BEHINDWOODS COLUMN

Fans screaming Vijay’s name, a live in action of the milk 'abhishekam', security police on the run, tight traffic on the road were glimpse of scenes in theaters across the city. The crowd was tightening and we all were waiting eagerly for the theater gates to open. There were large group of men standing in the middle of the road on Diwali at 4:30am. I could say I was the only woman amidst the crowd. As soon as the gates were opened, people were swarming in. The scene inside the theatre was another interesting episode to be captured.

Opening scene was set in Kolkata jail where Vijay was shown trying to escape the cops, with Anirudh’s blockbuster background and an action packed sequence, the first scene swept everyone’s feet off. Slowly the other characters in the movie were unfolded. Satish in combination with Vijay set a good pair on-screen. Every time Vijay appeared on-screen with the sensational Anirudh’s theme music, the whole theater was cracking up and screaming their lungs out.

After the first few scenes, audience was waiting for Vijay No. 2. The movie goes in full throttle and the story is going forward, at that point, director expects us to just go with the flow and forget the logic part of it. The logical connect; role of Samantha, profile of the characters, link with the sequences etc. are missing in the loop. Vijay, playing dual roles, was known to everyone even before the movie’s release, the graphical blend of the two was a lookout for me. A.R.Murugadoss somehow missed his points in the visual depiction of the dual role. However, Vijay is present in all the frames and fans go berserk watching him in action throughout.

After the first one hour of the movie people remained silent, well, not that they should be jumping for every scene. The silence is unusual and I felt people were losing interest in the storyline. The content was heavy with a social message involving all strata of society. There were some key strong social issues ARM touched like water scarcity, distinction between rural and urban, communism etc. My favorite dialogue in the movie is when Vijay gives a one-liner explaining communism. Though Vijay was present in every frame of the film it never felt overwhelming. When Vijay said the punch dialogue before the interval, the entire crowd stood up again screaming and howling (some from the back row even threw torn papers).

The much waited ‘Selfie Pulla’ song arrived and people were entertained completely by Vijay’s dance (some people in the theatre reached the aisle and danced along). Songs in the film gave a break to the monotony of the screenplay. It was a good visual break making most of the viewers get up from their seats and dance. With respect to connectivity to the subject of the movie, it makes no sense though. Anirudh has created an image as a mass plus class composer through this movie. Every time the theme music was played, we could hear screams and howls among the crowd.

With a simple plot and neat storyline AR Murugadoss has conveyed a social message. Did it reach the audience? It is yet to be answered. With the heavy content and outstanding star cast, the ‘Vijay’ factor outweighed the story.

Amidst the howls, screams, paper bits and popcorn, I was spellbound watching Vijay’s fans going crazy to watch him on screen. Vijay – a true opinion leader is what I felt.

Anita Raghuraman
Follow @AnitaRaghuraman