Vidaamuyarchi movie review: Ajith Kumar’s underplayed performance elevates this offbeat road thriller

Vidaamuyarchi movie review: Ajith Kumar breaks from the mould of a mass action hero in this unconventional slow-burn thriller.

Vidaamuyarchi movie review: Residing in Baku, Azerbaijan, an Indian couple who have been married for 12 years feel stifled by the monotony of their marriage. Arjun (Ajith Kumar) is a successful businessman in an American company, while his wife Kayal (Trisha) is a homemaker. Both of them are excited and happy when they initially get married but the years do take their toll. (

Vidaamuyarchi movie review: Ajith Kumar returns to the screens after two years with the film.

What is Vidaamuyarchi about?

When a pregnant Kayal miscarries, the distance between them grows rapidly. Soft-spoken Arjun, who never seems to lose his cool, is even strangely calmly understanding when Kayal has an affair. He does not get angry, throw tantrums or spew hate. Eventually, the couple decide to part ways and get a divorce. It is at this junction that Kayal says she wants to head home to her parents in Tbilisi, and Arjun decides to do the nine-hour trip by road with her for ‘one last trip’ as he calls it.

Hitting the wide open road with nothing around them, Arjun and Kayal reminisce about their years together and wonder how they got to this place. Suddenly, a Hummer driven by a rough gangster-like Michael (Arav) nearly hits them and jolts them out of their reverie. Shaken but OK, they stop at a gas station where Kayal meets another Tamil couple - Rakshith (Arjun Sarja) and Deepika (Regina Cassandra) - and befriends them. As they get back on the road again, their car breaks down, and Rakshith and Deepika decide to give Kayal a lift. A while later, Arjun finds his wife has disappeared. What happened to her? Does he find her?

What works and what doesn't

At the outset, Vidaamuyarchi is not a star-driven film. It doesn’t involve all the histrionics in a typical commercial mass hero film that we are used to seeing Ajith Kumar in. This film veers away from that completely and is the story of an ordinary man who loves his wife and wants to save her. As everyone knows, Vidaamuyarchi, directed by Magizh Thirumeni, is a remake of the 1997 Hollywood film Breakdown. The director has stayed true to the original script for most of the film.

The first half of the film proceeds at a very slow pace, with little movement in terms of the story or action. The focus is more on the romance between Arjun and Kayal, but even that is very subdued and unexciting. There are hardly twists that make us sit up except just at the point of intermission.

The action and chase sequences kick in as we move on to the second half. A scared, agitated and desperate Arjun is now in full throttle, and there is a character arc where we see him in contrast to who he was in the first half. What ails the film are scenes that are redundant and unnecessary, which make it tedious. What can be conveyed in a few scenes (like the breakdown of their marriage) is instead stretched to 45 minutes. There needed to be more surprises for the audience in this kind of film, which has few characters and none of the regular Tamil film staples like comedy, song and dance, etc.

The film has a lot of lag and predictability, but thanks to Ajith’s refreshing, underplayed performance and stunning visuals, we are not bogged down excessively by it. It is an Ajith Kumar film all the way, and it looks like the Kollywood star is trying to break out of the image he has with an offbeat road trip film. Trisha has essayed her role as Kayal to a T.

Arjun Sarja is a worthy opponent, and Regina has done well, too, in her limited role. However, the characters of Rakshith and Deepika could have been better fleshed out - we see that they are in a mental asylum but behave normally when they are out in the real world.

To sum it up

Technically, the film is visually stunning, with drone shots, long shots, etc. DOP Om Prakash has done a good job, but music director Anirudh’s BGM was really not powerful, and the songs were forgettable, which is unfortunate. Editing by NB Srikanth could have been tighter, and the action scenes were not as exciting as hoped. Overall, Vidaamuyarchi is a new genre for Ajith Kumar and a new experience for the Tamil audience.