Vallinam

 My review: Vallinam

The analysis of this movie can be best defined by the closing credits that has actor Ajithkumar's photograph projecting him as a sportsperson par excellence in the league of Mary Kom, Sachin Tendulkar, Leander Paes, Saina Nehwal, Sania Mirza among others. How the director has tried to milk the support of the said actor's fans by that silly gimmick seems to be his predominant state of mind while making this movie. Arivazhagan who made a stellar debut with "Eeram" falters big in his second venture "Vallinam". He has tried to just milk the idea of how sports other than cricket is getting step-motherly treatment from one and all with this misadventure of a movie.  Movie neither succeeds in putting across what it set out to do to the viewers nor it entertains. It is at best termed fake taking all for a ride in the name of meaningful movie, which it isn't. 

Movie is cliched to the core, crudely at that. There is a clear black and white demarcation of characters sketch with the protagonist and his team on the one side and the antagonist on the other. The amount of dichotomy in the personalities and lifestyles of the characters that the director has created would make one squirm in the seat. It has been a while since one has seen such  vile characterizations onscreen. And to watch the happening unfold on screen with all those contrived struggles that are almost forced fed into the viewers mind on the platter while on the other hand showcasing the crude villainy that one saw last in a movie acted by Ashwini Nachappa (former Indian athlete), directed by Mouli would make you cringe. What has happened to the person who promised so much with his deft handling of a challenging script in his debut. May be success has gone on to his head or has he got pulled down by the compulsions of commercial cinema. 

Nakul has put in lots of hard-work which shows on screen. He has almost lived onscreen as a basketball player. The deft handling of the basketball and awesome footwork must be result of loads and loads of time spent on practice. Pity that all that time spent and his hard-work has gone waste by such poor writing and thinking on the part of the writer-director. Mridula doesn't have much of a role. Not that she would have done a great job if she had had a more substantial role. Others in the support cast have done their parts well. It is getting tiring seeing Jayaprakash in almost every other movie that is getting released. Is Tamil cinema that starved of good character artists ? 

Technically the movie is classy and glossy. Bhaskaran, the cinematographer has a lot to do with it. Thaman's background score is very good. However none of the songs pass muster.

On the whole, "Vallinam" is how cinematic a movie based on sports can get, not that it is entertaining either. 

Bottmline: Shocker from a promising director. 

2/5