Vaa Vaathiyaar
Comedy Romance Action Tamil
After being raised as the reincarnation of a famous actor, a man finds himself clashing with his grandfather's expectations of him.
| Cast: | Karthi, Krithi Shetty, Sathyaraj, Rajkiran, Anandaraj, Shilpa Manjunath, Karunakaran, G. M. Sundar, Ramesh Thilak, P.L. Thenappan, Vidhya Borgia |
|---|---|
| Director: | Nalan Kumarasamy |
| Writer: | Nalan Kumarasamy |
| Editor: | Vetre Krishnan |
| Camera: | George C. Williams |
All Guild Reviews of "Vaa Vaathiyaar"
Something Is Amiss in Karthi's Vigilante Movie Remix
Director Nalan Kumarasamy and Karthi's film doesn't do enough with its several fascinating ideas and premise
Among the many clever ideas that make Nalan Kumarasamy’s Vaa Vaathiyar a peculiar beast is how the first half both begins and ends with death. The film opens on December 24, 1987, the very day MGR passed away. We see crosscuts of a pregnant mother being taken to the hospital, when a group of the idol’s die-hard fans force the local theatre to play the print of an old MGR classic. They’re worried about their idol’s health who is being treated in the US and try to pacify themselves by re-watching the same film, arguably for the 100th time. The moment news of MGR’s death arrives, we see the first cries of a baby boy taking over the screen. He even has a mole under his right foot, just like MGR did. It’s a mass movie miracle, reminding one of how KGF opens with the discovery of gold, just as Rocky is born. Nalan doesn’t just want to make a tried-and-tested star vehicle…. he also wants to remix the formula upon which the biggest-ever star was created.
Karthi's Film Promises Big Bang, but Settles for Sparks
Karthi nearly carries the film by himself, most notably in his measured, non-mimetic portrayal of MG
Apart from moral ambivalence, the commonality of all Nalan Kumarasamy’s feature film protagonists is that they are aware of being so. Daas of Soodhu Kavvum can’t resist being a kidnapper. He understands the risks and therefore adopts a ‘middle path’ by finding non-violent ways to go about his business. Ka Ka Po’s Kathiravan is a paper tiger who has served time for crimes he never committed. He strives hard to let go of his past, which is not even his.
A Fun, Campy Vigilante Film
Nalan Kumaraswamy weaponises the idea of MGR, the screen hero, staging a pulpy vigilante drama that is as much about cinema’s myths as it is about the state’s abuse of power.
Nalan Kumaraswamy has been around Tamil cinema forever now. Yet the first winner of Naalaya Iyakkunar, the programme that gave us a handful of new-age filmmakers still working today, has only made three films. It’s surprising, considering the prolific output of his contemporaries and the value of the singular voice he brings to cinema. Thirteen years after his debut, his third film, Vaa Vaathiyaar, finally made it to theatres this week. The one quality that stands out in Nalan’s work is the postmodernism that permeates his characters and extends beyond mere window dressing in his frames. It is present in entirety of Soodhu Kavvum (2013) and very much central to his script contributions in Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Super Deluxe (2019). Funnily enough, his sophomore film Kadhalum Kadanthu Pogum (2016) is far from cynical and serves as one of the best romantic films from Tamil in the past two decades. Vaa Vaathiyaar is marketed as a masala or commercial fare from Nalan, and it is easy to see why.
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