Cast:
- Dhanush
- Tamannaah Bhatia
- Rajkiran
- Prakash Raj
- Ganja Karuppu
- Livingston
- Y. Gee. Mahendra
- Oorvasi
- Charle
- Sudha Chandran
- Srithika
Produced by : B. Bharathireddy
Screenplay by : Hari
Story by : Hari
Written by :
Singers : Benny Dayal, Baba Sehgal, Karthik, Devi Sri Prasad, M. L. R. Karthikeyan, Tippu, Harini, Mukesh, Suchitra
Lyricist : Viveka
Music by : Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematography : Vetri
Editing by : V. T. Vijayan
Studio : Vijaya Productions
Banner :
Distributed by : Vijaya Productions
By now you would know what to expect out of a Hari film: four fights, two duets, honest hero, a vengeful politician and an unreasonably beautiful heroine. You have it all in Vengai. As is customary with his style of movie making, he doesn’t go overboard with any of these by toning down the melodrama and peppering the script with whatever’s necessary to make the movie fast paced. And that works to his favor; although the script has gaping holes as wide as a huge elephant, you tend not to notice it because of the movie’s pace.
If you are only looking for some time pass and do not mind a hybrid of a movie between Singham and Thamirabharani, Vengai is the perfect movie for you. There is Dhanush, getting even with Prakashraj in an effort to outsmart his villainy, the ubiquitous ‘nattamai’ of recent day Tamil movies Rajkiran and Tamannah who is endowed with a passable role and a passable performance.
The story, as mentioned earlier, is nothing phenomenal. Prakashraj is a politician who secures an MLA position after support from the Good Samaritan Rajkiran and his villagers. But, not so surprisingly, Prakashraj misuses his position, earns the wrath of Rajkiran and eventually loses his political career. Now the shamed Prakashraj wants to teach Rajkiran, his son Dhanush and family a lesson. And the rest, as Hari says, is Vengai.
If you begin to nitpick, there will be nothing left of Vengai. The movie can be torn into pieces for its lack of a credible plot, presence of a cinematic and beaten to death plot, and many such details. But the point is, Hari knows his onions and the movie flies like you are on a speeding jet. There are vicious sickles, villagers in dazzling white clothes and blazing fast vehicles of a politician. But none of these come in between Hari’s assiduous story telling technique.
Hari creates Dhanush’s character with all the intelligence his heroes usually have. Dhanush laps the role up greedily and leaves nothing more to be desired. He sports the aforementioned dazzlingly white shirts during fight sequences and makes Prakashraj go mad with the help of just a cell phone. Hero, you see!
Since he didn’t want Tamannah to be typecast as a two-songs-few-love-scenes heroine, Hari seemed to have genuinely tried to assign some depth in her character. That turns out to be just about ok, albeit tolerable. But why the sorrow-laden eyes Tamannah? She looks like a pale of gloom has descended on her, all the time. Prakashraj and Rajkiran are in serious danger of being stereotyped (if it’s not done yet to them). Another thing about stereotyping is that even Prakashraj’s serious dialogues tend to tickle your funny bones. On that note, Ganja Karuppu’s comedy is intolerable as well. Having said that, it’s only fair to mention that there are some razor sharp dialogues that flicker and disappear in the movie.
Devi Sri Prasad’s songs aren’t the greatest things to happen to Venghai although he made it up with rerecording. Few fights, predominantly the climax fight, will be loved by action lovers.
If your idea for a weekend is to just unwind and not care much about the cinematic liberties the director has freely taken, Vengai might just be the film for you. And if you like Dhanush and Tamannah, you get a bonus!
Verdict: A caged leopard, raring to go!
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