Actor Madhavan’s dry patch in Tamil cinema seems to be over -- finally and undoubtedly so. After Sudha Kongara’s Irudhi Suttru (in both Tamil and Hindi, titled Saala Khadoos), Madhavan will appear as a police encounter specialist in Vikram Vedha, helmed by the husband-wife duo, Pushkar and Gayatri, in Tamil.
After appearing as a chocolate-boy or a dreamy romantic in many of his earlier films -- Alaipayuthey, Kannathil Muthamittal, Tanu Weds Manu and Jodi Breakers -- Madhavan took a hesitant step into the world of adventure and action, blood and bout in the 2012 Linguswamy-directed Vettai, where he plays a cowardly cop. At least for the first half of the movie when his brother, played by Arya, a toughie, proxies for the man in khaki.
Madhavan’s performance was significant here: his transformation from a frightened, nervous nail-chewing policeman into a character with greater steel and iron was etched out credibly.
His foray into the boxing ring in the recent Irudhi Suttru -- albeit after a four-year mysterious break from Tamil cinema -- seemed like a continuation of Madhavan’s journey into a macho persona, replete with ripping muscles. We saw this in Irudhi Suttru, the tough guy Madhavan, who turns a fire-breathing fisherwoman into a world class boxing champion. Madhavan was good here, but some of the finest moments in the film were those that showed him in his tender best.
Watch the Saala Khadoos review here
So, Pushkar and Gayatri are all set to start their new movie, where we would see Madhavan as Vikram, a gun-toting policeman out to get the gangster, Vedha (played by Vijay Sethupathi).
Pushkar told this writer that Vikram Vedha would be loosely based on the stories of the heroic king, Vikramaditya (Vikram Vedalam/Vikram Aur Betal). “Of course, the film has incorporated contemporary nuances while retaining the spirit of Vikramaditya’s valour that saw him defeat the evil spirit”.
Vikram Vedha will be Pushkar- Gayatri’s third movie. Their first, Oram Po in 2007, was a comic look at an autorickshaw driver’s efforts to take part in a race. Their second work, Va Quarter Cutting in 2010 ,describes the travails of a man, all set to leave for Saudi Arabia, who wants to live it up in Chennai, drinking and making merry, before he flies off to a land of “no fun”.
Interestingly, both Madhavan and Pushkar-Gayatri, are beginning their journey into the thriller genre. While Madhavan has once played cop in a Tamil movie (Vettai) and had got into the ring in Irudhi Suttru, Vikram Vedha might just about cement his strength in this kind of cinema.
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