By Galatta [ June 07, 2010 ]
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After the super hit of Gamyam, talented director Krish is back with yet another promising film Vedam, which can be considered to be path-breaking as far as Telugu cinema is concerned. In a large spectrum of Indian cinema, the film may not be a brand new theme, but does have some novelty in terms of its unique story, which is a mixture five stories of five different individuals from different backgrounds, each of them having nothing to do with other!

Vedam revolves around Ananda Raju (Allu Arjun), known as Cable Raju because of his profession, a budding rockstar Vivek Chakravarthy (Manoj Manchu), a prostitute Saroja (Anushka), Rahimuddin Qureishi (Manoj Bajpai), a Muslim who faces the wrath on account of his religious background, and Ramulu (Nagayya), a poor weaver who is forced to leave his village and come to the city with his daughter-in-law Padma (Saranya) in order to find money to clear his debts and make his grandson study.

Cable Raju loves Pooja (Deeksha Seth), a rich girl and is willing to do anything to please her. Vivek has a band whose keyboard player is Lasya (Lekha Washington) and aspires to be a great singer. Saroja is tired of working in a brothel under a madam and comes to the city to be on her own with her eunuch friend. Rahim is falsely implicated while Nagayya and Padma are lured to the city due to a kidney racket. All the five characters start their journey for success and to make their dream come true. But, trouble starts when they start the journey. The five stories coalesce seamlessly in the climax.

Vedam is a beautiful confluence of writing and technical aspects. Though the first half is a bit confusing as each of the stories unfold by themselves and seem a bit disjointed, the underlying thread later gets strong and as the movie veers to the climax, it has incited enough curiosity for us to sit through the second half, which is spectacular in terms of writing and filming. It has its touching and heart-warming moments. It is a slice of life in the true sense.

All characters have almost equal importance. Arjun, Manoj Manchu and Anushka have given good performances and are very believable in their characters. Allu Arjun simply dominates with his penchant for quick performance, but heroism is completely missing. Though Manoj has a less footage compared to Allu Arjun‘s, he showcases energy performance and this film would definitely turn out to be a turning point in his career.

Anushka, who received immense publicity for her daring acceptance of the role as a sex-worker, deserves accolades from the audience with the glamour and oomph quotients ruling the roost. Unfortunately, the talent of Manoj Bajpai is wasted. Balaiah’s role as a pitiful old man is moving in some patches. All others did well in their parameters.

The camera work by Gnansekhar is great, particularly in the second half where there are few action and emotional scenes. Keeravani’s background music too enhances the mood. Editing by Shravan is just right and slick. Overall, Vedam is an emotionally packed film and a must-watch for its story, screenplay, direction and technicalities.