Venky Atluri’s education drama Vaathi headlined by Dhanush has its share of ‘full scores’ and ‘red marks’.
Cast: Dhanush, Samyuktha, Samuthirakani, Tanikella Bharani, P. Sai Kumar, Ken Karunas
Director: Venky Atluri
Writer: Venky Atluri
After being beaten black and blue in the lock-up, Balamurugan (Dhanush) finds himself struggling to walk as he steps out of the police van. As he drags his frail body, his feet, bare and bruised, bear the brunt of the scorching hot road. And then, an unexpected character comes to his rescue in a way which is generally reserved for the ‘hero’ of a film. It is in places like this where the writing of Venky Atluri’s Vaathi shines.
What’s Yay: Dhanush
What’s Nay: The predictability in the script, weak antagonist
Story
Vaathi opens in the year 2022 where three boys discover a box of VHS tapes in a shop. Their inquisitiveness quickly turns into disappointment when on playing those cassettes, instead of some ‘raunchy’ content, they come across the back of a teacher who is writing some trigonometry sums on a blackboard.
However, unable to contain their curiosity, they soon set out in quest of finding the man in the tape which lands them at the District Collector’s office.
The latter hits the rewind button and the film jumps back to the late 90s where education has become a booming business. While the government schools have empty classrooms staring, there is an escalation in the admissions at private schools. Amid this tug-of-war, a new bill is introduced which poses a threat to Thirupathi (Samuthirakani), a shrewd corporate guy who runs a chain of institutes and is touted to be the pioneer of private education in the state.
As a deal with the government, Thirupathi offers to adopt some government schools and send his teaching faculty there. But there’s a catch here. Meanwhile, under this programme, Balamurugan (Dhanush), an assistant Mathematics teacher in one of Thirupathi’s institutes, is sent to a government school located on Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh.
However, on reaching there, he is hit by the harsh reality of government schools and takes it upon himself to bring the change. He also learns about Thirupathi’s ulterior motive and challenges to defeat him with his idealistic beliefs. The rest of the film revolves around how ‘Vaathi’ Balamurugan thwarts Thirupathi’s plans and emerges as a ‘true hero’.
Direction
While Vaathi has its heart and intent in the right place, it’s the lack of strong characters which leaves you a tad disappointed. The writing feels generic most of the times barring a few sequences where Venky Atluri displays some clever ideas.
For example, there’s a whistle-worthy moment where Vaathi almost transforms into a meta film with the leading man being celebrated with bits of paper thrown at the screen in a cinema hall because of his heroic act. Another effective scene involves a water pump. If only Vaathi had more of this stuff!
Performances
Vaathi is a Dhanush show all the way. The actor oozes likability and emotional deft in equal measures. Be it the way his character carries himself, weak and bruised in the midst of a blistering afternoon or his exchanges with the students, the actor ticks all the boxes right in terms of his performance. In fact, it’s his conviction which makes you root for his ‘Vaathi’ even when the screenplay goes a bit south at times.
Samyuktha as the biology teacher Meenakshi shares an affable chemistry with Dhanush but barely gets any chance to shine on her own. While the decision of casting Samuthirakani as the main antagonist is kind of genius (he played a teacher in M Anbazhagan’s 2012 Tamil film Saattai), Venky Atluri keeps his character unidimensional which fails to create a solid impact.
The rest of the cast including Tanikella Bharani, P. Sai Kumar and Ken Karunas play their parts with sincerity.
Technical Aspects
J Yuvraj does with a good job with his camera and treats you with slo-mo shots when Dhanush channels his inner ‘mass hero’. Naveen Noli’s editing is well in place.
Music
GV Prakash Kumar’s music and background score fits fine with the theme of this Dhanush starrer. Out of all the tracks, it’s ‘Vaa Vaathi’ penned by Poetu Dhanush and crooned by Shweta Mohan that lingers on your lips once you leave the cinema hall.
Verdict
To sum it up, Dhanush’s Tamil-Telugu bilingual passes the test but just falls a little short of being a topper. ‘Okay Sir, Thank you Sir, Take care Sir…’
