Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu

Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu, Gautam Menon's second cop story is good. The movie is built up nicely, however the finish isn't that great.

A cop's daughter is murdered in rural TN. The cop and his wife leave the country. They are murdered in NY. Kamal Hassan, the DCP from TN lands in NY, with his gut instinct finds more bodies and the leads point to a serial killer psychopath. So far so good. Kamal looks the part of middle aged police officer. There is love interest in the form of Jyotika, a recently separated single mom.

Right after the break, the pair of psychopaths are revealed. There is a confrontation, they leave Kamal for dead, but the hero survives punctured lungs, burning apartment and a free fall from probably the 10th floor. The killers escape to India, and Kamal returns to India, taunting them to come out to get him. So far so good, but when you expect the final twist / action, all you get is regular Tamil film finish with no difference. So in a way, it is a tame finish to what could have been a great movie. Kamal even gets hold of one of the killers just by chance with zero detective work.

Special mention should be made of the villain, (Daniel in the TV serial Chitthi and who acted as Surya's friend in Kakha Kakha) looked every inch a psychopath. Wonder why all Tamil movies are so homophobic, the loudest guffaws in the theater were when Kamal talks about the villains being gay. Prakash Raj as elderly cop has done a neat job, underplaying his role effectively.

One major grouse for me(which others might laugh at) was the slide showing பிணவரை instead of பிணவறை as the Tamil word for morgue.

Film buffs might trash it, but I liked the movie. It was fast paced (could have done away with all the songs), minimal love interest stuff, some interesting references to other movies (Kamal stops Jyotika from a suicide attempt, and asks her "Yen". She replies "Theriyalai" and laughs saying "Idhu enna Mani Ratnam pada dialogue madhiri"), realistic portrayal of cops - has lots of thing going for it. Based on the crowd reaction I can say it will be a decent hit movie.