Velayudham

“Velayudham” (2011), directed by Mohan Raja and produced by V. Ravichandran. The movie starred Vijay, Hansika Motwani, and Genelia D’Souza. The movie is about a simple milkman who accidentally foils a terrorist attack and eventually gets motivated to become a superhero masked vigilante of justice and hope.

Bharathi, a fearless young journalist, exposes the connections between terrorist bombings and the ongoing epidemic of human trafficking in her home city of Chennai. While gathering evidence, her friends are murdered, and she herself barely escapes alive. A surprise explosion triggered by the rowdies’ car led to their death, triggering an idea in her head; she designed a comic book superhero, Velayudham. At the same time, Velu, a soft-natured milk vendor from Pavunoor, arrives in Chennai with his sister Kaveri and cousin Vaidehi. During a pursuit of the thief at the train station, Velu inadvertently foils a bomb explosion that the terrorists were trying to orchestrate. Bharathi realizes that Velu is still unknowingly thwarting terrorist plots and concludes that he should be the real face behind her made-up superhero. Velu turns down the notion but eventually returns to accept after witnessing the public pain inflicted by a shady chit-fund scheme.

Velu takes on the avatar of Velayudham to fight against evil and save the common man from injustice. As he begins to crack down on corruption, his tough-on-crime approach earns him support from both the public and the police. Trouble comes back when terrorist leader Ibrahim tracks Velu to his village and detonates a bomb that kills Kaveri on her wedding day. Devastated, Velu discovers that this entire ordeal and his sister’s death was orchestrated by the evil, corrupt Home Minister Ulaganathan. At Ulaganathan’s public function, he aims to undermine the Velayudham concept as his own, all while setting Ibrahim up to take the fall. Velu shows up, finds Ibrahim, kills him, reveals Ulaganathan’s wrongdoings, and leaves him to be trampled in a stampede.

“Velayudham,” a complete commercial entertainer, is packed with action, emotions, and a social message. On a talent-based level, Vijay truly comes across as the people’s hero, bringing heart along with his heroics to elevate things. While the plot may be a little generic here and there, Sonic manages to charm audiences with impressive visual effects, an adrenaline-pumping musical score, and an uplifting message.