Vikram Vedha review: Three hours of top class entertainment
The Vikram Vedha conflict is best summarized in the synthesis when Darrow says ‘the purpose of man is like the purpose of a pollywog- to wiggle along as far as he can without dying; or to hand to life until death takes him’.
Hyderabad: When did you last sit through a near three hour Bollywood masala with complete engrossment? When did a remake get as enthralling as the original and gave you goose bumps? How often does a film not just repeat itself but also keep up its narrative honesty? When did a two hero film do complete justice to the main guys without playing favorites.
When did a film maker (s) stick to his story over star value?
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One film that gives you an answer in the affirmative for all this and thereby becomes a rarity in itself is Vikram Vedha. To film buffs who like commercial cinema here is one that caters unapologetically and yet interestingly to keep you on the edge of your seats.
It is about Tom and Jerry. However, this time round it is not only about who is one step ahead of the other but it brings in questions of ethics and causalities. Strictly from a cinematic viewpoint it is dramatized in favour of the difficulty to make the choice rather than walk with pomp to the pulpit and reiterate the good over evil cliché.
Who is the better? Who is lesser evil the guy who has 15 murders or the encounter specialist with 18 encounters under his belt? There is but a thin dividing line between the law protector and the law breaker. The tale is in the final analysis a compulsion on having to take a stance on one form of anarchy. Perhaps it is also an indirect defense in favour of the criminal who is a victim of societal dysfunction.
Clarance Darrow put up the eternal dilemma when he said ‘it is not bad people I fear so much as good people. When a person is sure that he is good, he is nearly hopeless; he gets cruel. He believes in punishment.’ Darrow also says a criminal is a person with predatory instincts; but without sufficient capital to former corporation.’
The Vikram Vedha conflict is best summarized in the synthesis when Darrow says ‘the purpose of man is like the purpose of a pollywog- to wiggle along as far as he can without dying; or to hand to life until death takes him’.
Even the simplistic conflict between good and evil is multihued and judgments are often luxuries predetermined by scholastic luxury, philosophical belief or blind belief. It is this conflict in its hues of a law in order system that is increasingly libidinous in its power and over swelling underbelly of crime that Vikram and Vedha represent respectively. Everything else, everybody else fall in place and are at best contextual.
Like its original where the main stay was Madhavan and Vijay Sethupathi, Pushakar and Gayatri script out the entire story around Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan. Yes, there is Radhika Apte and Yogita Bihani holding their own but it is Vikram and Vedha all the way. The background score with the theme tune set to Rupak Taal gives the required edge. PS Vinod’s photography is worth mentioning.
Saif Ali Khan, all beefed up essays the right degree of anger and tones down the angry cop image to a nicety. He holds on to the role with tremendous confidence and creates his own space of credibility and charm. Obviously playing the underdog.
The script plays favourites with Hrithik Roshan. Interestingly, Hrithik does not do a Sethupathi. From the subtle, to the passionate, to the obsessive, the entire gamut comes so easily and translates with such artistic fluidity that you love the bad boy. The perfection of Saif notwithstanding this is Hrithik’s hour of glory. What is a Hrithik movie without a dance moment. Watch his alcoholia.
A character in the movie would say, the devil is in the detail. To me it is the intrigue in the detail that makes Vikram Vedha not just a top rack entertainer, not just a show piece of the caliber of Saif and the brilliance of Hrithik but a call for appraisal of the relationship between law and crime. Go for it. This is three hours of top class Bollywood entertainment.
