There is a line in Suriya’s Ayan movie by the Delhi Ganesh character (Narcotics Officer) – “Pudichittan, payyan pudichittan, ellam technology.” This line fits perfectly for Lokesh Kanagaraj in every sense. He showed us all that when a director has an extraordinary vision and when a producer trusts the vision and allows it to be expanded to unbelievable levels, we get what we could call it as the Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU).
Look how stealthily the LCU has expanded from a seemingly standalone movie (Kaithi) to something more with the post climax reveal about how Dilli (Karthi) and Adaikalam (Harish Uthaman) may have a history. This opened up a possiblity of a sequel/prequel for Kaithi. And, once we saw Bejoy (Narain) in the cast of Vikram, we knew that this could all be in the same universe and there could be possible crossovers in the future. And, when actor Suriya was brought in for a small cameo, the LCU expanded like wild fire and sky was only the limit. We then knew for sure that Lokesh isn’t going to stop until he uses up all the weapons in his armoury, and mind you, the armoury seems to be humongous.
Vikram starts off with a huge drug bust, similar to the one we saw in Kaithi, and the police department seem to have intercepted and siezed the drug consignment to identify and eliminate the network behind it. Little do we know that the people involved in this drug bust are being executed one by one by an unknown masked gang. In comes Amar (Fahadh Faasil) and team who are hired by the police department to identify these vigilantes. In parallel to this, the entire drug mafia network headed by Rolex sir, spearheaded by Sandhanam (Vijay Sethupathi) are leaving no stone unturned to retrieve the missing consignment.
Karnan aka Vikram (Kamal Hassan) has been underground for the last 30 years for a mistake that he did not commit, and now he has to resurrect, literally since he has been a Ghost, after all these years because of a life shattering event. His team of remaining agents, who have also been undercover for all these years, decide to come back together for one last mission for the sake of old times.
It is so satisfying to see Kamal Hassan on the big screen after four long years (his last outing was Viswaroopam II in 2018), and what better than seeing him at his action best. It is of no doubt that Vikram would be Lokesh’s fan service to Aandavar, but surprisingly and more rightly, the core and intent in Vikram remained intact all throughout, in spite of the Lokesh’s fanboy-ism slightly peeking into the movie.
In a recent interview, when asked about the new technologies that they had used in the film, Lokesh Kanagaraj mentioned that they used a Robotic Arm for some insanely terrific camera angles, which we get to see in the pre-intermission action sequences. The programatically controlled rapid camera movements make the sequence so realistic and the editing gives a strong hand to make it a seamless single shot, making this entire sequence an eye-catching event. Post this sequence, we get to see a Joker like expression by Kamal Hassan whilst he rides off into the darkness with the background score of Vikram giving us one of the best interval blocks after a terrific build-up leading up to it. We get a sense of the feel of Dark Knight
The action direction and stunt choreography by Anbariv was unapologetically ruthless. The reveal of Agent Tina already being a surprise package, the action sequences involving her with a pair of forks were utterly brutal. Similarly, we have another barbarous action sequence by Kamal Hassan, a few of those unbearably brutal, a justified course of action considering them being the pilot batch of Black Squad, devoid of any rules and regulations. Rules and Regulations engalukku illai, ungalukku irundhal meerappadum.
Fahadh Faasil‘s character arc was just phenomenal. From being just a Black Squad chief who comes in to take up the mission at hand, to understanding the plight of the masked men through his own life experience and eventually buying into their ideology, and finally becoming a “ghost” himself, Fahadh breathes the character of Amar effortlessly, shows the various transitions brilliantly. His agility and style in Amar precedes anything we have ever seen from the actor in Tamil. We have now had two of the greatest characters for Fahadh Faasil in the form of Bhanwar Singh Shekhawat (Pushpa) and Amar (Vikram), and the actor keeps excelling at whatever he does. The rage in him seems to be growing boundlessly.
Anirudh Ravichander‘s music in Vikram is one of his best works till date, and he has scored music like his life depended on it. Particularly, the Vikram Theme and Ghost Theme keep ringing in our heads even after the movie has ended. Anirudh seems to have reinvented himself with this genre film, and since everything needs to be inscribed into the movie’s proceedings, he has given some terrific scores throughout.
Sandhanam (Vijay Sethupathi) character’s uneventfulness and impact was a worry for me, even though the character had the best introduction sequence in the movie. The mannerism for Vijay Sethupathi was particularly changed for this movie to not repeat the actor’s usual, but that actually did not hold good at all. It was quite difficult to make out his dialogues as words and expressions were lost due to his teeth-clenched dialogue delivery. The character is slightly underwritten, and at the end, we just see him as another feared pawn in the Rolex network, and nothing more than that. The Vijay Sethupathi character from Master had an incredible backstory and better impact than this one.
One other thing that needed more time to establish is the love between the Vikram and his grandson. We see them bonding over guns and milk bottles, but things do not stitch together well as it was intended to. Prapanjan (Kalidas Jayaram) needed to stay on for a bit longer, or Lokesh needed to pack in more sequences between the trio to actually have an impact, possibly explore a little more with adopted father thing, and how it was Vikram’s plan all along to come into the lives of Prabhanjan and his family for their protection. The fact that the second half was predominantly about protecting the grandson from the gangsters deterred the flow of the movie to some extent.
All the sorrow in the world has to come to an end, and the post climax sequence makes up for anything that may not have worked for you in the movie. The last 10 minutes of the movie is probably the most unexpected sequence ever made, and who better than Suriya to pull it off as a raging monster Rolex. This is the ferocious best Suriya has been in the last few years, where most of his previous outings have been lacklustre or even a dud. NGK had all the elements to bring out the monster in him but ended up eating it from the inside. Here, in Vikram, we see a mercilessly furious Rolex on a rampage to find the people who are responsible for disrupting his drug trade (twice), he even keeps a bounty on their heads with a Lifetime Settlement.
With the LCU wide open after the reveal of Dilli and Adaikalam gang in Vikram, there is an uncontrollable excitement to see how these characters will be taken forward in the next movie(s), and how Dilli would come into this scheme of things. Ultimately, we are going to get a face-off between the real life brothers, Suriya and Karthi, and it is inevitable that we are getting our own Avengers wherein we have Vikram, Amar, Dilli on one side, and Rolex, Sandhanam’s gang and Adaikalam gang on the other side. Where will J.D. fit in the scheme of things? Sky is the limit for LCU. Waiting for the Avengers Assemble moment in the LCU.
Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.