'Vilai' (Tamil, Action, 2010)
Director- G Kamaraj
Cast- Bharani, Saravanan, Ritu Soni, Udayathara, Sathika, Fatima, Banuchandar, ‘Yogi’ Devaraj, Chandru
After a promising debut in the gangster-flick 'Perusu' and then the forgettable suspense thriller 'Suttapazham', director Kamaraj ventures into the murky world of flesh trade.
A complaint lodged by a brother about his missing sister takes the cops on a long trail exposing a well organised prostitution racket. Girls were abducted, taken to neighbouring states and sold to the highest bidder. Vandana (Ritu) and her brother (Bharani) come to Chennai for higher studies. When her brother gets down from the cab in search of an address, the driver takes off with Vandana.
After frantically searching for the cab, he finally goes to the police station.
But the cops turn a deaf ear to his complaint. Shanmughavel (Saravanan), a senior policeman, steps in and takes charge of the case. The cop had his own demons to fight. Years ago, in an encounter with gangster Farook Bai (‘Yogi’ Devaraj in a fitting role), the cop accidentally killed the thug’s daughter. After this incident, his school-going daughter goes missing, but Shanmughavel could never pin it on the thug.
On a parallel track are the abducted girls, helpless and traumatised, shunted in a van to Andhra Pradesh, awaiting a fate ‘worse than death’ as one calls it. The twist in the finale lacks conviction.
Bharani ('Kalloori' and 'Nadodigal'), essaying his first lead role, is a natural. However, there are moments where one felt he could have been better guided by the director. Sathika (a former child actor), reveals rare maturity as Mani the daughter of a prostitute being forced into the flesh trade.
The film has the feel of a docu-feature, it delves into the modus operandi of the pimps, and follows the geographical trail the racket takes. But it misses the emotional punch, the script never really allows us to get involved or empathise with the plight of the girls. On the flip side, it is appreciable that the director has chosen a socially relevant theme, and that he has resisted slipping in sleaze, or any overt skin show.