Rekka: Men are from mass

With ‘Rekka’, ‘Makkal Selvan’ Vijay Sethupathi makes this trip to aruval land. But has he arrived?

There comes a day in the life of every Tamil lead actor when he must make a trip to Madurai. Upon reaching there, he’s gifted with superhuman strength enough to send a hundred henchmen, all wearing Ramraj white, flying in the air with a single punch. A long line of untouched Tata Sumos waits patiently for this hero to bring about their impending doom. For, it is this town that separates the weak from the strong, the boys from the men, the stars from the superstars.

With Rekka , ‘Makkal Selvan’ Vijay Sethupathi makes this trip to aruval land. But has he arrived?

Not yet. He’s not yet reached the point where he can deliver long punch lines like his seniors Ajith and Vijay. Instead, he resorts to saying, “

Punchu? Naanu? Panju madhiri pesuvaen .’ (I don’t deliver punch lines. I talk softly). So how, really, do you write a tough film for a soft hero?

That seems to be the quandary before

Rekka ’s director Rathinashiva. Instead of trying to mellow the film down for the hero, the director has instead gone for the jugular. So, we don’t have just one villain. We have two . Action set pieces are elaborate and gravity-defying, and the heroine, Bharathi (Lakshmi Menon) is hands down the queen of all loosu ponnu s.

Yet, the film, which is about Siva having to kidnap Bharathi in order to appease a villain, seems to be aware of its excesses. Rekka knows that a hero can’t hammer an SUV like crushing a can of coke, but he does. The heroine herself calls herself a loosu ponnu . As long as you feel the film isn’t taking itself too seriously, it’s a lot of fun.

But alas, we see glimpses of the other Vijay Sethupathi…the actor. The script shifts gear from an action entertainer to a tale about overcoming guilt for a childhood sin. The location too changes from the warzone that is Madurai to a mall in quieter Coimbatore.

And therein lies the problem. Thereon, the film is neither here nor there. Vijay Sethupathi set off to have a jigarthanda , and changed his order to a litchi smoothie instead.

Genre: Action

Director: Rathinashiva

Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Lakshmi Menon, Satish, Harish Uththaman

Storyline: A man must kidnap a minister’s daughter to ensure a family wedding goes off smoothly

Bottomline: A massy entertainer, without a massy hero