Vazhakku En 18/9

“Vazhakku en 18/9” is a tight slap on the moral values of the present-day society where money, power, treachery & voyeurism rules the roost. There is no place for truth, honesty , love or innocence. Balaji Sakthivel’s third movie after his brilliant “Kadhal” & high-quality “Kaloori” , “Vazhakku en 18/9” is a gem among all the neo-realistic movies that grace Tamil cinema these days. The effortless ease with which Balaji is able to engage in the social commentary in each of his movies is staggering.

 Balaji , known for the raw emotions that he is able to bring in to the narration , does it one more time. The tension, the pain, the anguish, the anger..... are some of the emotions which every one of us who watch the movie will surely go through the last half an hour of it. Though justice delivered partially, when the viewers vacate the theatre they do so with heavy heart. It does bring in shame, sorrow, and guilt in most of us who introspect on the state of the society we are part of & contribute to.

 The narration is effortless in an uncomplicated flashback mode , easy to follow. Balaji has kept it as straightforward as possible. The dialogues are simple yet at the same time hard-hitting at appropriate places. He has the knack for casting unknown people in suitable roles who end up etched in one’s memory for a long time. Here Chinnasamy as Chinnasamy & Muthuraman as Inspector are those memorable ones and both these actors have done a tremendous work.

 All the four in the lead Sri, Manisha yadav ,Urmila Mahantha & Mithun Murali have done promising work. Sri is brilliant as the innocent Velusamy who stays innocent throughout the movie (not like your routine innocent hero who turns gutsy & vigilante all of a sudden in the climax). Manisha Yadav as a naive middle class girl who falls for the temptations of the contemporary societal peer-culture is good with all her emotions & lip-sync. Urmila Mahantha’s eye are so expressive they do all the acting . She hardly gets to mouth 3 or 4 lines in the whole movie but her emotive eyes do the rest. Mithun as a cool & suave spoilt rich kid who effortlessly changes his emotions like a chameleon is another promising find.

 All the other supporting cast , be it the boss of Velu or the Rosy akka or the one who does the mother’s role of Jothi , have done a tremendous job.

 R.Prasanna’s background score is adequate, supports the narration to some extent. But movie of this stature do deserves a better background score.

 Vijay Milton’s captures director’s vision onto the screen in a simple yet striking manner. Movie is crisp, runs for under two hours.

Though couple scenes do drag a bit & in couple of instances amateurishness rears its head, overall “Vazhakku En 18/9” is a brilliant piece of work. One of the best movie in recent times, it deserves more than a solitary watch & all the encouragement possible. One can be proud that movies like these do get made in Tamil now & then.

 Bottomline : Outstanding

 4.5/5