VIKRAM Tamil Movie Review
Cast-;
Kamal Haasan , Vijay Sethupathi , Fahadh Faasil , Narain ,Kalidas Jayaram , Chemban Vinod Jose , Santhana Bharathi , Elango Kumaravel , Vasanthi , Gayathrie Shankar , Swathishta Krishnan , G. Marimuthu , Ramesh Thilak , Vinodh , Aruldoss , Gowtham Sundararajan , Sampath Ram , Gokulnath ,Shreekumar ,Arunodhayan
Anish Padmanabhan ,Jaffer Sadiq , Maheswari ,Shivani Narayanan , Myna Nandhini , Suriya ,Karthi ,Hareesh Peradi ,Arjun Das ,Harish Uthaman ,Dheena (actor) , Baby Monica and Others .
Crew-;
Banner: Raaj Kamal films International , Produced by : Kamal Haasan & R.Mahendran , Written & Directed by Loke sh Kanagaraj , Music: Anirudh , Ravichander , Cinematographer : Girish Gangadharan , Action: Anbariv , Editor : Philo min Raj , Dance Choreography : Sandy , Art Direction : N. Sathees Kumar , Costume designers : Pall avi Singh, V.Sai , Kavitha.J , Make-Up : Sasi Kumar , Dialogue Writer : Rathna Kumar , Lokesh Kanagaraj ,PRO : Diamond Babu , Stills : G.Anand Kumar , Publicity Designer : Gopi Prasannaa , Sound Designer : SYNC Cinemas , Sound Mixer : Kan nan Ganapat , VFX : UNIFI Media , VFX Phantom, Real Works Studio , DI : IGENE ,Production Controller: M.Senthil , Associate Director: Magesh Balasubramaniam, Santhosh Krishnan, Sathya, Venki, Vishnu Edavan, Madras Logi Vignesh .
Making Video Edit : P.Sarath Kumar , Digital Marketing : Pulse ,Executive Produc er: S.Disney ,Composed by Ani rudh Ravichander , Lyrics – Heisenberg , Vocals – Anirudh Ravichander , Compose d, Arranged & Programmed by Anirudh Ravichander, Electric Guitar – Keba Jeremiah , Keyboard, Synth & Rhyth m Programmed by Anirudh Rav ichander , Additional Music Programmed by IC, Arish & Pradeep PJ , Additional Rhythm Programmed by Shash ank Vijay , Music Advisor ; Ananthakrrishnan , Creative Consultant , Sajith Satya , Executive Supervision Sriniva san M ,Session Assistant Shivakiran S , Recorded at Albuquerque Records, Chen nai. Engineered by Srinivasan M, Shiv akiran S,Rajesh Kannan , Mixed & Mastered by Vinay Sridhar & Srinivasan M at Albuquerque Records, Chen nai , Mu sic Coordinator – Velavan B .Released – Redgiant Movies and others .
Story;
Following the events after busting the illegal consignment of Adaikalam and Anbu by Inspector Bejoy, a group of masked men are on a killing spree where they killed a few high ranking-cops in Chennai which consist of Stephen Raj from the previous film and ACP of NCB named Prapanchan, along with his drunkard-father Karnan. Due to t he killings of the officials, Police Chief Jose appoints black-ops team headed by Amar to investigate the case. Am ar begins the investigation and digs into Karnan’s life where he finds Karnan’s different identities and was also in volved in drug smuggling. While investigating, Amar learns that after busting the illegal consignment by Bejoy, T he other 2 drug containers are missing which is needed by Santhanam, who is part of a large family and also runs a crime syndicate named Vetti Vagaiyara. Santhanam wants the drugs to be delivered as it would help him in fo rming his own government.
Meanwhile, Veerapandiyan, who is the gang member of Vetti Vagaiyara assigns a meeting with other gangsters, where he reveals that he, along with another gang member named Rudra Pratap knows the location the drug co ntainers as they want to bring the containers to their cold-blooded smuggler boss named Rolex, whose identity is unknown to anyone. However, The masked men arrives and kills Veerapandiyan to death. After learning that Veerapandiyan is the target of the masked men from a chip found in Karnan’s house, Amar chases after them an d capture the main head, revealed to be Inspector Bejoy. Amar interrogates Bejoy where Bejoy reveals that after busting the drug consignment, his family was killed by the syndicate members. Realizing that Rudra Pratap is als o the target of the members, Amar, along with his team barges into Rudra Pratap’s daughter’s wedding cerem ony where Rudra Pratap invites Santhanam to the wedding.
