VISITOR COLUMN

How many times have we watched old movies – especially, Rajini’s movies of late 80s and early 90s and wished how it would have been if those were done by current stars like Vijay, Ajith, Surya? Veeram is just that. The story is not new and in fact we have seen it in lot of earlier Rajinikanth’s movies of 80s and 90s. However, to see Ajith in that story is very refreshing. This man has the capacity to lift an entire movie on his shoulders, something Rajinikanth had and still has.

Firstly, its so good to see Ajith in a village based story wearing dhoti throughout the movie – except for songs, of course. Having seen him in his recent movies wearing a sun-glass, a blazer and slo-mo walks, its so different to see Ajith in this avatar, though he has not changed his salt and pepper look. This is yet another commercial movie from the director SIVA who had earlier directed SIRUTHAI, remade from a TELUGU movie. Veeram is supposed to Siva’s first original movie in Tamil and one has to admit that he has dished out a neat commercial entertainer. His target is very clear – the fans of Ajith and he has delivered justice to them.

Ajith plays VINAYAGAM who lives with his four brothers. They question anyone in the place whom they feel have done injustice. Santhanam plays the role of BAIL PERUMAL, who ensures that this team of five does not go to jail for their actions. Vinayagam does not want to get married as he feels that if a wife comes, it will create a split amongst the brothers. However, couple of his brothers fall in love secretly, hoping that someday Vinayagam gets married. The first half of the movie revolves mostly around how Santhanam along with Ajith’s four brothers make him love a woman, who obviously happens to be the heroine, TAMANNAH. Amidst this, there is PRADEEP RAWAT, who wants to control the local market, which Ajith ensures that it does not happen. In fact, the auction scene is simple but has a strong impact. The second half of the movie revolves around how Ajith & co manages to win the hearts of Tamannah’s family, which is headed by Nasser.

Ajith’s dialogs more or less reflect his real life persona and Veeram is no exception. The auction scene, the scene where Ajith gifts a shop to his servant who gets married, the scene where he tells ATUL KULKARNI what Nasser’s family has done to him – all these scenes have simple, yet impactful dialogs and when Ajith delivers them, the impact is even bigger. On the flip side, the director had missed out on some logical things – like the scene where its shown that the entire police van hits a petrol pump station and bursts, however, the villain alone escapes with just a couple of scars.

Devi Sri Prasad has given a splendid theme music for Veeram and it does give goosebumps in the climax scene. Thankfully, he has used it sparely, unlike in Arambam, where Yuvan was giving the same music everytime Ajith entered the scene. However, the same cannot be said for songs. The good thing though is that you don’t feel the songs as hindrance. Most of them are fast paced songs and passes very quickly and you don’t even have time to think about them. Stunts are good – the hyped train stunt was shot neatly.

Overall, Veeram is a good break for Ajith and the director and as a commercial movie, it does not disappoint at all – thanks To Ajith’s splendid charisma.