Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu ("hunt and play", more approriate to say "hunting game") is Gautham Menon's second venture into a cops life. This time a widowed DCP Raghavan (Kamal Hassan) hunts for "a" serial killer who has murdered his mentor Arkoiaraj's (Prakashraj) daughter first (in India) and, then later him and his wife (in US).
The story has all the qualities for a good thriller and to a certain extent engages the attention of the audience till the end. The movie contains a fair amount of violence, blood and gory scenes. So, if you do not like it, just stay away. After the first half, the story develops in a predictable style. So the key is that watch Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu, experience the thrill and, then forget about it (like any other thriller book).
As expected, Kamal Hassan gives a first rate acting performance which glues the audience attention to the screen. I like Kamal's acting but on a second thought, I feel that the character Raghavan did not really needed Kamal Hassan. In other words, it could have been played by another decent actor, for instance Surya and, same effects could have been produced. Balaji does a good job as the serial killer Amudhan. At the end of the movie, you will come to hate as well as fear him. Jyotika has done well with in the given amount of screen time. I also feel that the movie could have been done without Jyotika's character. Kamalinee Mukherjee and Prakash Raj have a short screen presence but leave a good impression.
Gautham's direction is crispy and good. With in a short space of time in the beginning, he creates the tough cop character Ragahavan. The script is good. Harris Jayaraj's music is OK. Songs are hummable and foot tapping. There is not much to say about the back ground score.
The movie has its share of "flaws". For instance,
(a) When Raghavan and his US cop partner zero onto a "suspect" Amudhan's companion, the first alert should have gone to all the ports to contain them inside US. Instead the cops go and knock on the doors of the "suspect" (psycho) without even having a backup plan.
(b) In the era of fast digital communication, it is little bit difficult to digest that the news about the serial killers reach the Indian port authorities late (inspite of some US citizens being killed). Also, given that the travel time between New York to Mumbai can easily cross 15 hrs and, the existence of numerous channels through which the information could be sent and criminal being apprehended.
(c) The serial killers kill US citizens including some police authorities. US does not even sends an investigating team to India.
(d) Amuthan keeps claiming he is a university rank holder (a brilliant and intelligent guy) but some of the events does not fit into the character. For instance, when they come to know about the police surveillance they should have vacated their usual residence.
The primary reason for these flaws is that the first half of the story is shown through the eyes of an investigating police officer and, the second half is shown through the eyes of serial killer.
Eventually what happened in the second half of the movie is that the director ended up spending time creating the fearsome serial killers character (also resulting in some more violent and gory scenes) and, Kamal spending rest of the movie running around the trees with Jyotika and ending up as the usual villain bashing hero cop. Thus, second half becomes very predictable.
Instead the character of the serial killers could have been developed through the investigation of cop, thus, keeping the audience more on the edge of seat and guessing. This would have meant that Raghavan doing some really good investigative cop work.
Nevertheless, "Vettiyadu Villaiyadu" is worth watching once at least for Kamal.
