Movie Review: Vivegam (Tamil)

Director Siva is such an unabashed fanboy of Ajith and his larger-than-life image that Vivegam, his third collaboration with the actor after Veeram and Vedalam, comes off as a disjointed sequence of "mass" moments aimed straight at satisfying his fan base than telling a coherent story. What's more, his hero comes off as irritatingly smug - a master at everything, be it as a one man army capable of infiltrating and killing his targets, or skillfully evading his foes or even helping his overwhelmed music teacher-cum-restaurateur wife in the cooking department, there's nothing he can't do. So in awe of Him are others in the movie, including the antagonist, they devote most of their limited screen-time singing his paeans. And by that I mean literally.

The makers' intentions to craft a James Bond-like international spy thriller are lofty, but scratch that veneer, all you'll find is a flimsy, generic story about AK's exploits as an invincible counter terrorism agent. It's all tiring. Don't get me wrong. The high-octane action pieces are lavishly mounted in exotic foreign locales (if driven by an ear-deafening score from Anirudh), there is a smart scene woven around a dead man's pacemaker, a clever communication exchange that happens via Morse code, and... that's about it. Where is the tension? And seriously what's with the horrible Tamil accent and the stilted dialogue delivery all throughout? With neither a proper context to explain the film's eastern European backdrop (tell the same story in India, it wouldn't have made an iota of difference) nor featuring strong characters to care for, Vivegam is a bland, forgettable attempt at making a hero-glorifying vehicle that never soars.