The masked men, along with their leader arrives at Rudra Pratap’s wedding where the leader forces Rudra Pra tap by holding his daughter at knifepoint and drags Rudra Pratap and escapes from the wedding. Leaving some of them to deal with Santhanam, but Santhanam thrashes all of them. Amar chases the masked men where he confronts the leader, who makes a video call to Santhanam and reveals himself as Karnan, who is actually alive and faked his death. Karnan kills Rudra Pratap and escapes from the police. Amar learns that Karnan is actually Arun Kumar Vikram aka Vikram, who is a former RAW officer where he, along with his team are disbandaned after a botched mission and are declared as terrorists. However, some of Vikram’s team were dead, except Vik ram. Amar meets up with Jose and reveals that Jose himself is Santhanam’s mole in the department.
It is revealed that Santhanam was the one who killed Prapanchan, along with Jose’s help as he learnt Santhana m’s drug involvement with Jose. In order to save himself, Jose orchestrate a bomb blast at Santhanam’s house, but Santhanam escapes, along with his family where Jose tells that Amar is responsible and also reveal Vikram’s identity. Later, Vikram arrives at the prison and frees Bejoy and his team. Santhanam kills Amar’s girlfriend Gay athri and attacks Vikram’s daughter-in-law and grandchild, but Vikram arrives and saves them, without their kn owledge. Distraught at Gayathri’s death and joins Vikram’s gang to bust down Santhanam. Amar realizes Jose’s involvement in Gayathri’s murder and kills him. It is revealed that Vikram’s vengeance is actually a mission to bu st down the drug syndicate and that Prapanchan is actually Vikram’s adopted son. Vikram reaches the place wh ere the container is stored.
However, Santhanam learns about the container’s hideout and attacks Vikram. Vikr am attacks Santhanam’s m en with a Cannon and DShK and kills Santhanam, with the help of his team. With the syndicate destroyed, Amar mourns Gayathri’s death and wears the mask to continue Vikram’s mission. In th e mid-credits scene, In Sassoon Docks, Mumbai, Anbu (who is actually alive) and Adaikalam, along with other gangsters held a meeting with th e ir boss Rolex. Adaikalam and Anbu reveal Dilli’s involvement in their drug ambush and Santhanam’s men reveal Vikram and Amar’s involvement for destroying their drug syndicate. Rolex announces a huge sum as reward for execution of Dilli and Vikram. However, Unknown to Rolex, Vikram was hiding with the gang and learnt their bo unty against them and is ready to finish them.
Watch The Trailor-;
Movie Review -;
Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Vikram is the kind of experiment that Tamil cinema hasn’t seen in a long time. While Mani R atnam has managed to pull off quite a few multi-starrers, thanks to many in the industry wanting to tick the ‘wo rked in a Mani sir film’ box, it’s unusual for big male stars to share screen space generously otherwise. Not only d oes it inflate the budget too much, it’s difficult to please their respective fanbases. But let’s look at the names in Vikram’s cast: Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil and Suriya (in a cameo). All of these actors have d emonstrated in their previous body of work that they’re more interested in being performers than stars. They ve broken rules, tried out new things, stepped out of their comfort zone, even if they were not always successf ul.
What a great idea to bring them together, breaking the tedious assembly line of star vehicles that we have been enduring! In Kaithi, when Karthi’s Dilli gets stabbed multiple times and yet bounces back, it doesn’t really stick out to damage the movie primarily because of the mood set by Lokesh Kanakaraj till that point. And there is a sense of mystery about that character. It’s no longer a secret that Lokesh’s new movie Vikram, starring Kamal Haasan as the title protagonist, is set in the same universe. And Vikram also goes after this ambitious hero-wo rshipping style-centered narration, and it works! With Kamal Haasan unleashing his swagger along with a well-balanced screenplay that accommodates all the characters, I found Vikram as a thoroughly entertaining action package.
