Vikram Vedha, the 2017 Tamil action thriller from director duo Pushkar-Gayathri, was a great blend of style and smartness. When it comes to the 2022 Hindi remake of the same film from the same directors, they have managed to retain pretty much everything good about the original in a different ambiance. With Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan carrying the swagger perfectly, Vikram Vedha maintains the same excitement of the original, even for the ones who have seen the original.
Inspector Vikram is part of a special force formed in the city of Lucknow to catch the criminals who are behind the gang war happening in the town. The main criminal behind all this is Vedha, and Vikram and the team are planning to catch him by all means. Things take an exciting turn when Vedha himself surrenders to the police. There was a clear reason why Vedha did that, and what we see in the movie is Vedha’s master plan.
They have relocated the story to the city of Lucknow, and the textural changes are there for the movie. Other than that, everything else is pretty much the same. One thing I have often felt about remakes from southern languages is that the linguistic flow gets lost when they recreate the scene and dialogues the same way. Luckily, in Vikram Vedha, it is not a google translate level remake strategy. The dynamic between the characters and the banter has that cool quotient. Hrithik Roshan has an entirely different aura when compared to Vijay Sethupathi. And Pushkar and Gayathri use that as a scope to stylize or create set pieces for the film.
Pushkar-Gayathri adapts to the Hindi movie sensibility smoothly, and just like how they made the Tamil version, the heroics has a different pitch from the usual action flick. The movie’s brilliance is in the script that uses the idea of moral dilemma very cunningly. Even after having seen the Tamil version in the theaters five years ago, I fell for that second story of Vedha, which he uses in favor of his brother. And another good thing about the script is that even though some scenes may look like a conventional introduction scenes, every scene has a connection with the core part of the story. PS Vinod’s cinematography with those patches of darks and tight composition gives the movie that larger-than-life yet rustic look. I loved how they used the high-speed camera without slow motion in the Alcoholiya song. Sam CS’s iconic background score still gives you goosebumps.
As I already said, Vijay Sethupathi’s version of Vedha is very subtle in his actions, which you associate with Sethupathi in his acting method. Hrithik opts for a style that is more in his comfort zone. He is a much more agile guy who is known for doing stunts and dance numbers, and the Hindi version makes tweaks to incorporate that. The synchronized running of Vikram and Vedha in that factory fight made everyone in the audience whistle. Hrithik’s accent and attitude were also convincing. Saif Ali Khan, who got to play Vikram, makes him that cool and moralistic police officer. Somewhere I felt his on-screen energy was better than Madhavan in the original. It is not a one-dimensional character as he goes through many realizations over the course of his hunt for Vedha, and Saif pulls off the transition very convincingly. Radhika Apte looked very apt as the lawyer-wife of Vikram. Rohit Saraf was fine as the younger brother of Vedha. Sharib Hashmi gets a memorable part as Babloo. When compared to Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Yogita Bihani couldn’t really create that impact.
The packaging that made the original a gripping and entertaining thriller through the placement of dilemmas and character detailing is maintained in this remake. What makes it fresh is that the two men playing the roles in the Hindi version have a very contrasting style to the ones who played the respective roles in the original. Vikram Vedha plays it for the gallery with all that swagger but never compromises on the script.
Vikram Vedha plays it for the gallery with all that swagger but never compromises on the script.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
