Rekka

Vijay Sethupathi is back to test waters with the commercial action genre after his successful stint in Sethupathi. Rekka is Rathina Siva’s second film after his yet-to-be released Vaa Deal. What’s interesting is the fact that this is VS’s 6th film of this year and most of them have turned out to be hits.

Kabir Khan, a menacing villain, kills the brother of another antagonist, Harish Uthaman thereby providing the base for revenge. Fast forward to six months, Vijay Sethupathi, known for kidnapping brides to pair them up with their lovers, rescues a lady, who isn’t interested in the wedding that happens to have Harish Uthaman as the groom. Instead of creating a ruckus, Harish backs out reminding himself to hurt Vijay Sethupathi when the time arrives. This instance comes soon to Harish who finds out that the wedding of Vijay Sethupathi’s sister is coming up and he uses that to make the hero his pawn in order to avenge the death of his brother. Putting Vijay Sethupathi’s talent to his advantage, Harish orders him to abduct Lakshmi Menon, a politician’s daughter who has been engaged to Kabir Khan. What happens next forms the crux ofRekka.

Vijay Sethupathi, similar to almost all the heroes in action entertainers, completely steals the show. Even though it’s a masala flick, the performer in him peeps out in a regular basis which makes even the run-of-the-mill scenes worth watching. If only the screenplay and story had given him more scope to perform, the film would’ve been much better. The only department where he lags behind is the dance sequences in which he fails to impress.

Lakshmi Menon doesn’t have much to offer and performs merely as an eye candy. Though what she does in the first half looks baffling, they’ve justified it in the second half which could’ve otherwise been an unacceptable loophole. Out of the villains, it’s Harish Uthaman who looks intimidating and gets a huge chunk of screen space while Vedhalam fame Kabir Khan’s stylish avatar is a welcome change to the usual veshti clad goons running around. K.S. Ravikumar and Sri Ranjini as the hero’s parents look perfect. Kishore and her lover need special mention as their characters have good weightage and they’ve carried it out in a convincing manner.

Apart from the performances from certain key members of the cast, the flashback portion is a huge plus for the film. The kid who has played the role of Vijay Sethupathi’s younger version has acted really well. The ‘Virru Virru’ track by Imman is full of energy but the other songs fail to leave an impression. But the film’s racy BGM adds value to the mass scenes. Dinesh Krishna’s cinematography does the trick and the drone shots are splendid. Editing by Praveen KL plays a major role in maintaining the film’s fast pace.

What could’ve been better is the screenplay which looks cliche at certain points. The inclusion of quite a few sub-plots too might hinder the attention of audience. Stunt Choreographer Rajasekhar has gone overboard with the action sequences. The stunts looks unbelievable as people get thrown on to cars easily which end up shattering like glass. The chemistry between the lead doesn’t look persuasive either. The film’s strong story-line haven’t gotten the best of treatments thanks to a weak screenplay.

Overall, Rekka is a pair of clipped wings that struggles to fly high.