Directed by: Magizh Thirumeni || Produced by: Allirajah Subaskaran
Screenplay by: Magizh Thirumeni || Starring: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regena Cassandrra, Arav Nafeez Kizar
Music by: Anirudh Ravichander || Cinematography: Om Prakash, Nirav Shah || Editing: N. B. Srikanth || Country: India || Language: Tamil
Running Time: 150 minutes
One aspect of contemporary Indian filmmaking I have always admired, even if I have never consistently enjoyed in execution, is their filmmakers’ penchant for wacky storytelling. These bizarre stylistic flourishes include everything from the multiethnic, multilingual industries’ musical heritage (song-and-dance numbers are Indian cinema’s bread and butter), over-the-top, theatrical performances (see every Shah Rukh Khan movie ever), or nutty, often cornball action scenes intermixed with on-the-nose social commentary. To be sure, these native South Asian touches often fall victim to filmmakers‘ self–indulgence or studio executives’ desire to pander to the absolute lowest common denominator of general audiences, but they at least try for something unique either in terms of novel intellectual property or high-concept premise. They neither try to remake or readapt the same dozen media franchises over and over again to diminishing results (see Hollywood), nor do they suffocate under a totalitarian nationalist regime that restricts what sort of human voices or cultural flavors can be shown on screen (e.g. mainland China‘s film ecosystem). Indian movies go their own route, even if that route is hokey or way too talky half the time.
Top: The arid landscapes of Vidaamuyarchi’s production location and narrative setting, Azerbaijan, dominate the tone of the film in the best way possible. Middle: The mercurial Arjun Sarja (left) serves as the main foil to Ajith Kumar’s protagonist (right). Bottom: Kumar wields a crossbow, among other weird choices of weaponry, throughout the movie’s awkward, clunky, yet somehow memorable action scenes.
Enter Vidaamuyarchi by writer-director Magizh Thirumeni, a Tamil filmmaker whom I had never heard of until last year (2025). Unpredictable in narrative, ballsy in genre style, and unique in terms of both location-photography and character arcs, this film remains one of the more fascinating South Indian movies I have seen in years, even if I cannot recommend it outright to most viewers.
The almost forgotten 1997 Kurt Russell actioner, Breakdown, serves as a sort of blueprint for Vidaamuyarchi (Perseverance). Smarter and more suspenseful than your typical 1990s pulp adventure, Breakdown, at first glance, feels like an odd inspiration for a modern Tamil thriller (compare new millennium superhero movies to Krrish [2003, 2006, 2013]; Star Wars [1977, 1980, 1983] and Mad Max [1980, 2015] to Kalki 2898 AD [2024], for example). Then again, oddball high-concept Hollywood movies by notable auteurs (e.g. Christopher Nolan) have long fascinated certain Indian filmmakers, including those from the Dravidian-language south; Nolan’s seminal thriller, Memento (2000), for example, was first riffed into an unsanctioned Tamil remake starring Suriya Sivakumar and directed by A. R. Murugadoss (Ghajini [2005])… before being “adapted” again by Murugadoss three years later in Hindi (Ghajini [2008]).
Shot almost exclusively in the Caucus nation of Azerbaijan, Vidaamuyarchi takes great advantage of its rarely captured physical landscapes to emphasize narrative dread, appropriate bewilderment of its protagonist, and stage memorable if goofy set-pieces. For those familiar with the conceit of Breakdown, Vidaamuyarchi is more or less an abduction thriller/psychological drama in the vein of Brad Anderson‘s reality-bending horror films, just with greater emphasis on mobster action and romantic melodrama than scares, as is the case with most high-concept Indian blockbusters. Protagonist Ajith Kumar and female lead Trisha Krishnan are on the outs, marriage-wise, a Tamil couple who once met in Tbilisi but now live in Baku; as Kumar drives his soon-to-be ex-wife to her parents’ home in Georgia, they encounter a variety of criminal elements, conspiracies, and psychological manipulation once they are separated by outside forces. It is a neat tonal cocktail whose screenplay takes its time without wasting it, making Vidaamuyarchi one of the few 2.5 hour Indian pictures to earn its meaty runtime.
The aforementioned set-pieces of the film boast a variety of fistfights, gunplay, and car stunts across diverse locations. To their credit, these set-pieces avoid the tiresome slow-motion stuntwork of most conventional South Indian action blockbusters (see the star-vehicles for Mahesh Babu; Allu Arjun; N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Vijay Chandrasekhar, etc.), yet their choreography rarely impresses and most of them last way too long. You can find some grisly finishing moves throughout and, again, the distinctive landscapes and suspenseful premise help to heighten the tension of these action sequences, but don’t expect anything too stylish from an action filmmaking standpoint.
Again, what is most memorable about Vidaamuyarchi is how it melds the suspense of its psychological thriller-tropes (What is real? Who is telling the truth? What the hell is going on?) with its desolate, visually striking backdrop. It is difficult to understate how effective Thirumeni’s choice of location-photography is at accentuating narrative tone, maintaining an unforgettable mood even when the story descends into vapid theatrics or the action sequences overstay their welcome.
Aside from the movie’s great location-photography, the heart of the story concerns Ajith Kumar and Trisha Krisnan’s rocky relationship.
Although Vidaamuyarchi lacks iconic Indian or South Indian filmmaking staples like musical numbers, melodramatic love triangles, arranged marriages upended by elopements, or laid back, idyllic South Asian village settings, the movie looks and feels identifiably Indian. The eclectic production location separates Magizh Thirumeni’s latest feature from so many other lame, impotent, self-indulgent Tamil crowdpleasers, but it never interrupts the movie’s Tamil action-thriller flavor. That is not to say Vidaamuyarchi doesn’t have its problems, of course, as Thirumeni is nowhere as effective an action choreographer as he needs to be; but whenever the film emphasizes its paranoia over its stuntwork, it’s not a bad Indian riff on an almost forgotten 1990s Hollywood flick.
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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Defined by an almost M. Night Shyamalan-esque focus on bizarre screenwriting twists, Vidaamuyarchi transplants a B-side star vehicle for Kurt Russell into a kooky Tamil thriller set and shot in one of the least documented locations on earth. The Azerbaijani backdrop is so prominent it almost sidelines Ajith Kumar as the star of the film, yet the meandering script is interesting enough to hold your attention across the lengthy running time.
— However… as an action film, Vidaamuyarchi is mediocre at best. That might not have mattered as much had writer-director Magizh Thirumeni streamlined his story and focused on fewer, better set-pieces, but as they are, they collectively drag the movie down.
—> ON THE FENCE
? OK, seriously, does Arjun Sarja not remind anyone else of Shah Rukh Khan? He looks like the spitting image of him.
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