Veeraiyan movie review: Confusing screenplay and slow narration hamper the film
Director: S.Faridh
Cast: Inigo Prabhakar, Aadukalam Naren, Vela Ramamoorthy, Kayal Vincent, Shiney
Set in 90s in Tanjore, Veeraiyan has three different stories, which run in parallel and converge at a point. The bond between a father Veeraiyan (Aadukalam Naren) - a daily wage coolie who works in the local vegetable market and dotes on his only son Ilavarasan (Vasanth) who is a bright class 10 student, three loafer youths Usilai (Inigo Prabhakar) Valukka (Kayal Vincent) and Mokka (transgender Preethisha), who roam around petty thieving, and a small time flower vendor lady Arivazhagi (Shiney) who falls for Usilai forms the core of the film.
Meanwhile, there’s this area councilor Devarajan (Vela Ramamoorthy) and his daughter, a classmate of Ilavarasan falls for a guy working as a driver (Alagu) at their home. The couple plans to elope from the village and on the fateful day, Ilavarasn gets entangled in trouble, thanks to Usilai and co. The councilor mistakes him to be his daughter’s lover and using his power he takes the latter out of roll in the school. But the boy hides this from his dad as he does not want him to suffer a heartbreak, but a guilty Usilai comes forward to help him to complete final exams by putting him in a tutorial college. The rest is about whether Usilai keeps up his promise, if he marries Arivazhagi and what happens to the councilor’s daughter and the driver.
Inigo Prabhakar as the local thug has pulled off his role effortlessly. As usual Aadukalam Naren shines as the doting father and given a creditable performance. The debut director has extracted the best from all characters and has conveyed the message – ‘timing is everything’. But the problem is with the confusing screenplay and a slow narration. The virgin locales of Tanjore are eye-catchy with cinematographer PV Murugesha capturing them vibrantly in his camera. Though Arunagiri’s music reminds us of Ilayaraja’s, they are good and he scores highly in the re-recordings. A bit of trimming would have helped.
