January 17th, 2009
Alternating between fights and dance numbers, is weaved in a story of a son’s vendetta, against the men who had killed his father, an army major, and falsely branded him a traitor.
A remake of the Hindi film Soldier, Prabhudeva while almost faithfully following the major incidents of the earlier version, has made slight changes, and tailored it to suit Vijay’s image. So, Vijay gets to do all that he had done in his earlier films.
Including those cute little comic expressions and antics, that should go well with his fans. The songs are peppy and catchy in their picturisation. It has a sleeker, glossier style than the earlier version, with Ravi Varman’s camera contributing to the stylised look.
Vijay’s is a dual role. That of Pugazh, the youth who plans an elaborate trap to get at his father’s killers. And of pugazh’s father Major Saravanan, who had twenty years earlier been killed by his colleagues when he had caught them smuggling out army weapons. The difference between the duo is probably the length of their moustache.
Anyway, it being a Vijay-flick, it’s unreasonable to expect more variations! As for Nayantara, who plays his lady love, oblivious of his real motive in wooing her, consistency seems to be her hallmark. For, the actress sports the same look, that she had done in her recent films.
Playing the baddies, JD, Shaan, and Raku, are Prakashraj, Adithya and Devaraj respectively. There is a bit of a play on a disc that could have incriminated JD. And which Pugazh uses to create misunderstanding among them. There is just that much that a comic actor can do to raise laughs. Poor Vadivelu goes around for the most part in a weird hair-do, being mistaken for an ape, and looking quite lost, as he tries desperately to raise some laughs.
Villu is a typical Vijay-flick, and strictly for his fans.
