Vanmam (Eng: Vengeance) is a 2014 Indian Tamil movie directed by Jai Krishna, a former assistant of Kamal Haasan.
Vanmam features Vijay Sethupathi, Kreshna and Sunaina in the lead roles. The film has music scored by S. Thaman and cinematography by Balabharani. It is a rural tale about the life of two friends, played by Sethupathi and Kreshna. In spite of expectations the movie didn’t perform well at the box office. The film was highly panned by the critics for its poor screenplay. The movie marked the biggest flop for Vijay Sethupathi.
Vanmam takes off slowly with the first half of the story predominantly swirling over the depth of the friendship between Radha, played by Vijay Sethupathi and Chelladurai, played by Kreshna. The director uses onslaughts and action to portray this depth and the intention appears to be successful. However, the first hour of the movie surfaces in bits and pieces connected with some unsatisfactory editing and screenplay. The songs could have been placed at better situations and one might get the feeling that the romance song could have been snipped off.
The stand out element in the film is Vijay Sethupathi, who has managed to attach his performance to the nativity of the location to the best of his ability. This would be the first time that we see Vijay Sethupathi in hardcore action sequences, dressed in a white shirt and dhoti throughout the movie. The actor scores effortlessly in some portions, one of them being the scene where he breaks into Kreshna’s house under the influence of alcohol. Kreshna and Sunaina share good onscreen chemistry and the gist of the movie revolves around the consequences of their love for each other.
Being an action oriented revenge story, the stunts have been neatly choreographed with equal momentousness for both Vijay Sethupathi and Kreshna. Jai Krishna has opted to make use of a very linear style of narration that portrays events in a lined up order, not trying to be too ambitious, creating unwanted suspense that is often predicted by the current cinema goers. However, the film’s hefty dosage of drama makes the movie slightly less tolerable.
The dialogues have an invariable Nagercoil slang, which have been delivered to perfection by most of the actors. Words like “41 Naal Adiyandharam”, “Makkale”, “Vetti Kooru Pottiruven”, “Iree (sit)”, “Urangu (sleep)” etc might catch the likeness of audiences residing in the southernmost part of the state. Bala Bharani’s cinematography is decent throughout the film with a lot of depth in the closeups and some neatly framed crane shots that illustrate the beauty of the backdrop. Thaman’s BGM appears to have been composed keeping family viewers in mind as he has kept it plain without too much experimentation. Produced by V. Hitesh Jhabak and Nemichand Jhabak, Vanmam is a flat story on friendship, business, romance, family and vengeance, which has been portrayed in a decent native setting.
Directed by Jai Krishna
Produced by Nemichand Jhabak & V. Hitesh Jhabak
Screenplay by Jai Krishna
Story by Jai Krishna
Starring Vijay Sethupathi, Kreshna, Sunaina
Music by S. Thaman
Cinematography Bala Bharani
Edited by Suresh Urs
Production Nemichand Jhabak Productions
Release dates 21 November 2014
Running time 156 minutes
Country India
Language Tamil
