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Film Review: Vikram (2022) by Lokesh Kanagaraj

"We declare war against your system"

South Indian films continued to dominate the box office in 2022, with titles like “KGF 2”, “Ponniyan Selvan” and being some of the highlights. Tamil-language “” definitely deserves a place among the aforementioned, as it broke several box office records, becoming the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2022 and the fourth highest-grossing Tamil film of all time

After busting the consignment of Adaikalam and Anbu by Inspector Bejoy three months ago Amar, the head of a black-ops team, is summoned by Police Chief Jose to bring justice to a group of masked vigilantes, who have killed Stephen Raj (following his arrest and subsequent release after being busted for helping Adaikalam and Anbu in “Kaithi”), ACP Prabhanjan and his foster father, Karnan. Amar leads the investigation by digging into Karnan's life, as his murder seems out of place. While investigating, Amar stumbles upon the drug dealings of Sandhanam, who runs a much bigger drug syndicate than Adaikalam, named Vetti Vagaiyara, who is however, under the influence of ‘Rolex' a true villain everyone seems to be scared of. Eventually, Karnan also becomes part of the narrative, as the backstories of all involved reveal a number of romantic events that shaped their characters. Meanwhile, Amar also has his issues with his neglected fiance, while the presence of a baby makes things even more complicated.

wants to create a cinematic universe, continuing from “Kaithi” the prequel of “Vikram”, and the introduction of a number of larger than life, ultra powerful individuals who occasionally clash or work together moves towards this direction. In that regard, the three main protagonists, Amar, Karnan and Sandhanam, are all impressive in their presentation, with the story revolving around their actions. Furthermore, the eventual approach of Rolex adds another notch to the whole concept. At the same time, however, and although the analysis of the protagonists is quite thorough, Kangaraj takes his story in too many turns in the almost three hours the movie lasts, resulting in a narrative that is both confusing and nonsensical on occasion, while realism jumps out of the window quite early on.

Much like the Shaw Brothers films of the past, though, the focus is not on coherence, but on impression, in the typical masala style, and in that regard, the movie truly shines. Girish Gangadharan's cinematography is exceptional in the ways it captures the plethora of different locations, with the sepia tones frequently dominating, while other scenes move into more noir directions. The night sequences in particular are outstanding, while his focus on the three protagonists makes their overall appearance even more imposing, even if the slow-motion could have been toned down. Philomin Raj's editing is also great, allowing the movie to unfold with a thunderous pace that suits its action/crime thriller aesthetics to perfection, and the flashbacks are in general well placed within the narrative.

Both the aforementioned aspects, and essentially the whole of the movie finds their apogee in the action scenes, with both the large scale ones involving cars, buildings and explosions, and the martial arts ones being the main appeal of the movie along with the protagonists' charisma.
Twin stunt choreographers Anbariv have done a tremendous job in the latter, with the scene with the woman fighter, the one between two of the protagonists, and the many where they face scores of enemies being a true wonder to look at.

And talking about the protagonists, the three main ones have done a tremendous job here, with Kanagaraj “exploiting” their charisma as much as possible throughout the movie. In that fashion, as Agent Amat presents a character who starts as calm and composed before the events transform him into a revenge machine. depicts Vikram as a man beyond every rule, who functions though, as a mentor to his men. as Sandhanam is a true villain, with his cruelty and power spreading fear every time he appears on screen. Furthermore, the chemistry of the three is also exceptional, essentially carrying the movie from beginning to end.

As far as over-the-top action movies go, one would have to search very hard to find a movie better than “Vikram”, in one of the best movies of the year.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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