Writer: Ramesh

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Watch this if you liked: “Thirupachi”, “Bhagavathy”, “Dhool”

Debutant director Babu Sivan's "Vettaikaran" is a commercial flick bearing themes of heroism to maintain Vijay's position as an action hero, where the story conveys a message about unwanted elements that needs to be removed from society and the country.

Ravi (Vijay) is a happy go lucky youngster, who admires Police Encounter specialist Devaraj as his role model and aspires to be a cop like him. Keeping this dream in mind, he heads to the big city of Chennai to fulfill his dream. Along the way, he meets Susila (Anushka Shetty) in the train and immediately falls in love with her. While studying in college, Ravi earns his living by driving an auto after his college hours and continues his love game with Susila. However one day, he meets Chella (SaiKumar), a womaniser and the son of local mafia Vedhanayagam (Salim Ghosh), who controls the city. Ravi beats up Chella and earns the rivalry of Vedhanayagam who makes life worse for Ravi by using his power over the police. The rest tells of how Ravi, with his intelligence and muscle power, takes law into his hands with his group of friends to bring down Vedhanayagam and his gang.

It is a film made to satisfy Vijay's fan as you can see him in each and every frame as a one-man army. Playing the usual hero role, Vijay delivers nothing new in his performance, but he did managed to make the first half of the movie quite enjoyable with his comic acts. While, the second half felt unnecessarily lengthy. Meanwhile, Telugu actress Anushka who found fame in "Arundhati" was just there to expose some glamour and be part of dream songs. After a long gap, we see Salim Ghosh in a typical villain role which fits him well.

Usual commercial formulas like hero introduction song, dream duets and item songs in foreign locations, heroism dialogues, action sequences and friendship sentiments are pasted throughout the film. Vijay Antony's music is just above average with a couple of toe-tapping songs like "Naan Adicha" and "En Uchimandai". Besides, Vijay's son makes a special appearance during the "Naan Adicha" song sequence.

If you have seen Vijay's previous films like "Thirupatchi" and "Bhagavathy", then there's nothing special in this film to boost about. Overall, "Vettaikaran" is terribly predictable, so watch only if you are die-hard Vijay fan.

Cinema Online, 21 December 2009