Ever since I briefly met Gautam Menon in a Seattle airshow, I have been eagerly waiting for this film. I am a great fan of his earlier films (actually 2, but remade/recycled in various languages umpteen times) - particularly the cool suave Kakka Kakka (KK). So comparisons are inevitable. And with KK as a benchmark VV fails.

In VV, the script is filled with unnecessary flab, dragged out sequences and numerous screenplay short cuts (Eg: why does Jyothika leave her hubby? Because he was ‘pretending’ to love her - how convenient!). And why New York?! please tell me why does the serial killer who is a pukka local medical student, take the trouble getting a visa boards a plane, goes to NYC, kills Americans, then flies back to India, kills Indians, then flies back to NYC, kills Americans and Indians, I fail to see the connection of these killers to these foreign shores - maybe Gautam wanted to use ex-Producer Khaja Mohideens’ blank cheques for his free holiday trips? . I actually got jet lag from all the travel.

The same question bugged me in Surya’s Ghajini - why short term memory loss? it didn’t add anything to the script - it was used just for the sake of it (while in Memento, it was the reason for the movie’s very existence).

So lets forget the NY angle - what do we have, a standard serial killer story which we see everyday in TV, yes normal TV sitcoms like ‘CSI:Miami’ or Law&Order SVU - but half as smart. So in a nutshell - VV’s plot is simple, standard and painfully ordinary. We have unconvincing serial killers, who mouth vile dialogues but lack any actual bite.

Technically, the film is made to look sleek (extreme WA lens mixed with super tele lenses, with a lot of ramp editing) - which undoubtly our audience is guaranteed lap it up (like they did other much worst films before - Ghajni etc).

When I saw KK, I was bowled over - literally, both by the tight script and its fantastic interludes with the heroine. Here the same romance looks contrived and pushed upon. And all New York adds is, some glitzy glamour shots, and some corny dialogues from NYPD (A classic scene, when NYPD cop and Kamal goes searching for a body, there is a gate which says “NO TRESSPASSING” and even to a 5 year old kid can guess thats where the body is. So, what does the script call for to boost Kamal’s image? Make the NYPD super-dumb, hence the NYPD cop says “oh, don’t go there, that area has been abandoned for many years, you won’t find anything there - we searched everywhere else” to which kamal says “I have a gut feeling about this” and obviously he is right” - all there was left for the cop was to say “What a man!”).

And I squirmed at the scene where the bad guy confesses all his deeds down to the last detail, and then keeps throwing beer bottles at kamal, who deftly defends himself with an axe - what kind of scene is that? is that supposed to be comedy? I wish I had an axe to throw at the screen!.

But as a time pass, VV passes - but it was not the ’smart film’ I was expecting from Gautam. Maybe I was expecting too much - or maybe Gautam diluted it for our audience, I am not sure. But I think his next film will give a glimpse of his actual talent - then we can decide if he is for real or a just a stylish hack (like Michael Bay/Mann).

3/5