Note: Tales
of secret agent Arul Kumar Vikram continues. Yes, you gotta be a hardcore Kamal
fan to know that name in full.
Is this a
crazy coincidence or what? That we would get two sequels to two films that came
out from two different film industries in 1986. There was Top Gun: Maverick
that followed the lead character’s adventure 35 years later.
That’s Hollywood
and Top Gun was a huge blockbuster. But this film, which has the same title as
the original that came out the same year (1986), is indeed an unofficial sequel
to a flop – which is why the follow up is rather ambiguous in its connection.
Well, not
really if one were the evaluate the presence of the title song from the
original (Vikram!!)… and that Kamal would mouth the other part of the lyrics,
as well as the use of his old pix of that era in one of the exposition scenes.
Logesh
Kanagaraj is definitely a Kamal fan and it shows… and like many of us who grew
up as his fans in the 80s, it is the action packed, ass kicking Kamal that most
of us are fans of – much to the chagrin of the other kamal fans who worship his
“genius” which mostly are recycled Hollywood stuff. But I don’t want to get
into that argument.
The film
picks up with the “death” of the protagonists… something that is going to nastily
lead us, yes, to flashbacks…. Something I had always complained about when it
comes to Tamil films, but its okay…it is expected. Then, there’s routine investigations; and some run of the mill poorly choreographed action with CGI blood splatters and
shooting. When the hell are they ever gonna work with squibs and proper blank
shooting guns….I'll never know. They spend shitload of cash in elaborate song sequences and unnecessary travels over the years and no one invested in that movie pyrotechnic toys...
Back to the flick, we are
introduced to three main protagonists, Kamal’s Karnan (a nod to Nadigar Thilagam?
Who knows), Fahad Fadhil as Amar, the (in my opinion slow and bumbling)
investigations officer of a certain “untouchable” team and of course Vijay
Sethubathi as the baddie, Santhanam.
The latter
gets to chew his scenery like nobody’s business…more often than not, reminding
me of the more instinctive (as opposed to Kamal’s methodical) performances of
the early Rajini, especially when the later was stealing she's even from Kamal playing characters of darker
shade.
Fahad had thankless
role of playing a routine role….though as a performner he is top notch,
his character is not well written … his seemed to be crafted as an intelligent officer, but he
sure is as dim as an old lavatory light bulb (the ‘realisation’ scene was supposed to
be clever in the writing, but didn’t improve on the protagonists believability being someone on top of his game).
Kamal, of
course, goes back to the action route that the 80s burdened him, and is totally believable in his physically
demanding performance as he edges towards big 70. I think the success of The
Expendables franchise must have given him the confidence to take on this role
which at first glance may not be age appropriate (it is actually, the character is 60
years old).
The plot
may be convulated to some and not to few, frankly when flashbacks started occurring like the rainless lightening, I didn’t give a damn. Some dialogues are gonna
give the exposition anyway and we are back on the story’s track.
The small
audience that watched with me in LFS Rawang were euphoric during the introduction
of Kamal and Vijay Sethubathi (who gets more heroic intro scene)…. But I clapped
only once… for Agent Tina. What a revelation, and what a character…first time I
am seeing a gal in a Tamil film fighting like a man, too bad... err, never mind I won't spoil it!
The action
choreography are muddled, poorly edited and messy as expected, I was totally
not hooked, just waited for them to be over. Even the large array of arsenals
now prevalent in Tamil films, since the days of revolver and that one automatic
that they keep cocking, didn’t get my attention.
Yet, it was
a good fun. Anirudh like most of his peers, belongs to those group of
youngsters who are not great composers, but are capable in creating themes, and
heroism surrounding soundtrack – most of which sound heavily recycled…it is
peppered here liberally and may elicit some goosebumps (nope, not me….).
The Vikram
sequel thing? Well, the film more than hints that it is indeed a follow-up but
while the original was wholly fantasy 80s masala romp, this follows the
director’s own more gritty world filled with unkempt personnel universe, connected
to his previous outings.
Kamal fans
will rejoice that he is back on big screen after quite long and certainly can
taste all that he has to offer as pure actor (very little input in the script
without doubt) and also some of the in-jokes and references to his past films
(that could have been avoided if Logesh wants to keep things to his own little
Tarantino-like verse). There is a cameo
at the ending which everyone knows about which, to me, was like a speed bump
before even there was a proper ending. I mean, come on. Surya doing over the
top baddie felt more like he was trying to do a pale imitation of his far more
talented brother. This could have been avoided. - RKP 3/6/22
