Vikram

Lokesh Kanagaraj's Vikram is the kind of experiment that Tamil cinema hasn't seen in a long time. The breakneck pacing of the film doesn't allow for our feelings to sink in; Lokesh overstuffs the storyline with too many players and their ambitions, undermining the emotional core of the plot in the process.

Vikram is packed with thrilling moments from the very first minute. With technical superiority and terrific casting, the first half is an interesting watch, while the narration and a few long rants tire you in the second half.

The film works as an action entertainer, but doesn't leave you impressed or awe-struck. That is a tad disappointing, considering that it has so many heavy-duty performers such as Kamal Haasan, Fahadh Faasil and Vijay Sethupathi and expectations from the film were quite high. On the whole, 'Vikram' works if one looks at it as just an action entertainer, but one cannot but heave a sigh of disappointment when one realises that the film could have been so much more than what it has just been made into.

Vikram is a film that has some terrific performances and makes you inquisitive about the Lokesh Kanagaraj universe. Some of the scenes don't land, but there are plenty to cherish and rejoice in.

Let's stop romanticising bad relationships, please. It's not fun. Adithya Varma tells Adithya's story, but the film portrays a toxic, abusive relationship as romantic—one in which the protagonist is violent, controlling, and lacks genuine connection with his partner beyond physical attraction.

The violence is all tastefully shot and inventively choreographed, but after a while, it began ringing a bit hollow. Vikram is largely content to capture the carnage. It looks good, but I'm not sure it feels as good as a Kaithi did.

On the whole, Vikram is all for action lovers and movie buffs as it is the best entertaining movie that hit the screens these days! A perfect concoction of action and mystery turned it out into a blockbuster!

Lokesh Kanagaraj brings together the espionage-filled world of Kamal Haasan's 1986 film Vikram and his own 2019 film Kaithi's action-filled world of drug lords and cops in Vikram, a predictably plotted action film that is more interested in expanding its universe without really immersing us into it. It holds the mysteries of a spy film and provides the thrills of an action film to some extent, but it doesn't feel wholly satisfactory and fails to leave us with the adrenaline rush that a film with such high ambitions promises.

Vikram is drama, drama, drama all the way in which the director has not only bitten more than he can chew but exhibits his diehard admiration for Kamal. The narrative loses much of its zing after a point, and the element of thrill and mystery gets lost in inane dramatics, with Kamal remaining Kamal and failing to get his once-upon-a-time compelling magic back on track.

Even by his own standards, his latest film Saamy Square is an utterly ludicrous attempt that exposes his unwillingness to finetune his filmmaking skills with changing times. Scene after scene, Hari keeps giving you a reason to hate this film and the actors who helped the director to translate his absurd ideas onto the big screen.

Vikram is a movie made in bad taste that glorifies cold-blooded killings and can influence youths already at risk of gangsterism. A movie like this cannot be censored in parts as the entire film sits on gun violence, lawlessness, brutal killing, and slaughtering of humans.

If you can look at Vikram beyond some of its rough edges, this is easily the most satisfying love letter to Kamal Haasan from Lokesh Kanagaraj. What Lokesh manages to achieve with Vikram is to give a new generation of audiences a glimpse of Kamal Haasan's versatility.

The new 'Vikram' disappoints the fans of the 1986 original and could have been a standalone film with Fahadh Faasil carrying on the legacy of the agent like in the James Bond films. What felt organic and thrilling in Kaithi, feels weak and forced in Vikram. As fans of the original film and Kamal Haasan, you feel let down.