A Silver Lining. Review on Veyyil Movie

This is one of the plausible movies that come from Shankar’s S Pictures.  He once again ventures with director, Vasanthabalan, who gives us a solid story with clear characterization that is near to perfect

Murugesan(Pasupathi) runs away from his family as a kid due to a juvenile misbehavior.  He joins as a worker in a cinema theatre, where he climbs up to a position of operator.  When a tragic incident, along with the downfall of the theatre, shatters his life, he decides to go back to his parents.  But, he obviously isn’t greeted by a welcome party.  To win back their love he has to pay one final price.

Most of the story is narrated as voice over by Pasupathi.  The story revolves around him at three stages namely, childhood, love affair and the family reunion.  The movie starts with a darker note that could match “Virumandi” in violence.  The reasons are explained as flashbacks.

The scenes of the childhood days are pictured crisply with rural ambience.  The casting, especially of the child artists, is down to earth and their performances well etched.  Its too short that I wished the director spend few more scenes in this area with few more close-up shots.

As a youth, Pasupathi sports a makeup that resembles the glorious 80’s of Tamil Cinema.  Since he is a theatre operator, the passage of time is depicted by the releases of movies during that period in his theatre.  I was relieved that it was not a lame transitional song.  There is a cute love affair between Pasupathi and Priyanka(Am I right with the name?) which comes to a sudden, heartbreaking end that reminded me of “Kaadhal” climax.

The next is the reunion stage where Pasupathi reluctantly sticks together with his parents despite their lack of interest in him.  The scenes are a bit of melodramatic and hence the Bharath-Bhavana romance gives us a relief.

Pasupathi proves that he can not only roll his eyes as a villain but is also capable enough to carry a film in his shoulders.  Bharath crosses image barriers to give a good supporting performance.  It’s a carryover of his winning streak

“Veyyil” clearly will give you a pleasure that is experienced only from viewing an art film.    Scenes are well pictured and followed up to an end.  The editing and background music never interrupt the flow anytime but provide a strong support.  This is enough for me these days as I find every other movie is littered with gimmickry trash.   Casting is top notch where everybody plays their roles with understanding and maturity.  The killings in the end(which is a replay of the beginning sequence) are shown in red tone which highlights the emotions of the scene.

However, it also has its share of clichés when the protagonist dies in the end trying to provoke martyr sympathy. This seems to be an easy way out.  Kill the unlikable guy and he becomes likeable by death automatically.  Songs are not my favorites and the movie would be better paced in their absence.

“Veyyil” looks realistic with full performance from every cast member.  A good film amidst formulaic mainstream movies that are laden with item numbers, slo-mo walkings and punch dialogues.