It’s a debate the success of Whiplash has revived. When one makes a film about music, should the authenticity of music take precedence over the film as a medium? Or is there a sweet spot in between where music seamlessly melds with the gripping screenplay, like Amadeus?
Vaanavil Vaazhkai, a film directed by music composer James Vasanthan, ambitiously tries this tightrope walk.
The films boasts of being India’s first musical to have the actors sing and perform the 17 songs themselves. So the youngsters are (rightly) cast because they’re skilled musicians. It is a novel idea and the performances of the debutants are commendable — at least musically.
However, a novel idea alone cannot make for a great movie and VV disappoints in every other aspect. The film attempts to present a Grease-like musical, but the songs (composed by James Vasanthan himself) seem disjointed. The screenplay is basically an assembly line of college clichés — friendships, first love, rich-poor divide, and trivial misunderstandings — that present an age-old idea of what comprises the ‘best years of life’.
Kollywood still seems to believe that there is nothing more to campus life than homie handshakes in the corridor and overused, simplistic resolutions to pointless romances that invariably take place in the girl’s bedroom balcony. Dialogues are insipid. Sample this: hiding love is as tough as hiding pregnancy. Gross inconsistencies in the visuals and awkward staging also make this a tiresome watch. Even these flaws seem forgivable compared to sequences that blatantly promote brands and products.
The idea to make a musical is creditable, but VV is a wasted effort. I only wish James had co-directed the film with someone more capable of handling the technical aspects. VV’s blooper reel at the end turns out to have more heart than the film.
