Actor Madhavan’s dry patch in Tamil cinema seems to be over -- finally and undoubtedly so. After Sudha Kongara’s Irudhi Suttru (in both Tamil and Hindi, titled Saala Khadoos), Madhavan will appear as a police encounter specialist in Vikram Vedha, helmed by the husband-wife duo, Pushkar and Gayatri, in Tamil.
After appearing as a chocolate-boy or a dreamy romantic in many of his earlier films -- Alaipayuthey, Kannathil Muthamittal, Tanu Weds Manu and Jodi Breakers -- Madhavan took a hesitant step into the world of adventure and action, blood and bout in the 2012 Linguswamy-directed Vettai, where he plays a cowardly cop. At least for the first half of the movie when his brother, played by Arya, a toughie, proxies for the man in khaki.
Read: Saala Khadoos review: R Madhavan is the only saving grace
Madhavan’s performance was significant here: his transformation from a frightened, nervous nail-chewing policeman into a character with greater steel and iron was etched out credibly.
His foray into the boxing ring in the recent Irudhi Suttru -- albeit after a four-year mysterious break from Tamil cinema -- seemed like a continuation of Madhavan’s journey into a macho persona, replete with ripping muscles. We saw this in Irudhi Suttru, the tough guy Madhavan, who turns a fire-breathing fisherwoman into a world class boxing champion. Madhavan was good here, but some of the finest moments in the film were those that showed him in his tender best.
{{/usCountry}}His foray into the boxing ring in the recent Irudhi Suttru -- albeit after a four-year mysterious break from Tamil cinema -- seemed like a continuation of Madhavan’s journey into a macho persona, replete with ripping muscles. We saw this in Irudhi Suttru, the tough guy Madhavan, who turns a fire-breathing fisherwoman into a world class boxing champion. Madhavan was good here, but some of the finest moments in the film were those that showed him in his tender best.
{{/usCountry}}Watch the Saala Khadoos review here
So, Pushkar and Gayatri are all set to start their new movie, where we would see Madhavan as Vikram, a gun-toting policeman out to get the gangster, Vedha (played by Vijay Sethupathi).
Read: Madhavan’s Saala Khadoos fails at the box office
Pushkar told this writer that Vikram Vedha would be loosely based on the stories of the heroic king, Vikramaditya (Vikram Vedalam/Vikram Aur Betal). “Of course, the film has incorporated contemporary nuances while retaining the spirit of Vikramaditya’s valour that saw him defeat the evil spirit”.
Vikram Vedha will be Pushkar- Gayatri’s third movie. Their first, Oram Po in 2007, was a comic look at an autorickshaw driver’s efforts to take part in a race. Their second work, Va Quarter Cutting in 2010 ,describes the travails of a man, all set to leave for Saudi Arabia, who wants to live it up in Chennai, drinking and making merry, before he flies off to a land of “no fun”.
Interestingly, both Madhavan and Pushkar-Gayatri, are beginning their journey into the thriller genre. While Madhavan has once played cop in a Tamil movie (Vettai) and had got into the ring in Irudhi Suttru, Vikram Vedha might just about cement his strength in this kind of cinema.
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