Valimai is Tamil cinema’s attempt to pull off something like The Fast and the Furious franchise but with Ajith’s tempered version of the hero. So, lots of fast vehicles but not as much fury. Seemingly inspired by the real-life Satan’s Slaves Motorcycle Club of 1960s England, Valimai is about a gang of bikers who indulge in criminal activities. Written and directed by H Vinoth, the film shows off Ajith’s skills with the bike admirably but if you go looking for the story, you’ll only meet with potholes.
The film’s budget runs to Rs 150 crore, and you can see where exactly they’ve spent it and where they haven’t (on developing the script, definitely not). Ajith plays ACP Arjun, an upright middle-class police officer who is against encounters but thinks breaking a few bones in custody is inevitable. His older brother (Achyut Kumar in a limited role) is a drunkard, his younger brother Kutty (Raj Ayyappa) is an engineer who surprisingly wants to do only an engineering job, and his sister is of no consequence (status - married). Their mother Sumithra doesn’t have much to do other than worry about her sons. The familial bonds become crucial later in the film but the writing is so flimsy that we hardly care about any of them. Even a fake family in a TV commercial for toothpaste would have accomplished more warmth.
Chennai city is plagued by a series of crimes, and the Chennai Police Commissioner rues the fact that the entire force doesn’t have a single people-friendly officer. The poor Commissioner is forced to drop several such inane lines throughout the film, only to amplify Arjun’s entries and exits along with Ghibran’s background score. The first time we see Ajith on screen, it’s raining and a bolt of lightning lights up his face. It’s the cue that fans have been waiting for, and the drama created by the camera, background score, and lighting is enough to whip up a frenzy. But soon after, Ajith, who seems determined to deflate his star power and give his fans a realistic image of himself, settles into a sedate policeman role that is different from the flamboyant ones we’re used to seeing.
But to make this really work, Vinoth needed a solid script. In the absence of that, we get flashy screens, a room full of cops and hackers tapping away, villains with villainous tattoos, and a plot with wheels that don’t turn. Terms like ‘dark web’ are thrown around, to lend the whole thing some gravitas but considering we’re in 2022 and the audience has already seen all this in other films, there is little to grip our interest. I kept expecting Sarpatta Parambarai meme fame GM Sundar, who appears as a corrupt cop in the film, to say, “Enna Vinothu, joke kaatringala?”
Huma Qureshi plays Sofia, a narcotics officer, who is close to Arjun’s family and may or may not be in a relationship with him (why waste time delving into human emotions when you can show a bike stunt?). There are two other women officers we see frequently (Pearle Maaney and Chaitra Reddy) but they have nothing to do other than look wowed by Arjun. In an unintentionally hilarious sequence, Arjun asks them to have a ‘selfie contest’ right in the middle of the investigation and the enthralled women immediately obey his order, making faces at the camera. With officers like these, no wonder the Chennai Police Commissioner is depressed.
While the first half of the film gets away by including some truly marvelous stunts that are captured wonderfully by Nirav Shah, the second half seems like a spoof of old Tamil films with mother sentiment. The plot runs out of petrol and chokes on its own fumes, trying to make the audience feel something (what was that final scene with all the mama’s boys?!). Kartikeya Gummakonda plays the chief villain (I can’t even remember the name of his character) and sneers his way through the film. He tears his shirt off, exposing his many tattoos, and I wish we’d seen at least 10% of that intricacy in the script.
The stunts are indeed valimai (powerful/strong) but the film becomes a kodumai (atrocity) with its wonky script and poor characterisation. Unfortunately, that’s the final Valimai update we’re left with.