Of late, increasingly, artists who attain stardom in small screen are being offered ticket to the silver screen. Since, they already have garnered fame and fan following, it is believed that they could draw those foots to the theaters. Besides, having them on board is a great marketing pitch for the movie. Many such actors have ventured in to Tamil cinema in recent years. The latest addition to the list is Tamil Big Boss fame Mugen Rao. He debuts as a lead hero in Velan. Debutant director Kavin K Moorthy moves in to capitalize on Mugen Rao’s fame. So, how has the film come out? Will it act as a nice launchpad for the aspiring star? To know that let us get in to the movie review.
Velan Movie Poster
The movie follows the life of Velan (Mugen Rao), the typical youngster of Tamil cinema with a carefree attitude. His is the son of a wealthy businessman Palanisamy (Prabhu) who is revered by his people and calls the shot in his village. Palanisamy has high expectations on his son’s ability. But Velan does not take anything seriously and comes around spending time lethargically with his buddy Sathish (Prankster Rahul). Things hit rock bottom when he flops in his 12th public exams. Distressed by the results, and his son’s irresponsibleness Palanisamy refrains from talking to him. Dejected Velan works hard and clears his exam. But he could not get his dad to talk to him. Days go by, Velan meets Ananya, a Malayali (Meenakshi Govindharajan) in collage and falls in love with her. Palanisamy comes to know of his son’s love and comes forward and fix his marriage. But a mix up happens and he engage another Malayali girl Vidusha (Maria Vincent) in the collage to his son.
Velan agrees as he does not want to embarrass his family. While searching for his way out of this awkward situation he learns that Vidusha is in love with Mammukka Dineshan (Soori). Velan teams up with him to turn around events. From then on, they go about doing preposterous stuffs in the pretext of comedy. Meanwhile, RK Velusamy (Harish Peradi), a politician from Palakkad who has bad blood with Palanisamy is on wait to defame him. Will Velan be able to resolve this situation without hurting his family and earn his father’s love back, is what makes the rest of the flick.
Debutant director Kavin K Moorthy has cooked up a film without a real story. Velan is more in the lines of director Rajesh’s style of movies. The film maker does not invest time in building a story rather he directs his complete focus in shaping the comical scenes of his films. In which he would succeed to a large extent. It is precisely where director Kavin K Moorthy falls flat. If we are to put up the so-called story of the flick, we could do so in just six words, mistaken identity and messed up marriage. Story teller Kavin K Moorthy takes up this line and drags it as much as possible and turns it in to a two hours fourteen minutes drama. He does so by jam-packing the entertainer with silly and ludicrous scenes that are not just dreary but are irksome.
Sample this, in a scene Velan goes to enroll himself in a college, where he is presented with a form which is in English language. Since he does not know the language, he copies the details from a nearby girl filling the form. He even ticks the female box in the sex option. In another scene, Sathish asks to Velan what does ‘same pinch’ mean? He answers that it means ‘sema Killi’. Seriously? It is baffling that this type of forward jokes still finds their way in to the mainstream flicks and are tried to be sold as comedies. It is this type of silly comedies that Velan keeps presenting. Expecting a character arc in a film like Velan is a crime. But there are only so much one could take as concession. Velan does not respect that boundary.
Actor Mugen Rao is high in confidence or perhaps should we say over confident? The latter sinks well. He walks the normal portions of the flick like how he walked in the sets of Big Boss but he disappears when the emotional battle forays. Actress Meenakshi Govindharajan in the typical loose ponnu role. She has nothing much to say or contribute to the proceedings. Comedian Soori is getting intolerable to watch film after film. Sometimes it feels like there is not anymore comedy left in him. Actor Prabhu is adequate. Actor Hareesh Peradi does what he does in every film except here there is not really anything to bring his menacing expressions. Actor Thambi Ramaiah is in his trademark performance. The rest of the cast has delivered what was asked of them.
On the technical front, musician Gopi Sundar’s songs do not inspire. Even his background score does not add any value. Cinematographer Gopi Jagadeeswaran’s camera work is adequate. Editor K. Sarath Kumar’s scissors are not as sharp as they should have been.
On the whole, Mugen Rao’s debut venture Velan is a pretty below par mass masala drama that does everything other than entertaining us.