Official Trailer:

First, I got to admit that I didn’t notice, never felt, the movie is nearly 3 hours long. No slowing down or drag in the pacing of the narration. While there are many things that made the movie work, my pick would be the director and the writer Lokesh Kanagaraj. Specifically, the writing is the key ingredient which pulled in rest of the compounds seamlessly into the concoction. First half is an investigative procedural or we can call it a thriller genre with Amar piecing together the details about Karnan, believed to be dead, who exists like a ghost and the masked gang that goes around executing police officers. Second half is a non-stop action that happens in a day IIRC. The brilliance of the writing is how the clues and the characters in the first half gets a closure in the second half, the character arc of Vikram and his team, Amar’s transformation, and setting the foundation for director Lokesh’s universe.

Lokesh grasps the action genre tonality very well, the premise should not be too complicated to decipher or too easy with predictable twists. Don’t take too much time to setup the premise, pace the narration with twists and action working towards the final pay-off climax. Agent Tina doesn’t come as a surprise when you connect it back with the clues given in first half. Same with other agent characters Amar encounters in the first half. When Bejoy talks about the distinction between a news story (for the public it is just another news) and personal loss and impact to Amar it defines the character arc of Vikram and his gang. Amar doesn’t buy it that time during the interrogation but how Lokesh links it later when Amar goes though similar situation which leads him to join Vikram and his team – goes to show the thought he has put in writing. And yes, it hyperlinks to everyone has a breaking point theme in Kuruthipunal, another Kamal’s movie 😀

What Lokesh has pulled off in Vikram in creating a criminal universe like DC comics, in the lines of Batman, is amazing. Seamlessly uniting characters from 1986 movie Vikram and his earlier movie Kaithi, and new characters like Tina and Rolex. Now that Vikram is well received, options in front of Lokesh is unlimited. My pick would be Rise of Sandhanam (Pablo), Rise of Rolex, Revenge of Black Squad (with Vikram, Bejoy, Amar, Dilli, Tina), Rolex Strikes back, Dawn of Dilli,…list goes on and on. Not sure Sugirtharaja from 1986 Vikram will fit in this universe (unless he gets in to drug cartel rather than stealing rockets 😂) but Michael from MMKR can easily fit in, after all Sandhanam would need someone to convert his money from black to white – now that would be some hell of a movie 🤩 A pencil is a not a pencil anymore after John Wick 2 (is there a pencil kill scene in Point of No Return?). After Vikram, forks will be seen differently, thanks to Agent Tina. Paper weights go off the table too.

There are no conventional mass scenes in Vikram even with 3 powerful actors. We do get mass scenes, but they all get woven into the story – while Vijay S and Kamal get many Vasanthi as Agent Tina gets the best (excellently choreographed and blows you away). Along with Kamal, Fahadh, and Vijay S, all other actors (Chemban Vinod, Narain, Gayathrie, Vasanthi, Kalidas, …)  have performed their roles well including the ones showing up just in few scenes. Full credit to Anbarivu and team for staging the action sequences with variety. Cinematography adds to the mood of the narration. It is all not praise for Vikram. There are few things that didn’t work for me. While Anirudh’s BGM is good, a few silences in between would have worked better. Not sure whether it is the design or the multiplex where I watched the movie, decibel levels are too high – I feel that with most of the latest movies – KGF, Beast, Master. Even though action sequences are interesting when compared to action movies like John Wick or Mission Impossible, Kollywood has a long way to hit that quality level – vision is there but I guess they are limited by budget and time constraints. It is time we retire scenes of villains coming as a big gang to fight with the hero or running towards the hero one at a time. Sandhanam character starts with a bang but fizzles out with his ferociousness petering out in the second half – extending how he gets rid of Gayathri or goes after the child would have conveyed his anger and brutality. But in the overall finished product, these are minor quibbles.