Movie Review: Vivegam

Vivegam is a movie for Ajith Kumar fans released during a festival season. Keeping this fact in mind, I will stay away from the subjects of plot holes of any varieties and absence of logic. The idea of such movies is to entertainment for both the die-hard fans and the skeptics. While the former may extol the virtues of the film, the latter can have a good laugh at the idiocy. Vivegam follows the similar path of the previous offering, Vedalam, by the Ajith Kumar(lead actor) and Siva(director). It is a game of one upmanship between the protagonist and the villain. You may not be hooked, but it keeps you interested in the proceedings.

Even when you want to forgive most of the sins, there are two things which could have been avoided. There was no need for Ajith Kumar to rip out the T-shirt to reveal his body. In the age of Dangal and Baahubali where actors display sculpted body, Ajith Kumar has a very long way to go. The second is making Kajal Aggarwal sing and shake her head in "anger" while Ajith Kumar and Vivek Oberoi are slugging it out in the climax. Anirudh was doing a great job with the background music. The histrionics by Kajal was a bit over the top even for me who was in a forgiving mood.

Vivegam has a handsome star (with bad acting chops), beautiful locales and a whole lot of events. The drawback of the movie is hastily planned execution by the director. Siva has a different definition of fast paced action. He shoots a lot of footage, retains everything in the final version and jumps between various camera angles quickly. The pace of scene becomes fast because of these jumps, but it is also disorienting and confusing for the viewer. The impact of the action scenes gets diluted. Sometimes, the action has to occur slower to create an impact on the audience. The saving grace during this confusion is the background score by Anirudh. The music is excellent elevating the mood of the movie. You overlook many of the shortcomings including the tacky graphics.

Overall, Vivegam is a slightly better film than Vedalam. I was not disappointed by both the movies because of the low expectation. Vivegam shows a marked difference from the previous movies of Ajith Kumar. It had announced a release date, and there were no last minute changes. There was a lot of pre-release publicity. These are the major criteria for the success of any movie. Now, Ajith Kumar needs to demand quality from his directors. As for Vivegam, it is a good for a one-time watch. 

Language: Tamil

Genre: Thriller

Rating: **