Review: Velaikkaran

Film: Velaikkaran

Director: Mohan Raja

Cast: Sivakarthikeyan, Nayanthara, Fahadh Faasil, Robo Shankar, Sathish, Kaali Venkat, Charlie, Sneha, RJ Balaji, Sathish, Rohini and others

Music: Anirudh

Cinematography: Ramji

When it comes to making meaningful movies, there are not many who can rival Mohan Raja. His next film Velaikkaran too is a well thought out masterstroke, aimed at unmasking the dubious practices that several corporates employ to cheat both the consumers and their workers.

Mohan Raja’s speciality lies in the fact that he understands the complex economics behind corruption on the one hand and on the other, also knows exactly how to narrate an issue in a simple form for the masses to understand. What he does by explaining the problem in simple language is that he enables the common man to see what he sees and thereby spurs him to take corrective measures.

Velaikkaran, with its powerful story line and excellent performances from its entire cast, delivers a powerful message to both consumers and workers, cutting across industries.

Arivu (Sivakarthikeyan) is an enterprising youngster with an eagerness to learn. He stays in a slum called Kolagara Kuppam, which, like its name suggests, has a number of youngsters indulging in goondaism and rowdyism as they have been misled into believing that it is the only way they can make a living. The man misleading them is Kasi (Prakash), who has a number of youngsters from the slum recruited as his henchmen.

Arivu initially starts a community radio for the slum through which he hopes to reform the youngsters taking to violence for a living. He attempts to make them understand that what Kasi has been leading them to believe is not true. Engrossed in his community radio project, he fails to see that his parents, Charlie and Rohini are struggling to bring him and his sister up. One day, he overhears his mother talking to his father about their struggles and feels guilty about not having contributed financially to his family.

He decides to earn. He joins a corporate giant selling food products as a salesman. That is where he meets Aadhi (Faasil) the Brand Manager, who hires him for the job. Arivu is full of admiration for Aadhi, right from the minute he meets him. Soon, he takes him to be his mentor and starts working in close tandem with Aadhi, from whom he understands corporate and marketing strategy. Arivu’s biggest strength is not only can he learn the tricks of a trade fast, he can also improvise. He begins to improvise. As a result, he sees the bigger picture clearly and realises that the villain he has to fight is not Kasi but Aadhi… What does Arivu learn about sales and marketing? What does Aadhi alias Adhiban Madhav do that makes Aadhi turn against him? Answers to these questions and more are answered in Velaikkaran.

Mohan Raja’s touch is evident at every stage of the film. Be it the strategy that Aadhi employs to select employees from a number of candidates who turn up for a walk in interview or the manner in which he explains the reason why products are displayed in a particular fashion in a supermarket, it is not Aadhi, but Mohan Raja, through the character of Aadhi, actually explaining a corporate chain’s con job to us. These sequences showcase brilliance. Complex concepts explained by economic experts have been crunched down to small simple relatable incidents in this film and that is what makes it tick. I can only imagine the amount of work that must have gone into making it this simple. A big round of applause to Raja for that.

Next, the film has some big time performances. Sivakarthikeyan has just turned a complete star with this performance. He manages to retain his funny, innocent looking self and at the same time, managed to raise his stature to that of a leader, who is a harbinger of change. The beauty is both profiles fit the actor. They do not confront one another but actually, complement each other and therefore, Sivakarthikeyan’s fan base is only bound to widen with his performance in this film.

A hero’s strength is determined by the power his enemy possesses. In this case, he takes on a smooth operative in the guise of Aadhi. Fahadh Faasil as Aadhi is just brilliant in this film and steals the limelight on many occasions. The scenes where he actually chooses to accompany Sivakarthikeyan as an employee, even after taking over as the CEO are outstanding.

Nayanthara as Mrinalini is measured and neat and delivers what is needed of her.

The film also has notable contributions coming in from Vijay Vasanth, Robo Shankar, Kaali Venkat, Sneha and Charlie and Rohini. All of them have delivered.

Anirudh’s music is already a hit and that speaks more than what words can say. Ramji’s cinematography is neat.

On the whole, Velaikkaran is a must watch!