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Despite its minor flaws, lack of logic, and lecture-style moral narrative, Vettaiyan should be enjoyed in a theatre amid Rajini fans and their wolf whistles, endorses Divya Nair.
Gone are the days when a superstar film was all about glorifying one star.
This is the age of multi-starrer cinema where regional stars are collaborating with Bollywood and Hollywood actors to attract pan-India audiences.
In TJ Gnanavel's latest Tamil release Vettaiyan (meaning The Hunter), Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan collaborate after a gap of 33 years (they were last seen together in Hum).
Rajinikanth plays V Athiyan aka Vettaiyan, a police officer known for his foolproof encounters with hardcore criminals.
In a parallel introduction, we are introduced to Justice Satyadev (Amitabh Bachchan in his Tamil debut), who contests that police encounters violate basic human rights and dishonours the Indian constitution.
While both are law-abiding citizens with their own morals, the latter believes that nothing is and should be above the law.
Police violence and quick justice should not be celebrated.
The first half is rather slow with random new characters being introduced through seemingly unrelated situations.
During one such investigation, Athiyan and his wife Thara (Manju Warrier in a courtesy role) grow fond of Saranya, a high school teacher who helps Athiyan bust a drug racket at a government school. When Saranya is brutally raped and killed, the police investigation leads to Guna, a young boy from the slum who soon becomes the poster boy of hate.
When Guna escapes from police custody, Athiyan steps in and kills him in an encounter.
While everyone is busy celebrating Athiyan's bravery, Satyadev reveals that Guna was wrongfully accused of the crime.
Upon closer introspection, Athiyan and team see the gaps in the investigation.
Athiyan vows to find the find the actual conspirators and thus begins a wild chase to nab the real culprit.
Given Tamil Nadu's disapproval of NEET-UG, the national medical entrance exam, Gnanavel and his team seem to have picked just the right topic to stir the audience's emotions.
How the privatisation of high school education combined with the pressure of coaching institutes impacts government school students and how underprivileged families pay the price for it, becomes the larger emotional story.
With a stellar supporting cast of Fahadh Faasil (in the quirky role of Patrick, a cyber criminal-turned-police informer), Ritika Singh and Dushara Singh, Vettaiyan has all the ingredients of a suspenseful action thriller.
Surprisingly, there were more Malayalam actors in the film playing blink-and-miss supporting roles in the Tamil film.
Also, the subject of rape and student suicides gets reduced to mere tokenism than genuine interest which affects the film.
As for star power, Anirudh's background music adds the right effect for the superstar's entry.
Sadly, Nataraj (Rana Daggubatti) doesn't satisfy the requirements of a corporate villain worthy of Rajinikanth's stature.
When you think of a worthy villain in recent times, you'd like to use Jailer's Varman and Leo's Anthony Das as references. Rana Daggubatti's Nataraj doesn't even qualify by that metre.
But there are moments where SR Kathir's cinematography uses high and low-angle shots (watch out for the elevator sequence in the second half) to establish the power play between Nataraj and Athiyan.
There are moments where the scenes are conveniently written but deserve a lot more style and smartness.
Vettaiyan has a stylish Rajinikanth playing a cop who realises his mistake and turns over a new leaf, which is a rare phenomenon for a Thailava film.
Despite its minor flaws, lack of logic, and lecture-style moral narrative, this is a movie that should be enjoyed in a theatre amid Rajini fans and their wolf whistles, especially during his 'mass entry' scenes and encore dialogues.
Vettaiyan Review Rediff Rating:
