Vijay Sethupathi - My Hero !!

   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.