The title of the film harks back to the 1986 film Vikram and borrows the broad profile of Kamal’s character from it. But the story, as Lokesh has reiterated multiple times ahead of the film’s release, is closely connected to his 20 19 blockbuster Kaithi, which was loosely inspired by Assault on Precinct 13. A curious coincidence is that Tom Cruise’s Top Gun released a few days before the first Vikram came out, and the same is true of their respective se quels too (Top Gun: Maverick came out last week). Like Top Gun’s Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, Vikram also belo ngs to a top secret government agency. They’re both considered to be relics but hey, the old men still have it in them. If Top Gun is all about jets, Lokesh’s universe is grounded in trucks and beautiful shots of biriyani. Who’s comp laining?
A terrorist group kills two police officers in the narcotics wing along with the father of one of the officers. There was a seven-day window between each killing. Police hired a private investigative team led by Amar to find out about the gang. What we see in Vikram is Amar’s probe and what he finds in that investigation. Lokesh must be applauded for not wasting time on fanboy tributes to the superstar on board, and sticking to telling the story. Th is is a big plus for the film, but it’s not all smooth going. Lokesh cuts to the chase from the opening scene. Quickly, we know that this film too revolves around a large consignment of drugs. Gory murders are staged by a mysterio us gang of masked men and it’s unclear why they’re doing it. Kalidas Jayaram plays Prabhanjan one of the murde red officers. His adoptive father known as Karnan (Kamal), is also believed to have been one of the later victims.
He’s projected as a drinker, smoker and womaniser, a man who turns to vices to forget the grief of his son’s deat h. Fahadh Faasil’s Amar, an agent with the government’s secret Black Squad, is called upon to investigate the cri mes, and thus begins the game. Fahadh gets the lion’s share of screen time in the first half and the actor, as alway s, delivers. In Kaithi, when George Maryan as that only police officer, decided to stand up against that mob of gan gsters, it gave a cinematic high to that whole film. It was something that we weren’t expecting in that package. In Vikram also, Lokesh Kanagaraj is making a deliberate effort to make it less of a multi-starrer cliche. There is less hero-balancing happening in the script, and in fact, Kamal Haasan is hardly there in the film’s first half. The only area I found a bit disappointing is in the writing part of Vijay Sethupathi’s character.
While others contributed in a better way, Santhanam somewhere felt like a mere villain.In Kaithi, all that Dilli (K arthi) wants is to reunite with his daughter Amudha. Though the action-packed film had little room for emo ti on, the fragile thread connecting father and daughter managed to tug at our hearts at the right moments. Lokesh tr ies to do the same in Vikram with Karnan’s grandson, a baby born with a heart condition that makes it dan gero us for him to hear loud noises. It is a superb conceit that could have paved the way for some really innovati ve se quences – a man who must fight a ruthless gang without making any noise. But the writing doesn’t exploit the p otential of the premise so much. The signature eccentricity Kamal Haasan has is used in Vikram to bring out th ose moments of swagger.
The sentiments bit are minimal, and because of the roughness of the character, it isn’t that loud. But Kamal brin gs out the niceness in that character very smoothly. Fahadh Faasil, with those Varathan/Iyyob kind of fast mov e s, is extremely convincing, and I hope he will try to bring new variations when similar roles are offered again.T he breakneck pacing of the film doesn’t allow for our feelings to sink in; Lokesh overstuffs the storyline with too ma ny players and their ambitions, undermining the emotional core of the plot in the process. The bond between K arnan and his grandchild needed more screen time, or at least a few moments that are not generic. Kamal is an ac tor who can make you cry just by lifting his eyebrows (I still can’t watch the song ‘Unna Nenachen Paatu Padic hen’ without weeping myself), so when you’re left feeling unmoved by what’s happening on screen, a good part of the blame should go to the script.
