Wasn’t Vettaiyan worth the wait?

Malayalam star Fahadh Faasil as lsquoCyberrsquo Patrick a former thief who helps out the police in T J Gnanavelrsquos Tamil tentpole Vettaiyan says that there are essentially four following kinds of cops in the world or India at any rateHonest brave Capable dishonest but throwing their weight around Honest but dumb Finally the ldquokachrardquo crappiest neither intelligent nor honestWhich reminds me of the quadrants that General Douglas McArthur divided officers intomdashalso quoted in an interview by a sitting Bombay police commissioner Arup Patnaik onceThe four types of officers being lazy dumb intelligent and hardworkingJai BhimOf these McArthur postulated the ones to be bumped up topmost for devising strategies are actually the lazy intelligentmdashthey solve problems without spending needless energy on inconsequential stuffThose to be instantly discarded are the dumb hardworking Couldnrsquot agree more Above all the categories lsquoCyberrsquo Patrick adds is the rarest officermdashwhorsquos intelligent honest and braveThatrsquos Rajinikanth for SP Athiyan in Vettaiyan Huntermdashas the screen customarily flashes lsquoSuperstarrsquo in golden letters and lsquoThailavarsquo does his cigarettetrick with removable lenses of eyeglasses instead flipping his Samsung phone with a swagHis lsquotakia kalaamrsquo recurring refrain since I watched Vettaiyan in Hindi goes ldquoNishana lagaya toh shikaar pucca If I aim the hunt is certainrdquoSP Athiyan is an lsquoencounterspecialistrsquo placed alongside among others with Daya Naik in a powerpoint presentation delivered at the National Police Academy Hyderabad by Amitabh Bachchan as SathyadevStills from the directorrsquos previous films Kootathil OruthanBachchan plays a jurist in the film deeply invested in humanrights issues over matters of extrajudicial killings by the police wherein ldquojustice delayed may be justice denied but justice hurried is equally justice buriedrdquoRana Daggubati Baahubalirsquos Bhallaladeva is the real villain entering only much later He runs an online education scamWhich is why Vettaiyan starts off with a primer on Lord Macaulay who devised both the Indian Penal Code and Indiarsquos education policy in the early 1800smdasha lesson in history that you donrsquot expect from a desi mainstream actionerVettaiyan is a semiangry polemic Strong strains of which you inevitably experience in a section of Tamil commercial cinema with directors like Pa Ranjith or Vetrimaaran furthermore the patron saintsThatrsquos a reason you had Shah Rukh Khan passionately lecture mass audiences on the importance of the vote before the election year in Atleersquos Jawan 2023mdashthe hero even flashing his palm on the screen as an electoral symbol for the importance of the OppositionHindi viewers were visibly surprised Itrsquos commonplace in Tamil Nadu where pictures politics Also a reason Jawan gt Pathaan Which is separate from propaganda thatrsquos like pornmdashyou just know it when yousee oneAudiences go in for the star still How many are there in Vettaiyan Easily the most sparkling constellation between their languages Rajinikanth Tamil Bachchan Hindi Faasil Malayalam Daggubati TeluguYet it took me four days to pick a solitary screen across Bombay with a suitable timing that too lateafternoon in a decrepit hall to finally watch VettaiyanldquoIt released in all of 850900 screens across India outside the Southrdquo Girish Wankhede who worked on the filmrsquos North India marketing tells meThe tussle between national multiplex chains that wonrsquot open Vettaiyan and Tamil Nadu producers is over the permissible timelag between a filmrsquos theatrical release and its OTT premiereWhat a stupid stalemate even while Irsquom on the side of theatres in this dogfight Itrsquos continued long enough that you also caught Rajinikanthrsquos decent last release Jailer on OTT Prime VideoOr Lokesh Kanagarajrsquos Vijaystarrer Leo on Netflix for that matter The latter I felt was sort of a remake of Mukul Anandrsquos Hum 1991 That was the last time Rajinikanth and Bachchan were on screen togethermdashsetting it on such fire that itrsquos not been doused sinceBesides the onscreen constellation whorsquos really the star of Vettaiyan Undoubtedly the director GnanavelTo even think that his Jai Bhim 2021 Prime Videomdasha heavily arthouse immeasurably bleak vision of police atrocities against Irula tribespeoplemdashwith actor Suriya playing an activistlawyer with the bust of KarlMarx staring from the wall behind his desk would subsequently result in the biggest blockbuster casting in yearsVettaiyan is about a good cop albeit employing questionable means Jai Bhim is altogether a film on bad cops but for Prakash Rajrsquos character Itrsquos as if the two movies are talking to each otherHarder to believe still that Gnanavel debuted with a classic teenage romcom Kootathil Oruthan One Among The Crowd 2017 about a lsquomiddlebencher average guyrsquo Ashok Selvan ldquoIf lifersquos a race he neither wins nor loses hersquos in the crowd clappingrdquo But hersquos in love with a girl whorsquos 1010The filmrsquos got a vague touch of Napoleon Dynamite 2004 maybe Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi 2008 even the latest Faasil flick Aavesham 2024 if you must Itrsquos set entirely in a journalism school Shouldrsquove found more loveFilmmaker Gnanavel is a former journalist whorsquos extensively reported the story indeed the judge that Jai Bhim is based on Also the restaurant chain Sarvana Bhawanrsquos murdersaga which is his next titled Dosa KingCanrsquot wait for that while I guess many of you might have to wait for Vettaiyan on an OTTMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper