Vikram, who has been struggling for a commercial hit for the past few years, was banking on the action film Inkokkadu, directed by Anand Shankar. The film is a dubbed version of Tamil film Iru Mugan and hit the screens on Thursday. In the film, Vikram plays a double role and Nayanthara plays the female lead, while Nithya Menen has a cameo.
The Indian Embassy in Malaysia is blasted by some miscreants, on the instructions of a dreaded criminal called Love (Vikram). The Indian investigation agency approaches former RAW agent, Akhil (also Vikram), who knows about Love through an earlier encounter.
Akhil is assisted by undercover agent Aarushi (Nithya Menen) to trace the criminal with the help of the Malaysian police. They come to know that Love is creating a drug, with which he wants to paralyse India.
In the flashback, we see Akhil’s girlfriend, Meera (Nayanthara), being killed by Love in an encounter, for which Akhil wants to take revenge. How Akhil nabs the criminal and stops his terror activity, is what forms the crux of the story.
Director Anand Shankar chose an interesting subject for Inkokkadu, but went totally wrong with the execution. He failed to come up with a better screenplay. The first half of the film is interesting and racy, but the second half is absolutely boring and loses pace.
The one good thing about the film is that it is stylish and has great action episodes. It is sad that the director had a star like Vikram but completely wasted the film with predictable narration.
Vikram stole the show once again. This time, he plays a dual role — one as a transgender, Love, and the other one as stylish RAW agent, Akhil. But his hard work has not been fruitful.
He should realise that changing the look alone cannot contribute to the film’s success. Nayanthara looks glamorous and beautiful, but her character is limited. She is paired for the first time with Vikram and their chemistry worked out well.
Nithya Menen does a cameo as a RAW agent and is good, but Vikram overshadows her in most of the scenes. Thambi Ramaiah comes off as irritating with his over-the-top comedy. Nasser also plays a promising supporting role.
Cinematographer R.D. Rajasekhar gets a pat on the back for his visuals. The film looks good because of the visuals, especially the action scenes. Harris Jayaraj’s music is average. A few songs are good visually, but the placement is wrong. The background score is also not very impressive.
Finally, Inkokkadu is supposed to be an interesting action thriller, but the director was unable to generate any curiosity. This film is solely for Vikram fans, but even he has not been able to salvage the predictable storyline. Pick this action film only if you don’t find anything else to watch.
