A lot is at stake for velaikkaaran- it is Mohan Raja’s first outing after critically and commercially acclaimed Thani Oruvan, Fahad faasils’ tamil debut, Siva Karthikeyan’s (SK) ticket to big league, and his first serious role in a predominantly content driven film. The film opens by presenting striking images of poor and rich and moves into the slum. Arivu (SK), an unemployed youth always dreams about a better life for him and his people. He operates a ‘Kuppum FM’, a local radio, as a tool for empowerment and holds grudge against Kasi (Prakash Raj), a local goon who exploits the slum youth. Things take a turn, when Arivu decides to join Saffron limited, a FMCG manufacturer, managed by Aadhi (Fahad faasil), as financial troubles began to affect his family. First half of Velaikkaaran is quite racy and preinterval scenes may be the best of the lot. While second half starts with a bang, the movie drags after a point of time. However the film again picksup before climax and ends on a good note. The entire events of the film occurs in a gap of a month from April fool day to International labour day. Velaikkaaran also touches upon a lot of issues like consumerism, adulteration, crony capitalism, the loyalty between worker and employer (Viswasam) as the founding stone of every enterprise, etcetera etcetera and etcetera. But too many dialogues can erode the emotional connect with the audience like happened in Maattrraan which dealt with a similar theme, but on a grand scale. Like Thani oruvan, here also antagonist outshines the hero. Though Siva Karthikeyan puts a decent performance outside his usual comic avatars, it was Fahad faasil who stole the show. He effortlessly slips into the role of a cunning businessman. Nayanthara was wasted. One thing I liked about velaikkaaran is that here both hero and villain are indulging in an ideological conflicts and there is no scope for conventional dishum-dishum fights.Mohan Raja had done his research well.There were some very good scenes right from the beginning- be it the scene where a scratch made by slum boy on a luxurious car transforms into a sales graph, the supermarket scene in which Aadhi talks about consumer dynamics to Arivu or Kasthuri’s(Sneha) attempts at taking down the saffron-It has a heart and soul, which is missing in many big budget commercial entertainers. Technical aspects are top notch, while music by Anirudh adds well to the mood of the movie. ‘Karuthavenam’ and ‘Ezhu Velaikkaara’ are the picks. Overall, velaikkaaran is a good watch. But with little bit effort on screenplay, velaikkaaran could have been an excellent entertainer like Thani Oruvan. RATING: 3/5 GOOD COMMERCIAL ENTERTAINER DESERVES TO BE A HIT, BUT NOT PREDICTING VERDICT, AS WOM IS MIXED AND RIGHTS ARE TOO HIGH FOR A SK STARRER!
