With or without my
conscience I am becoming a huge fan of Vijay Sethupathy. I just feel he is an
effortless actor or to put it in simple words a very natural actor. If you take
Tamil cinema in the last 7-8 years it has seen some cult classics like Pizza
(whole array of ghost films started to release post Pizza), Sudhu Kavvum,
Jigarthada, Vikram Vedha, 96 etc., and no prizes for guessing what is the
common factor in all these movies. If we take a close look at his films you can
see that he acts in every category of films. He is one hero who introduced whole
new bunch of youngsters into mainstream tamil cinema (Karthik subburaj, Nalan
Kumaraswamy, Balaji Tharaneetharan) just to name a few. Also he doesn’t follow
a template that one should act in so many number of films in a calendar year as
he believes content will take care. One other major advantage with Vijay
sethupathi is he does not have ego in appearing for cameos in films like
Jigarthanda, Kathai Thiraikathai Vasanam Iyakkam, Traffic Ramaswamy, Imaika
Nodigal etc.,
Now let me do a deep dive into some of his
films. Though he has acted in few movies
before Pizza but this was the movie that put him in the limelight due to
the freshness in the script. Film was just over 2 hours and audience liked the
slick presentation. NKPK was absolute cracker and every tamil speaking
people throughout the globe enjoyed this movie since it gave a complete new
flavor to comedy genre. If anyone would have narrated Soodhu Kavvum
script to any hero they would have laughed saying it was not even fit for short
film but VJ trusted the script and had confidence in Nalan which became one of
the most widely celebrated movie in those times. Pannaiyarum Padminiyum
is one movie which I liked very much and knew few of my friends who liked the
movie very much. The penchant towards car was poetically shown in celluloid. Naanum
Rowdy thaan and Kadhalum Kadandhu
pogum were wonderful movies once again due to the fresh content. Sethupathi
was a very good cop movie with brilliant performance from VJS. Dharma Durai
and Andavan Katalai are great choices for an actor to be associated and no
wonder VJS was approached for these movies. Vikram Vedha was an absolute
cracker of an movie and VJS performance was literally awesome. Though his role
is limited in movies like Imaika Nodinal and Chekka Chivandha Vaanam VJS
made his presence felt. Now coming to ‘96’ ..where do I start ….I just
loved the movie so much that I can write series of blogs on the movie. ‘96’
will be one of the best romantic tales Tamil cinema has ever seen. The interval
scene where VJS meet Trisha after 2 decades, the scene where VJS hesitatingly
asks Trisha to come home before her flight are all so well etched in my memory
where I don’t think I can do a shift+delete from my brain.
Every actor wanted to be part of good movies
and they are in search of good scripts but unfortunately they follow a
template. Take for example Vikram who is a brilliant actor but still he acts in
movies like ‘Saamy’, ‘Sketch’, ‘Kanthasamy’ which are pure masala potboilers;
Even Suriya after giving great performances goes back to Hari for Singam
franchise, actor Sivakarthikeyan goes with Anirudh or Imman for Music, Ponram
or Durai Senthilkumar for direction; But VJS chooses every movie based on ‘Fresh
content’ and never ever follows a template. Some of his movies bombed in Box
office like Rummy, Junga, Orange mittai, Iraivi but that didn’t stop him from
experimenting. Some movies like Dharma dhurai may have been simple but it
perfectly fits the “feel good” category. I think his intuition is based on
content and trust he has with the director. His acting is also very natural
like fluid state and nowadays I see so many whistles for him whenever he
appears in Trailer/Teaser for an upcoming movie.
I wish him good
luck and I cannot believe I still haven’t watched Seethakaathi. He has some terrific
line of upcoming movies. Though I am eager to watch Petta for Thalaivar am equally
excited to see VJS opposite Thalaivar and I believe for the first time I may
also scream for Thalaivar’s rival on screen. If Tamil Cinema has grown in the
last 10 years then VJS will be one of the main reasons and if Tamil Cinema has
to grow in the future then again he will have to play an important role in endorsing
new scripts and talents.
