Vadhandi - Interesting but could have been better

Web Series: Vadhandhi The Fable of Velonie 

Rating: 2.75/5

Cast: SJ Suryah, Laila, Sanjana, Vivek Prasanna

Director: Andrew Louis

Story: 

Vadhandhi, is a slow-burn mystery thriller which runs around the death of an 18-year-old girl, Velonie. Things start with a rather intriguing drama surrounding a case of mistaken identity. A film crew sets up works for the day on the foothills of a village in Kanyakumari. A number of assistant directors, after arriving at the sets, laud the work of the art director for making a realistic dummy of a dead body, which is lying on the sets. Turns out, it is actually a real corpse. It is first identified as the body of the film’s heroine, and the news becomes the headline across all channels and websites. When the actress calls the unit and screams that she is very much alive, it left police with an unidentified body of a young woman. Thus, the web series ‘The Fable of Velonie’ starts.

Analysis:

The Web Series had all the potential to be a perfect thriller, but it got marred by the sluggish narration, touted to be a thriller with delivering a relevant social message, the sequence picked up only after 4th episode. The first 3 episodes were dragged.

The proceedings get going because of the towering performance of SJ Suryah as Vivek. If not for him, the series would be of bland watch. This series has offered a lot. The writing was also good, but the execution left a bit more to desire.

However, the series had good episodes from the middle which have arresting narrative. The message they wanted to deliver was brought to the effect with a slight shaky narrative. Casting is apt with SJ Suryah unleashed. Smruthi venkat, Nazar and others were helpful, while Laila was miscast. 

Regarding the technical crew camera work sets the tone and mood, the color palette used for the series depicting the tale gelled well, background score is also appropriate and helped the proceedings. 

Editing department could have worked better in making the events crispier, and the screenplay could have been tighter and could have evaded unnecessary detailing.

The successful writer duo Puskhar - Gayatri followed the path of Suzhal in Vadhandi too, which in a way spoiled the game for them. Some dialogues and incidents in the web Series were praiseworthy. Whereas Direction is okay in parts but could have dodged clichés.

Concluding Note:

Overall, what should have been a promising and riveting affair had become a partly engaging one with an arresting last act, which is though predictable one.