Review: Vaathi

Film: Vaathi
Director: Venky Atluri
Cast: Dhanush, Samyuktha, Samuthirakani, Tanikella Bharani, Thotapalli Madhu, Sai Kumar, Ken Karunaas, Bharathiraja and others
Producer: Naga Vamsi Sand Sai Soujanya
Music Director: G V Prakash Kumar
Cinematographer: J Yuvraj
Run Time: 139 minutes
Rating: 3.5 stars

‘Vaathi’, directed by Venky Atluri and featuring Dhanush and Samyuktha in the lead, is a reasonably well-made film that focuses on the state of education in the country.

Dhanush, who has been stressing on the importance of education in his films off late, delivers a neat, commendable performance in this one too.

Synopsis:
The story begins with the father of a young boy, looking to sell off his video shop to pay for his son’s higher studies. He asks his son to go clean the video shop before the buyers visit the place.

When the son visits the video parlour along with his friends and begins cleaning it, he finds a series of video cassettes hidden in a box.

Curious to know what the cassettes contain, the boys play them. They find out that the cassettes basically contain teaching sessions. A maths teacher is seen explaining the process of solving difficult problems in the videos.

It doesn’t take long for the boys to realise that the problems being solved in the cassettes are actually problems they are now grappling with in school.

Impressed with the teaching methods and the teacher, they begin to wonder if the teacher in the video will agree to take tuitions for them and set to find out the man.

Their search invariably leads them to the collector’s office of the district, who discloses that the ordinary maths teacher they saw in the video was one of his teachers and that he revolutionised the field of education.

He tells the story of his simple maths teacher, Bala Murugan. How Bala Murugan trained 46 students studying in a government school so well that they not only passed with flying colours in their school exams but also secured ranks in competitive exams held by the government is what the film is all about.

The story shows how the teacher, despite the hardships and hindrances posed by the owners of private coaching centres and schools, helps students studying in a government school to succeed in life…

Director Venky Atluri tells a story that is set in the late nineties. It underlines the importance of education and the need to make it accessible to all children in society.

The film, while making the significant point that education cannot be a business in our country, shows how money-minded businessmen have, for their own selfish interests, found ways to circumvent the system and turn education into a lucrative business.

Although Dhanush’s performance in this film might not be good enough to make it to the list of his all-time fine performances, it still manages to leave you impressed.

Dhanush, as assistant teacher Bala Murugan, does a neat job. In fact, his performance is one of the prime reasons why the film works.

Samyuktha, who plays Biology teacher Meenakshi, too comes up with a commendable performance, despite her role being relatively shorter than that of Dhanush.

The romantic portions between Samyuktha and Dhanush in particular work well and provide some much-needed entertainment in an otherwise serious film.

Samuthirakani, for a change, appears as the head of the private institutions that are worried about government schools delivering excellent results. He plays a ruthless businessman looking to protect his business interests at any cost to perfection.

Music director G V Prakash Kumar’s music works like a charm and his background score for the film is even better.

Cinematographer Yuvraj does a neat job of capturing the story that is set both in present day and also in the nineties.

Simply put, ‘Vaathi’ is a neat, clean family entertainer with a noble and significant message for society!