"Vetaadu Ventaadu" Telugu movie review/ "Samar" Tamil movie review

"Vetaadu Ventaadu" (Hunt, Chase) in Telugu ("Samar" in Tamil) is quite an unsual movie even though it collapses many genres in one film. It must be Vishal's best film to date even though his character is flaky. Directed by someone called Thiru,  it starts off with a chase sequence and then gives an impression of a usual boy-meets-girl-relationship gone sour kinda story. The girl Sunayanana (a fully wimpish-looking girl who is not fit to play a heroine's sidekick) dates Vishal and then walks out on him. Later, she has a change of heart and sends a note asking Vishal to come and meet her at Bangkok, she even sends him flight ticket. Reluctantly, our six-foot hero Vishal boards the flight to Bangkok and bumps into Trisha who dotes on him to navigate the flight smoothly. Then a half-developed love story with Trisha while Vishal is afoot to trace Sunayana. In this backdrop come some bizarre twists, enter villains JD Chekraverty and Manoj Bajpai. It appears they have played the game with Vishal, setting up the flight tickets, the false hopes of Sunayana coming back into his life and the ignition of romance with ravishing Trisha. Its all set up like a game which the duo villains love to play with characters many more like him.




The story is quite unusual, the treatement quite brilliant though patchy at times. It is quite thrilling at times almost until the cllimax but fizzles out at the end as the plot unravels. Quite a bold and impressive effort by director Thiru to come up with a story like this for South Indian audiences which may not click so well with Telugu audiences who dont soak upto experimental themes and plots lacking in entertainment. The film's strengths are screenplay, music by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography and editing. There are some outstanding stunts with Vishal which are a maverick thing for our kind of cinema - it is neither martial arts nor dishum-dishum stunts, just spontaneous and authentic, I dont think such fights are composed ever in Telugu cinema. Vishal fits well in the role of a lost-lover, gullible onlooker who later beats the villains in their own game. Trisha looks as glamorous as ever and ups the ante in showcasing her liberal dressing thats needed to survive as a Diva, 12 years after she set foot in South film industry. Her body continues to defy age but her face is getting tedious and tired. She doesn't look convincing when romancing male co-stars who are younger than her. But to come this far in an industry which is famous for dumping heroines into the trash cans of history is itself an accomplishment. Atleast one more song feauturing Trisha and Vishal could have established the second romance track in the film - needed to rev up the second half. It was definitely good to see JD and Manoj Bajpai team up together for the first time after "Satya" movie, they have the screen presence and chemistry together and carry off their roles with superb ease, they just needed some more scenes to bring out their dangerous side and devilry better, that could have highlighted the climax towards its logical conclusion. Yuvan Shankar Raja is one of my favorite composers who is a worthy successor to his father's legacy. He has it in him to take on the might of Rahman and Harris Jayaraj, what he should do is to focus on the realistic side of Indian films than the surrealistic part of the film grammar. If he gets back the mojo of films like "7/G Brindavan Colony" or "Aadavariki Maatalaku Ardhaale Verule", he can be the music composer that today's stars will queue up for signing. On the whole, 138 minutes of stylish, unpredictable surprises and rollercoaster ride which may or may not be a commercial success. But who cares, if the film is watchable once and gets a rating of 3 on 5!