ATM - Vijay at his best

To be frank, I am a die hard fan of Vijay only for the past 4 years and even though I have watched him as an entertainer and was happy with his mass commercial movies, there was always a pricking feeling that Vijay’s potential as an actor is not yet utilized even in the best of his films. Even today after watching a lot of Vijay’s films before and after Kushi, I feel that Vijay is not less to anyone in terms of acting talents, and just that he has not been into the right script to tap that out.

After watching ATM yesterday, my long time wishes were fulfilled. To be frank, I was almost in tears of joy after watching the film, because Vijay has displayed his potential in a movie that was made for fans like me, rather than in a movie made for satisfying some unknown jury judging films for an award presented by a film based magazine.

We trio, myself, Venky, Orkut Vijay community owner and Bala, our mutual friend have discussed hours on such topics. Today after watching ATM, we are the happiest of Vijay fans because this is what we wanted to see from Vijay. I am echoing words from Bala just a few minutes ago “If we look for logic in a double hero subject Indian film industry will go for a shutdown. If we ask for getup change movies, Hindi industry will head towards shutdown. If we look for Logic sense half of superstar heroes films will be nothing. Kamal movies which try to take care of all these things are not appreciated by all class of public. So, what do audiences seek exactly?”

I have watched many Vijay movies till date and I will always be impacted by the movie as a whole and to some extent by Vijay’s characterization. But in ATM, the performance of Vijay as PRASAD was just outstanding that I have gone really mad about that character as such. Recollecting every moment what Prasad did in each scene, my mind and soul vibrates with joy to such an extent that I wish to watch the movie n number of times. I have never shown so much affection towards a negative character in any film, whoever had done it. But I cannot just hate Prasad and his handsome looks, the charm, the style, the expressions, the voice modulation, the power and the grace has simply taken me out of this world. And which is why I was able to accept the climax. I would have literally cried if Prasad had got killed for any reason.

Each and every word of the above lines is credited to Vijay. The boy who was papa’s kid when he entered filmdom with Naalaya Theerpu has risen to such great heights today as an actor, as a performer, as an entertainer and as a big star, that he is able to carry a whole film by himself. I am least bothered about what others say about the film, I hardly care for how websites review the film and it hardly matters to me how technically brilliant the film is. I might sound stupid, but I watch Vijay films only for Vijay and he has never let me down anytime and he has never failed to deliver. I would rate it as the best film of Vijay I have seen till date and will not be able to get over the feel of ATM for days to come.

I would say there are three types of audience who come for a Vijay film. One is the kind which comes in and goes out with the thought that “Vijay and his films suck to the core” There is no cure for such creatures and there is no use of talking about them. The other kind is people like me who are ready to watch anything good done by Vijay and go to the film with an open mind. (Infact I do it for every movie I watch, not only Vijay films) So we are always happy, because, no big expectations, no big disappointments and only entertainment on the whole.

There is a third category of people, who are none other than Vijay fans, but with huge expectations from him. These people are so crazy about Vijay films that they watch the film with a preset state of mind and a self composed storyline. They expect a lot from each and every aspect. And when even a small error occurs, they get terribly disappointed and feel like the whole film is a let down. And as a matter of fact, there are always disputes between this category 3 and category 1 anywhere and everywhere. Now it is this category three mostly that forms the mass for Vijay and he always takes utmost care to cater them. And it is for this people, Vijay gave a hint as not to expect anything and forget his earlier films when watching ATM. So whoever feels that the film lacks something, please go and watch it once again. Concentrate on Vijay and his performance. I know that there are things not in the way you expect and a few mistakes done. But you cannot just let down Vijay for such silly things and say that the movie is not good.

Finally about special effects, even Ghilli had a lot of crappy special effects that were totally unbelievable. We can forgive a few poorly executed scenes for the sake of respecting the hard work of an one man army called Vijay, who in addition to his usual comedy, dance, action, romance departments has taken up the villan department and has given us an excellent performance. At the peak of his career, he has taken the risk of acting in a film like ATM inspite of knowing the fact that it will not be a typical Vijay film expected by everyone. I salute that confidence!

I sincerely wished that Vijay fans could have supported films like Kannukul Nilavu which would have given Vijay a confidence to do performance based roles. And with the same heart I am seriously praying that every Vijay fan should watch ATM as many number of times as possible, because it is a critical movie at an important stage in his career that Vijay has presented to us as an actor. Our acceptance is the only thing that will give him the confidence of taking up such movies in future. I am saying this because, for other actors its awards that decide the choice of films, but our Vijay chooses films only with the thought of his fans in mind. So I end up here wishing all Vijay fans enjoy ATM and hope the film does really well atleast for the effort Vijay has put into it.

Long Live Vijay!!
Cheers,
KSR