MOVIE REVIEW: VEDHA!

Vedha stars Arun Vijay as an orphan who is brought up by a millionaire couple (played by Sarat Babu and Seetha). When Arun discovers he was a baby rescued from a garbage dump, he is filled with gratitude for his foster parents and their son. Jerovathan (nephew of Governor Surjit Singh Barnala) plays Arun’s younger brother. From an overwhelming sense of gratitude, Arun begins to give up everything for his younger brother –even his love. Arun and Sheela have been secretly in love for many years now. On one rainy night, they are driven to take shelter in a hut. Hungry and tired, they look around for food and find some in the hut. The food is spiked with drugs, but the couple is blissfully unaware of this. That night the young, unmarried couple makes love in a complete stupor. In the morning they have no memory of the night. On returning home, Arun finds Jero depressed. He coaxes his younger brother to confide in him. Jero tells him he is in love with a girl but feels the girl will never return his feelings. Arun is determined to talk to the girl and convince her to marry Jero. And then to his shock, Jero points to Sheela. Arun, of course, realizes he has to give her up. He actually persuades Sheela to agree to marry Jero instead of him. She does it because she loves him. The marriage takes place. On the first night, Arun finds Sheela in his room instead. When he asks her why she isn’t with Jero, she replies she’s pregnant.

This is just the first half of the movie, and already Vedha throws up dizzying complications into the story. As the story progresses it takes on even more interesting turns. The challenge for director Nitya Kumar and scriptwriter Vasu Baskar must have been how to pull off this tale of complicated relationships without coming across as too moralistic on the one hand and too vulgar on the other. They are able to take the audience through these relationship turns without losing our interest. However, the story is took dark and depressing, leaving an audience tired. The fail fails to grip and entertain you.