Sep 05, 2006 07:11 AM
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Film makers just adore psychopaths and criminals who are just a little off balance. They can be manipulated in any available way and there is plenty of scope for experimenting and improvising too. From 'Psycho' to 'The Silence of the Lambs' Directors from Hollywood have worked through this subject. In our country, all kinds of pshychopaths have given us immense treats (not threats). And now Director Gautam Menon, after his stint with a foul mouthed and long haired criminal in 'Kakka Kakka', presents us with twin psychopaths in 'Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyadu' (Hunt and Play, roughly translated). In this whodunit, as we all know Kamal plays a DCP who flies all the way to New York to solve the murder, sorry 'Execution', of his mentor and senior official played excellently by our method actor Prakash Raj. The hero always plays by instinct, or is it ESP, and solves the puzzles, and he proudly calls it 'Raghavan instinct', as if it was 'Pavlov's theory'.
The movie is supposed to cater 'High class' audience who are intoxicated with Hollywood films, according to the press previews and interviews. And defenitely it has its unique Gautam touch. The establishment shot in which the hero Raghavan is being introduced is without much fanfare and not loud, and is supposed to be given a natural and realistic touch, and alas, the DCP beats down barehanded some twelve to thirteen well built fully armed goondas. Yes it is a Tamil film, we are reminded. We are told that Kamal is a widower, whose wife was killed by some goons, and don't forget - he repays them with bullets, a la encounter. Have we witnessed this incident before? Yes, in 'Vetri Vizha' ,'Nayagan', 'Hey Ram' and in many other Kamal films, the same thing has happened many many times. And he has a flashback too in which the newly wed play love games in their home, sing duets in typical Gautam-Harris Jayaraj-Thamarai style, and every bachcha in the audience will know that the wife is going to be killed.
His mentor's daughter disappears and Raghavan goes to find out what happened, near Madurai. Previously a plastic bag with black magical ingredients like a conch, lemon and a ladies finger, I mean a chopped finger of a lady, has been hung outside the senior's house. And Raghavan unfolds mysteries from a non existent clue. While driving, he asks the driver to stop in the way, and it is an unknown territory for him, but his instinct sniffs its way to the place where the girl without the particular finger is buried. The postmortem report says the murder has been committed by someone with medical knowledge, and who knows how to use the incisors brilliantly. Senior Officer remembers an incident when he manhandled two youngsters, who eaveteased her, but they must be innocents, say the cops who detained them in the lock up without filing any FIR. So no records. And when even a dull headed audience would have guessed, it must be committed by some medical students, Raghavan sends his instincts for holidays.
He gets a bad news from US. His senior and wife, who have migrated there have been killed brutally! Raghavan gets the permission from his dept., Home Ministry and other ministries so easily, and flies to New York single handedly to solve the crime. He checks in a Hotel and then meets the other cop who is going to accompany him . He is Anderson, the typical foreign cop always in full suit, we see in Indian films, and he just walks and rides along with the Indian counterpart. And the spirit of a 'Lethal Weapon' is missed by Gautam here. On a search ride on the countryside, they witness a locked gate. Instinct works and Raghavan breaks the lock and enters. It is like a haunted fort, and he zooms his sight to a particular spot swarming with maggots! The place is dug, and out come plenty of corpses, periodically murdered, slit into halves, raped and necessarily not in that order. The americans are stunned at the sniffing syndrome of our hero.
Hunts begin for the killers, and after a great fight, the villains escape. Before that they have used their medical techniques, to pierce certain parts of lungs and other vital organs of the Hero and set fire to the apartment itself. And before that they have given a not so brief account of their flashbacks to the poor writhing hero, bleeding from the nose. They have started their adventures at the age of 13, when they were classmates. They rape their class teacher inside a well and kill her. And as there was no intelligent cop like Raghavan at that time, they continue with their adventures without any hinderences, and get seats in medical colleges , and fly between US and India to commit murders. They even have decorated their room with posters of Anthony Perkins and Hopkins, the famous 'pshychopath' actors. And when they were locked up for eveteasing, the aravani (hijra) who regularly visits the Inspector, for you know what, is sent inside the cell with the boys, as the Inspector was not in a mood. The poor psychopaths cry in terror spending the night with him/her. And these guys are not only masters of incisions, but also masters of disguises like Peter Sellers, revealed in the final scenes of the movie.
From the fire set apartment, the hero jumps out of the window and lands on a garbage bag. The net is spread to catch the rippers who have escaped out of the country, by just taking a taxi from the burning house to the Airport. Everything is smooth sailing for them, and they walk out of the Mumbai Airport, just like that, after assaulting two staff of the Airport, inside the toilet, and the Indian cops are still searching for them at the Airport. My God! I have forgotten a very important character in the film and it is Jyotika, who is the next door tenant in the US lodge. One day Raghavan instinct says, that she is going to jump out of the window. He breaks the door and enters to find the lady in a pursuit of suicide and saves her. Actually she is the wife of a gentleman, who harasses her and beats her and the hero has to intervene and a beautiful relation develops between Kamal and Gowthami, sorry, Jyotika. These scenes are so lengthy and boring, you could not avoid trains of yawns.
If you call picture postcard shots and aerial view photography and colour bleached grading as best cinematography this film has plenty of it. Now the official editor has been replaced by the theatre operators, who have been chopping footages by hundreds of metres, after a week of release. So if you want the full version, you have no other go than the pirated dvd. Gautam has adventurously avoided comedy scenes which are a must nowadays. But what is the need for including songs and the picturisation is unsuitable to the style of the movie. If you want to make a hollywood style movie, just go and make it without compromising. That is what we expect from young directors like Gautham. Though the whodunit yarn is a big yawn, the Director has a certain style and he has maintained it throughout the movie. And I strongly believe he will go places like John Woo or Manoj Night Shyamalan.
