Thaindian News

Film: “Velayudham”; Cast: Vijay, Genelia D’souza, Hansika, Santhanam, Saranya Mohan; Producer: Aascar V. Ravichandran; Director: Jayam Raja; Music Director: Vijay Antony; Rating: **1/2

Director Jayam Raja promised that he is preparing a treat for Vijay’s fans and he kept his word with “Velayudham”, an out and out a Vijay show.

The fast-paced actioner starts with journalist Bharathi (Genelia D’Souza) losing her colleagues and becoming the target of powerful people after her sting operation to expose a group.

To end the menace, she creates an imaginary character called Velayudham claiming he would teach a lesson to evil elements.

Little did she know that there is a milkman called Velayudham (Vijay) alias Velu, who leads a content life in a village with his sister Kaveri (Saranya Mohan) and cousin Vaidehi (Hansika).

Velayudham, unaware of all this, reaches Chennai and coincidently on the same day terrorists planned a bomb blast at the Egmore railway station. He saves people without knowing that he is doing so.

He does the same a couple of times more. Everything happens in such a manner that his real identity is not known to anyone therefore people start believing Bharathi’s Velayudham exists.

Both the general public and villains are now searching for Velayudham.

On the other hand Velu is moving around like an ordinary man. Bharathi manages to meet him and tells him that he has saved lahks of people and urges him to become the real saviour. Humble Velu refuses to become an avatar.

But he is forced to don the role of the saviour after being duped by a chit fund company.

The rest is all about how Velayudham fulfils his mission by busting powerful nexus between the terrorists and the politicians.

Velayudham is for Vijay fans. Though Vijay’s formula failed to hit the bull’s eye in “Kuruvi” and “Villu”, director Jayam Raja has made the same formula work in this film.

The presence of Kashmir terrorists in Tamil Nadu looks like a joke. The conspiracy and the network to implement it are not done well. Everything defies logic and takes too many things for granted. But who cares when the script moves fast and the hero entertains with his typical comedy, dance, romance, action and of course punchy dialogues!

The fictitious character becomes a real one, thanks to some unexpected events. While audience enjoy’s Vijay act as Velayudham without his knowledge, they go gaga when he becomes the saviour by his choice.

As far as the logic and finesse of the script and narrative is concerned, less said, the better.

Vijay is full of energy and charm. He is impressive in action-comedy-romance, which is his forte.

Hanshika looks bubbly and provides some skin show while Genelia plays journalist with ease.

Shayaji Shinde, Pandiyarajan, Manivannan, and Vincent Asokan add support to the script while Santhanam steals the show with his hilarious one-liners.

Vijay Antony’s music is not fine but fits the bill. Placement of songs weakens the flow of the script.

“Velayudham” defies all logic. But it has the magic of the star called Vijay and the magic works well with the audiences.