At Vettaiyan’s audio launch, Rajinikanth had blithely declared, “You know me, ideals and messages [in films] don’t work for me.” His point being, he was initially unconvinced that the politics of director TJ Gnanavel of Jai Bhim (2021) fame would suit his requirement for “commercial, action hero”. This would probably explain the film’s struggle to balance both political messaging and mass appeal. But it’s Vettaiyan’s cast and a steady hand on the pacing that keep you invested, despite its predictable story.
Rajini plays trigger-happy Superintendent of Police (SP) Aithiyan, who wears the tag ‘encounter specialist’ with more pride than any medal could give him. We’ll come to the point of why that’s a ludicrous term in a bit. Aithiyan’s sidekick is ‘Battery’ alias ‘Cyber’ Patrick, or just Patrick. The man has many names, but when it’s Fahadh Faasil behind all of them, no one’s complaining. Battery is a reformed con man with zero filters for what he says and delightful comic timing (for the most part).
Vettaiyan makes a half-hearted attempt to do justice to the term ensemble cast. They play well off each other, or one could say, the male actors get a chance to. The women are mostly around to provide token mass moments and bodies to commit horrific assaults on. Manju Warrier, after all the hype, barely has a speaking role and for no conceivable reason wears an unnerving smile for a large section of the run time.
Meanwhile, Fahadh and Rajini entirely convince you of the bond between Battery and Aithiyan. Battery takes humorous liberties with Aithiyan who responds with barely concealed fondness in his gruff rebukes and an eye-roll. It’s truly endearing.
Amitabh Bachchan’s presence in the film, as Sathyadev, a human rights lawyer, was an intelligent casting move. Sathyadev’s quiet anger and determination to stop extrajudicial killings, commonly referred to as ‘encounters’, may have immediately made him the villain in audiences’ minds if played by anyone who can’t match Rajini’s Superstar status.
The contrast between him and Aithiyan seems to have been thoughtfully written. Where Sathyadev moves with a soft tread, Aithiyan struts loudly; where Sathyadev speaks in Amitabh’s unflappable baritone, Aithiyan roars his defiance of all laws and regulations. While Aithiyan reads Subash Chandra Bose, Sathyadev reads Dr BR Ambedkar. Their first face-off is compelling, saying more with their expressions of mutual distrust and muted sneers rather than a dramatic showdown.
You feel like you’re watching a sliver of cinematic history each time the two mega stars share the screen. Rajini and Amitabh have acted together thrice, but only in Hindi so far: Andha Kanoon (1983), Giraftar (1985) and Hum (1991).
After all, their careers grew practically neck to neck starting in the 70s. Rajini would lead multiple Tamil and Telugu remakes of Amitabh’s hit films such as the iconic Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) remade as Ram Robert Rahim (1980) in Telugu and Shankar Salim Simon (1978) in Tamil. Incidentally, in Geraftaar too, Rajini plays a cop.
Dushera Vijayan deserves credit for her role as Saranya, a government school teacher determined to take down a multi-core coaching academy. However, her character’s main contribution to the storyline is her brutal murder and rape, showed over and over again. Do Tamil cinema directors think sexual assault survivors don’t watch movies?
Replaying a rape in an attempt to milk emotional reactions from the audience and give the hero something to be driven to revenge about reflects the director’s mindset. It is voyeuristic, disregards the feelings of real-life survivors, and is quite simply revolting. Such techniques speak volumes about a director’s storytelling ability or rather lack of it, if they can’t think of more intelligent ways to centre sexual assault in a film. If Gnanavel chose to do this despite the criticism he received for similar cheap voyeurism in Jai Bhim regarding custodial torture, then it begs the question if he genuinely cares about such issues or talks about it only aiming for commercial success.
But where’s our Superstar in all of this? Hanging around looking too tired and haggard to be playing action heroes anymore. His demand for a mass film and Gnanavel’s continued crusade against police brutality meet in a headlong collision and then struggle for dominance. The director’s intention is certainly worth appreciating as few Tamil movies have A-lister stars attempting to critique extrajudicial killings. But we all know what the road to hell is paved with.
Rajini remains convinced that he can still pull off over-the-top action sequences that genuinely make you cringe on his behalf at times. It is so plain the amount of backstage support required for him to even pull one punch. Yet, that’s mostly what he does when not shooting criminals dead and coming up with stories to justify his actions. Aithiyan claims to kill only when he’s utterly sure of guilt, making him a one-man team of investigator, judge, and executioner. The film’s eventual and predictable call out of this would have collapsed completely had it not come from Amitabh.
The Superstar comes off as reluctant to offer a more nuanced take on extrajudicial killings. He almost seems to grudge any scene that doesn’t have him murdering someone in creatively awful ways. His moral battle feels unconvincing and his final message to the audience rings hollow. While he still entertains you with his trademark punch dialogues and sunglass antics, it only harks back wistfully to a bygone era.
Politically, the film being celebrated as ‘brave’ is quite a stretch. Yes, it stresses that it is only the poor who are murdered in encounters, never a rich and well-connected criminal, no matter their crime. It takes a loud stance against private education and speaks about the unequal competition government school children face in exams such as NEET. Both these are issues that cannot be shouted from the rooftops loud enough, so a Rajini movie certainly gives a huge platform. But what do you do when Rajini himself appears to be the problem?
The idea of accountability that Vettaiyan lectures about meets its toughest challenge in the Superstar’s lacklustre dialogue delivery about it. Not to mention that Aithiyan himself is never held accountable for the horrific injustice he commits, despite this action serving as the pivotal point of the plot.
Aithiyan justifies his title of ‘encounter specialist’ claiming that police risk enquiries and losing their jobs to “protect people”. Guess how many Tamil Nadu police officers have been convicted for custodial torture or extrajudicial killings in real life? None.
Secondly, as a superbly written petition in the Madras High Court against Vettaiyan regarding the glorification of extrajudicial killings points out, the definition of ‘encounters’ indicates unforeseen events leading to conflict between the police and the accused, giving the latter permission to kill. How exactly do you become an ‘expert’ in unforeseen events, the petition rightly asks.
It’s with all these flaws that Vettaiyan still manages to entertain. Editor Philomin Raj and Gnanavel stitch together a story that hardly drops pace. Even its entirely predictable twists are placed with an accuracy that still has you (okay, me) cheering good-humouredly.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film’s producers or any other members of its cast and crew.