Vande Matahram
By Cine Critic | Sept19th, 2010| 23:10:15




'Vande Mataram' - a bilingual movie, has been lying in the cans for a long time and after making several attempts to get released, finally it arrived in theaters one week after the Ramzan season. Produced by Henry of Yavanika fame, the Mammootty-Arjun multi-starrer takes on a theme that has been told umpteen number of times.

The movie starts off with Gopi Krishnan (Mammootty),Intelligence Bureau Officer, receiving a secret message from the ministry level about the nation facing a terror plot and Anwar(Arjun),an energetic police officer, has been appointed to assist Gopi to carry out the mission. By getting involved in the investigation of another murder, they start to trace the terrorist and battle between the good and bad begins. What follows is the usual play and how they are going to stop the terrorist attack.

Apart from the two songs, the first half maintains a good pace with interesting investigation moves and smartly choreographed action sequences. Post-interval, it lacked the momentum to keep the viewers hooked on and it will test your patience as you may find the movie is losing control and heading towards no where.

If we could find some positives from the movie then that could be from descent performances of Mammootty and Arjun though there is nothing extra ordinary to enact. Gopi Krishnan is a mere cake-walk role for an actor like Mammootty while Action King Arjun,as his tag suggest, shines in action sequences even though we could see him flying most of the times.

Sneha is wasted as she just appears in a single duet in first half and few scenes later. Other supporting cast including Jagadheesh, Jai Akash, Rajan P Dev, Nassar does not make any impact. The baddie perfectly looked as a terrorist, got a meaty role and portrayed his role well enough to grab some attention among the viewers.

If the script from Henry is as old as it could be, Direction T.Aravindan tried his level best to fill those gaps but falls flat and at the end, the movie lacked continuity. Why the hell were two item songs included in a so-called patriotic movie like this which was a total miss-fit. D. Imman's music and Vetri's cinematography makes it even worse. 

The technical criteria used in the investigation looked outdated , but Art Direction has to be credited for setting up a fine Intelligence Bureau office which looked stylish and well updated. The background score forms one of the biggest positives as it perfectly suited the mood of movie. 

To sum up, Vande Mataram does not offer much and it may cater to B,C audiences since it has some some stylish shots and action sequences.

Verdict: Disappointing

Reviewed By KN