Movie : Virudhagiri
Cast : Vijaykanth, Madhuri, Arun Pandyan, Bombay K C Shankar, Aman Deep Singh
With several directors failing him at the box-office recently, Vijayakant has taken on the added responsibility of playing scenarist and director for his new film, Virudhagiri .
And to be fair to the man, he has done a far better job, which even the seasoned directors had failed to do. The film opens with montage shots that showcase the actor’s real magnanimous self — his films, his acts of charity, and of his political meets. The story opens in London, where our super-cop Virudhagiri teaches a lesson or two to the Scotland Yard cops. Doing multi-somersaults and gravity defying stunts, he chases and bashes up the criminals, pursued futilely by the Scotland Yard.
Mission over, he comes back home, where the cop cracks an organ harvesting racket and rescues few trans genders and child labourers. There is the mandatory song eulogising his sterling qualities. Vijayakant, the writer-director, heaps on Virudhagiri, his protagonist, every quality desirable in a mass hero. And, Vijayakant the actor, carries it with proud aplomb. Midway through the film, the story takes a turn and the scene shifts to Australia. And from here on, it takes inspiration from Taken , the more simplified English adaptation of the French film, Wassabe . You too Captain?! The French version was mauled beyond recognition in the disastrous Jaggubai , but Vijayakant has made a wise decision to not tamper much with the original. In fact, he has even retained some of its dialogue verbatim, apart from replicating the sets and its action.
Priya,Virudhagiri’s friend’s daughter, goes on a holiday with a friend to Australia.
The duo are kidnapped by some Albanians who are in nexus with a drug and flesh-trade cartel. Virudhagiri rushes there, and does the rescue act.
But not before he’s given the criminals a earful of our country’s greatness, the popularity of the IPL cricket, it’s smart police force, and much more. He even touches on the issue of the harassment of Indian students there, and manages to rescue a group of them held captive in a room.
The foreign locations are well-exploited, there is no inane comedy, romantic pairing or dream songs. The age factor is accepted with surprising graciousness.
Vijayakant is ‘uncle’ to Priya , his dead friend’s daughter, who with her mother has been given refuge at his house. He has got around the language confusion sensibly, by having the characters speak in their respective languages, with a voice-over in Tamil. And probably for the first time, we hear him converse fluently in English. The film is filled with image-boosting punch lines and thinly veiled political innuendos, thrown straight at the camera.
Sample this — ‘I am all the five elements rolled into one!’ or again, ‘Even if the whole world conspires to stop me, Time will make me come…’ Vijayakant has bounced back with a vengeance. With the script racy and fast paced, and going full throttle on an unabashed image-boosting exercise, he has projected himself in the most flattering way possible. It should be an ideal treat for the Captain fans!