Vada Chennai Review: An Epic Gritty Starter for the Bloodsucking Cult Trilogy of this Age

The opening scene of the film wasn’t seen as a big sequence but that apparently turns out to be the starting point of the story Vada Chennai. The first film of this planned trilogy is a great start that any film can get for a franchise and apart from the forsake made sequels we have seen so far, this dream project of Vetrimaran is a glory to itself and Tamil cinema to stand as a rustic gangster trilogy having everything to be called as a cult classic product. The first part is just a starter for this epic drama with blood hunger, revenge, politics, greed, betrayal and loyalty taking over the film on a high energy.

Anbu (Dhanush) and Padma (Aishwarya), the locality couple were seen as the major characters in the first half of the film, but the real base of the story arises from the interval block and how the narrative is built by Vetrimaran stands as a surprise in this gangster drama. The director didn’t take much time to establish the characters, but a single scene for each role mostly shown the shade of a character and that’s where the maker shines. Rajan character played by Ameer is the real hero of the film carrying a raging command over the screen where we forget about the main lead characters when the film flashes back to his period and comes back to the current age.

Vada Chennai is completely driven by the strong characters played by actors with cracking performances where all of them lived in their roles making us remember their character names for a long time. The movie works more as a surprise than knowing the story, as the turn of events and revelations of the real faces, gave a pumping experience. The swear words in the film were not at all felt awkward, instead, it was like taking a ride into their area and life experiencing each moment with their perspectives.

The roles of Samuthirakani as Guna and Kishore as Senthil were the other two pillars of the film giving a chilling fear to the audience with their dominance and screen presence, while Thambi (Daniel Balaji) has got his own weight amidst of these powerful characters as a successor of Rajan. Andrea has arguably got her most powerful role as Chandra giving another level of dimension to the story and stands as a strong factor for the upcoming parts. 

The micro-edited scenes all over the film can be felt easily as Vetrimaran revealed earlier that how the film with 5+ hour duration was cut into a 160 minutes drama. None of the sequences had lengthy shots that even a major important sequence lifting over the film was shown in a quicker way making the film look like a single season of a 7 part series making us want for more to witness as an endless saga. Moreover, the first part gave a complete sketch of characterisations and the motive of the story Vada Chennai till its last scene justifying the story paper with high adrenaline sequences built with a complex narrative pattern.

The abrupt change in narrative switching over the periods was tough to get into, but the layers of the story unfolded by the director with an excellently written screenplay makes this film appeal to all sector audience like the previous two films of this combo stood as an all centre blockbuster with a national award for the later. Santhosh Narayanan did his part great catering a projection for each scene with his BG score and songs came in a flow not more than a minute a song plays continuously. 

Putting in words, Vada Chennai is just the beginning for an epic legacy in Tamil cinema and definitely will stand as the new age cult to be treasured as a precious stone for more decades. The last Arial shot from Rajan’s house showing the director card and the Rise of Anbu Part II quote is sure to pass on a goosebump through everyone as an unacceptable and exciting ending, leaving clueless about how they are going to wait for the next segment of this gangs of north Madras. 

Enough said about the film, it is a must watch a piece of art for the audience who were looking for an International cinema to immerse in a raw, rustic and uncompromising narrative of a powerful story. Vetrimaran has delivered his promised work in a fast-forwarded style of long story, leaving us fulfilled and asking for a more slow and steady way of narrative next time even if it is a 5-hour drama. 

Vada Chennai Part 1 is an epic drama with a complex story and multiple shaded characters built strongly, suggesting an unforgettable cult trilogy coming the way taking Tamil cinema to an International league by one of the most powerful actor/director combos in the nation.

Rating: 4/5