Ajith Kumar's Vivegam is full of scenes of running, flexing muscles, punch dialogues, flying bullets, dodging bullets, and more bullets. The highly-anticipated 'Indian spy thriller' directed by Siva is a huge let down, except for the flamboyance of 'Thala' Ajith.
The film opens with former counterterrorism agent-gone-rouge Ajay Kumar, also called AK, breaking into a military facility, unscathed, in spite of a sophisticated three-level security. He is now in possession of a 'weapon drive' which can unleash great danger. His former teammates, comprising Aryan Singha (Vivek Oberoi), Mike (Serge Crozon), Rachael (Amila Terzimehic) and Shawn (Arav Chowdhary) are assigned the task of capturing him. The film then steps into the past, where we come across Natasha (an extended cameo played by Akshara Haasan)—a hacker who has the codes to unleash devastation. The rest of the film unfolds in a predictable way, with unequal doses of betrayal, revenge, survival and, of course, bullets, fast cars and roaring bikes.
Ajith is a delight to watch as agent AK, sporting a well-toned body and has an incomparable screen presence. He carries the entire film on his shoulder. In fact, even Oberoi finds it tough to match Ajith's swagger and power-packed action. The biggest let-down is the script, which is poorly written and lacks both detailing and logic. Another disappointment is Kajal Aggarwal as AK's wife Yazhini, whom director Siva reduces to a stereotypical Tamil wife whose only purpose in life is to pray for her husband during his risky missions.
The face-off scenes between Oberoi and Ajith serve its purpose well—that of giving the Thala fans reasons to cheer their screen idol. While the edge-of-the-seat chase sequence before the interval ends the first half of the film on a thrilling note (except for a spoil-it-all phone call in the middle of the chase), the Thalai Viduthalai song sets the pace for the second half.
In both his previous Ajith-starrers Veeram and Vedalam, Siva used the bonding between siblings as the driving force. In Vivegam, he has tried to portray the emotions between a husband and a wife, and the pain of a friend's betrayal. Although the story has the elements of a spy thriller, the director failed to execute it effectively. The high-paced editing and cinematography might remind one of the Singam trilogy helmed by Hari. Anirudh Ravichander's background score hardly creates a ripple let alone make waves. In fact, at some places in the film, the background score appears irrelevant.
Vivegam has everything for a 'Thala' fan—Ajith mouthing 'mass' dialogues about hard work and betrayal (a regular feature in his films), ripping off his T-shirt to reveal six-packs, weaving in and out of traffic on bikes and in cars at break-neck speed... the list goes on.
When the film's teaser was released in May, it crossed 5 million views within 12 hours, breaking the record of Rajinikanth-starrer Kabali. So, in spite of all the shortcomings, this 'Thala' starrer might still set new records at the box office.
Film: Vivegam
Director: Siva
Cast: Ajith Kumar, Vivek Oberoi, Kajal Aggarwal, Akshara Haasan
Rating: 2.5/5
