Vadhandhi Review: SJ Suryah's Amazon Prime Series Clings To Stereotypes And Ruins A Capable Whodunit Saga (LatestLY Exclusive)

Vadhandhi-The Fable Of Velonie Review: Given the way crimes against women are increasing in the country, any content with that trope ends up being quite unsettling. Vadhandhi - The Fable of Velonie, an Amazon Prime series, gets quite disturbing both for its plot and the way it is executed. Vadhandhi - The Fable of Velonie Trailer: SJ Suryah As Cop Is on Mission to Solve a Murder Case in This Crime Thriller (Watch Video).

Velonie (Sanjana) is found dead and Inspector Vivek (SJ Suryah) is entrusted with the job of finding the culprit. Vivek, during his investigation, unearths many mysteries surrounding the girl and her many suitors. One is her fiance Vignesh (Kumaran Thangarajan), a good-for-nothing alcoholic, Tony (Ashwin Raam) a besotted guy and all the boarders of the lodge that Velonie's mother runs. The latter also includes a mysterious writer KI Sebastian (Nasser) who gets quite fond of the girl quite soon.

Vadhandhi sticks to the tropes of a Police procedural drama to the T. It never deviates. So you are impressed by the realistic portrayal of clues examination, finding suspects, getting straight to the point without meandering and the pace at which it is done. But it manages to also weave in a few seen-often-but-never-discussed habits of men which many dismiss as 'Men will be men'. In a scene, one of the cops at the crime scene berates a man for sitting in the rear of an ambulance where the corpse of the girl is kept. It's quite obvious why he did so and it does a number on you. How unsafe women are today when even her dead decaying body isn't safe either?

And then they go ahead to justify extra-judicial killings on the court premises! In fact, that's how SJ Suryah is introduced in the series. The narrative keeps trying to establish how Velonie wasn't of sound character. The word 'Easy' is repeatedly heard. The memo for every man in the series is to ogle at her when alive and dream about her (read Vivek), when dead. The flashback scenes of Valonie too try to put forward this point about her interest in many men. They do try to offset it by making the media question the way her character is assassinated or by making Velonie talk about abuse or making Suryah give a monologue at the end. But the damage has been done by then!

The series never calls out the strange way in which the investigation is conducted. Suspects are rounded up for questioning at a bungalow and not at the Police station. People are picked up for questioning on a whim and nobody is held accountable for it.

Watch the trailer of Vadhandhi: The Fable of Velonie

Performances are the key here. SJ Suryah does his job quite well without going over-the-top and indulge in chest-thumping. In her uni-dimensional and disturbing role, Sanjana excels while everyone else adds just the right amount of histrionics needed. SJ Suryah Meets Shah Rukh Khan! Tamil Star Shares His Fan Moment With SRK at Nayanthara-Vignesh Shivan’s Wedding (View Pic).

Yay!

-tropes of the genre perfectly demonstrated

-some strong and shocking realities bared

Nay!

- damaging stereotypes

-justifying what is not just

-chronic need to sexualise Velonie's character

Final thoughts

If you belong to the 'She was asking for it' group, Vadhandhi: The Fable Of Velonie will be a masterpiece. For others, it's just a deeply problematic investigative thriller that shames the victim before giving her justice. Vadhandhi: The Fable Of Velonie streams on Amazon Prime.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 02, 2022 06:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).