Vijay Sethupati brings a certain wild energy, but even he seems to be playing a set of Sethupati mannerisms than a comprehensive character. Fahad (no title for him yet) is reduced to a mostly nondescript lead. There is so much posturing and obnoxious guitar music, it offsets the characters’ emotional arcs.

The action, which was Kanagaraj’s strong point, has that same jerky quality as the writing, the only scene that makes an impact being the chase of the assassins after they escape from the wedding. Unlike Kaithi, the flow of the film did not carry me with sufficient verve to stop the questions coming to mind. Why do the henchmen of a multi-billion-rupee drug racket carry kaththi-koduval weapons and basic shotguns that are easily neutralized by our heroes? How did Sethupati’s gang become the top drug mafia in the country by being gullible enough to let someone install several kilos of RDX across their entire lair, anyway?

If anything, Vikram is proof that all this talk about Bollywood films failing because people want better content is BS. Put enough number of big names together and you can get away with it.

LikeLike

https://variety.com/2022/film/reviews/vikram-review-kamal-haasan-1235397618/

October 11, 2022

Director Lokesh Kanagaraj one-ups the excesses of American studio blockbusters in this twist-filled Indian blockbuster with considerable crossover appeal.

LikeLike

New

October 11, 2022

@ravenus, I also disliked the movie, but wanted to address your Bollywood point. It is only North audience that seems to have changed during the pandemnic, not the south. The hero culture and stanglehold of films is too strong in Tamil and Telugu.

LikeLike

hari prasad

Omfg….. Kamal and Mani are gonna reunite after 35 years..
The music they used for the announcement video seemed very punchy… I think it is gonna be some action flick , which would be uncharacteristic for Mani…

LikeLiked by 2 people

Anand Raghavan

Yes, both seem to have a fresh burst of energy after a blockbuster each in their mid 60s..!!

LikeLiked by 1 person

hari prasad

Baddy would be the happiest man of this planet in this hour.. I could imagine him blasting the Andhi Mazhai Megam / Maarugo Maarugo / Annaatthe Aadurar song in his home theatre speakers and maniacally dancing around his room like Fefsi Vijayan from that Santhanam starrer Inimey Ippadithaan…

I know he’s not in Chennai but you catch the pointu…

LikeLiked by 1 person

H. Prasanna

We may have to start a page for this KH-MR movie years before it comes out!

LikeLiked by 1 person

Honest Raj