Director Radha Krishna aka Krish means well, but having your heart in the right place is no excuse for insipid ineptitude. 'Vedam' is a bland, pointless movie that happens to have a brilliantly emotional ending; as a reminder of the 26/11 tragedy wrapped up in a pop movie so as to appeal to a later generation, I pat Krish on the back. But, as disaster vessels go, this one's sunk.
Krish doesn't seem to have anything to offer beyond an unquestioning admiration of Alejandro González Iñárritu and the screenwriting homework he obviously did about the trappings of interconnecting storylines. 'Vedam' shows how some people's problems become small and insignificant in the face of momentous events. But in doing so, the movie reveals itself to be small and insignificant too. Featuring almost a dozen central characters in a movie leaves little time to explore their subplots, and since they're played by A-list celebrities, we see the stars and not the characters. As was the case with this weekend's other release 'Raajneeti', what little magic 'Vedam' has is overshadowed by the star spotting. And as a result 'Vedam' is an earnest film that shows an advance in Telugu filmmakers' technique, but one that, given its setting, seems curiously shallow, even trivial.
'Vedam' has five storylines but it becomes near impossible to give a flip about any particular one. Wannabe Rock Star Chakravarthy (Manoj Manchu) faces the ire of his mother who wants him to join the Armed Forces. Cable operator Cable Raju (Allu Arjun) is a penniless slumdog and desperately in love with the rich Deeksha Seth. Saroja (Anushka) is a small time prostitute with dreams of running her own brothel in the big city. Raheemulla Khureshi (Manoj Bajpai) faces racism in Hyderabad and plans to flee to Dubai and find peace with other Muslims. Ramulu (Nagayya) is a weaver burdened by debt, and is anxiously in need of money. As Chakravarthy arranges to go on a concert tour, Saroja escapes with her pimp's cash, Cable Raju hunts for quick dough to impress his girl, Khureshi battles his inner demons and Ramulu finds a way to repay his debts. Many events are revealed out of sequence, but needless to say, all of the characters collide at some point.
Director Krish has made a vague gesture at a large, metaphoric structure without having the dramatic means to achieve it. His previous film 'Gamyam' emerged to be path breaking, but 'Vedam' falls short on that front as it is teeth-grinding derivative. The performances range from excellent to intolerable - Manoj Bajpayi is outstanding as the harassed Muslim, Anushka has a great screen presence that is complimented by her solid dialogue delivery, Nagayya's gait is believable, Manoj Manchu is passable, Allu Arjun veers from peppy fresh at his best to cringe-worthy at his worst. Lekha Washingon and Deeksha Seth are good to look at but are migraine-inducing when they mumble their few lines. Ravi Prakash is suitably antagonistic and Brahmanandam makes a decent cameo. Technically 'Vedam' is first rate as Keeravani's music gels well with Gnanasekhar striking cinematography and Rajeev Nair's rich art direction. Ram–Lakshman's action, though a tad OTT is elevated by Sravan's crisp editing.
Final verdict? 'Vedam' seems to have a lot of volume, but not really a lot to say. It's an ambitious film drenched in sincerity but Krish's attempt to shoehorn what he sees as grand themes into a choppy and unsubtle script is slightly embarrassing.
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