Instead of indulgent dialogues on what happens in the jungle, how about focusing on what goes on within human beings? Yes, action movies demand guns but when the bullets rain down on someone, we need to feel something. Lokesh is a talented director but I wish he would also explore the ‘whys’ of a character and not only the ‘hows’. Th e good people do what they do for ‘society’ and the bad people do what they do for ‘money’. But human beings ar e far more complex than that, and I’m going to be greedy and ask that our filmmakers think beyond these simpli stic boxes. Vijay Sethupathi was able to make tweaks to his presentation of Santhanam in a way that makes it di stinguishable from the other characters he has done. Even though the character and his actions have a role in ma neuvering the narrative, a compelling factor was not there in the case of Santhanam.
Narain reprises his role from Kaithi as Bejoy. Chemban Vinod Jose made his role very memorable. Kalidas Jayara m and Gayathri Shankar are also there in the cast. The actor who played the part of the domestic aid in Karnan’s house deserves a special mention. Gayathri appears as Amar’s girlfriend, and here too, Lokesh squanders away t he opportunity to write a scene that should have delivered a sucker punch to the gut by building it on a flimsy, ju venile romance (the ‘baby-baby’ dialogues made me wonder if I was watching a Vignesh Shivn film). Narain’s Bej oy, such a vital role in Kaithi, is reduced to a footnote in Vikram and the treatment is way too hurried (a big part of the character’s story arc is casually summed up). In Master, when Lokesh Kanagaraj tried to create a generic mass masala film, huge chunks of the screenplay felt inconsequential when you look at the film in totality.
In Vikram, even though the movie is long and has done the fanservice in various areas, it never deviates from the main plot. Even that Pathala Pathala song is given a reason at a later point. Just like Kaithi, even though the hero ism is over the top, the movie never moves away from its focus. The set pieces are scaled up, and I must say it wor ks on the big screen, and I am sure the visual effects imperfections will be visible when it streams on Disney Plus Hotstar. Girish Gangadharan’s frames have too much of blacks, just like how Lokesh likes them. The visuals have the style factor, and along with Anirudh’s tracks, the aura building is done correctly. The bolt camera-based stunt sequences were also catchy, and I felt Bheeshma Parvam sequences using that cam had a more stylish output. Ph ilomin Raj’s intercuts help the movie a lot in being engaging. Vijay Sethupathi plays Sandhanam, a brute with thr ee wives (of course, we’re in an entirely male cinematic universe) and 67 members in his family.
Though his mannerisms on screen are starting to feel repetitive, Vijay Sethupathi is quite fun to watch as Sandh anam. Kamal’s tongue-in-cheek one-liners land w ell too (just how good is he in that scene when he asks a minor goon if he can tell him a story?), and as in Kaithi, th e placement of old songs in absurd contexts draws out some effective black comedy. A story that has style, swa gger, and characters; is what Vikram is for me. It was an idea that could have gone terribly wrong if it focused on heroes rather than characters. But Lokesh Kanagaraj is more in control here, and despite the over-the-top natur e of the movie, I found the narrative really engaging. The Sur iya cameo gave the movie the kind of high it needed to conclude. Looking at the placement of that character, LCU is beginning to feel like a star-driven franchise that allows the star to do something different from the usual. The interval block with the catchy ‘Vikram’ song from the 1986 film is gold. The old film hasn’t aged well and is quite cringe-inducing when watched now.
But there’s no doubt that the title song has remained evergreen. Ka mal’s transformation in Vikram isn’t as jaw-dropping as it was in Vishwaroopam but you’re certainly guaranteed goosebumps. If Vikram looks and feels like a proper, unapologet ic action movie, credit must go to Girish Gangad haran (cinematography) and Philomin Raj (editing). The slick pac kaging ensures that we’re never bored all through the lengthy runtime of nearly three hou rs. Anirudh’s backgro und score becomes over-the-top towards the end, but it works for most of the film. Suriya’s cameo sets the stage for Lokesh’s next which will also feature Karthi’s Dilli. That’s a film that’s going to combine the fairly straightforward story of Kaithi with the more crowded world of Vikram. To make the collision spark, Lo kesh must focus more on the emotional quality of the script. He has already shown that he can be audacious in his imagination and ambition, and as one of Tamil cinema’s smartest directors of this generation he certainly has it within him to pull it off. Aarambikalamey!
This IS MY Personal Review So Please Go And Watch The Movie In Theaters Only
Written By- T.H.PRASAD -B4U-Ratting-3 /5
