Sethupathi

Sethupathi starring Vijay Sethupathi is definitely an entertaining Tamil movie because of its clever mixing of commercial flavors and a slightly fresh approach to the theme. With Vijay Sethupathi having a stunning screen presence, the sort of “mass” we would like to see in the modern times without losing the essence of one man show heroism was there in this action drama.

Sethupathi is the SI in charge of a police station. The movie starts off with the investigation about the murder of another police officer from the nearby police station. The investigation proceeds and Sethupathi succeeds in finding who was behind all this. But the humiliation faced by that man behind the crime opens up a cold war scenario between him and Sethupathi. How that war goes and who ultimately wins is what the movie discussing.

The film’s starting credits would definitely remind you of the recent Malayalam movie Action Hero Biju as it dramatically visualizes the troublesome life of normal police officers. But soon after the title sequence the movie goes in to that typical zone of murder and investigation. Interestingly, director S U Arun Kumar manages to add endearing family bonding and sensible masala inside the mass attire of his leading man. The intention is to create a plot that utilizes the mind games of hero and villain and the success of that part is uneven.

Vijay Sethupathi looks dashing as S I Sethupathi. The guy has that charm to be the joyful father, manly husband and a rough cop. Really loved that scene where he goes in front of the villain and gives a smirk after showing his attitude. Remya Nambisan looks perfect for the role of the wife and the actress performs nicely. The two kids were really sweet and the little girl actually showed zero glitches in scenes. Vela Ramamoorthy was a convincing villain. The actors who played the role of ASI Moorthy and the right hand of the villain were also good.

S U Arun Kumar who this time tries his luck in the action genre after a delightful Panniyarum Padminiyum has conceived the package in a commercially feasible manner. He hasn’t overdone any part with too much of extraterrestrial heroism. I was expecting something like that in the second half in a particular scene. But the writer director surprised me in that scene where the son of Sethupathi steals the show. The mind game between the hero and villain has instances that are sort of typical when you look at the gangster based recent films in Tamil. Some fair enough twists are there which makes way for charming heroism. Cinematography was impressive. Tracks were really good and I really loved the use of “Hey Mama” song occasionally. Cuts were also fine.

On the whole, Sethupathi was one of those films where I sort of enjoyed the conventional “Mass” action hero after a while because of two reasons; Vijay Sethupathi looked damn perfect for the role and the movie never went for the excessive heroics.