Karthik has a unique condition which makes him able to see what can happen in the immediate future. As a kid, he struggles to put it to smart use and ends up getting rebuked and the condition becomes dormant gradually as he refuses to entertain it. Now when he leads a content life, it resurfaces again and he fears it may spoil his happy life. As fate has its way, he ends up using it while gambling and gets caught in a web of greedy gamblers and how he deals with this ordeal is what the rest of the movie presents to us.
Language:
Tamil
Running Time:
119 min
Rating:
U
Release date:
1 May 2015
Directed by:
Aishwarya R. Dhanush
Produced by:
Kalpathi S. Aghoram
Kalpathi S. Ganesh
Kalpathi S. Suresh
Written by:
Aishwarya R. Dhanush
Madhan Karky
Starring:
Gautham Karthik
Priya Anand
Vivek
Daniel Balaji
Sathish
Vasanth
Gayathri Raguram
Sriranjini
M. S. Bhaskar
Music by:
Yuvan Shankar Raja
Shot by:
Velraj
Editing by:
V. T. Vijayan
Distributed by:
AGS Entertainment

What’s Hot

  • Gautham Karthik’s skills as an actor exhibits marked improvement and now looks set for a steady date with the silver screen. He exudes confidence unlike the past which shows in the way he plays out the protagonist’s role and the wicked laugh he dons in the climax sums up his commendable performance in the movie.
  • Yuvan is back to what he does best; churn out chartbusters in his signature style and a varied mix of peppy, melodious and party numbers that is inclusive of hip-hop, gaana and club-mix. Though the background score was nothing so special, it had enough spice to survive and overall a well packaged audio experience from the little master!
  • Aishwarya deserves a pat on the back for making a movie running for just 2 hours which is aided by fairly decently paced screenplay. We are sure the accumulated skills of veteran editor V. T. Vijayan are also a major reason to achieve this feat. The movie opens with the credits feature on the ‘Move your body’ single – a clever move from the director to accommodate the song without affecting the story telling.
  • Sathish starts off along with Karthik to entertain the audience with his funny one-liners and before we know it, enters the evergreen Vivek to take the humor quotient up several notches. The first half is just a sparkling ensemble of such rocking comedy scenes with Vivek at his sarcastic best!
  • The movie ends with a brilliant little guest appearance from Dhanush which opened up a possible sequel with a bigger role for him! The entry just sent ripples of fanatic cheers through the audience and the charisma was so evident – no wonder that the final few minutes could turn out to be one of the many reasons to watch the movie.

What’s Not

  • With a tricky core that involving premonitions and gambling, the movie had no USP to differentiate itself from the scores of other movies that have touched the subject in the past. Though it might have been intentional to keep the premise rusty with no uber-cool and classy characters to be found, the movie didn’t step up the ante to make it something special.
  • A pretty weak story with no impactful sub plots started showing signs of faltering in the second half as the proceedings wandered off with some redundant characters getting added like that of Tapsee, M S Bhaskar and Mano Bala. Tapsee in particular was a wasted effort despite the immense potential she had to offer.
  • A menacing villain as we know Daniel Balaji was made look completely out of sorts in the Casino episode and was grossly in the lead up to the climax which looked a lot hurried in execution. Though it opened up a sequel, we really had no look into what it had to offer apart from knowing that Dhanush will play a crucial role.

Badges

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

Premonitions and Gambling – Vai Raja Vai makes an attempt to blend these two interesting facets which usually capture our imagination, which is made into a wholesome entertaining package with good music, adept acting and loads of humour! Though it might have ended a bit abruptly, the decent pace throughout the movie is something which will keep you engaged – go for it!