After the heavily underrated Pannaiyarum Padminium, director Arun Kumar is back with his second flick. Sethupathi, a name that’s synonymous to the cops to any Tamil cinema fan, is the name of this film where he joins hands once again with Vijay Sethupathi. While the former was a classy breezy flick, this one is a mass entertainer that’s sure to amuse the audience.

Sethupathi is the story of how a cop investigates the death of another inspector who dies due to mysterious circumstances. This unravels a back story that leads to a bigwig of the town whom the hero has to have a face off with. How he managed to do it and whether truth triumphs at the end forms the crux of Sethupathi.

The cast of Sethupathi is very compact and new. Vijay Sethupathi’s lady love is played by Remya Nambeesan and she’s sharing screen space with him after his first major breakthrough with her which was Pizza. Others are comparatively new faces. Vijay Sethupathi’s mannerism, the thick mush and apt physique perfects his physical persona while his transformation from being a soft, dutiful husband and a father on one side and a rough yet honest police officer on the other shows his acting prowess and the lovely way his character has been sketched. This role fits him like a glove and though this is his first action flick, he looks comfortable in his character. Remya’s role as an understanding wife is perfect and she emotes well in the romantic portions as well as the climax. The child artists who play the role of the kids of the lead pair have done their job flawlessly. Vela Ramamoorthy, the villain looks fitting in the role of a village’s mogul.

Arun Kumar has done a great job with screenplay and the absence of high pitch verses and punch dialogues look intentional, which is a huge welcoming change to action films, especially the ones that revolves around police. Nivas K Prasanna has scored the music for this film which happens to be his second after his melodious debut in Thegidi. Though the tracks of Thegidi are on a different level altogether when compared to Sethupathi, some songs are pretty good. ‘Hey Mama’ sung by Anirudh, is the best from the list and even though it sounds similar to Anirudh’s Kaaki Sattai title track, it’s definitely a foot tapping number. Crisp editing and brilliant cinematography are some of the pillars on which this film’s success is resting. On the downside, the film drags at some places and one cannot help but get reminded of other movies during the mass scenes. The ending looks pretty rushed too. An action film deserves a mass climax to complete the circle.

Overall, Sethupathi is a proper entertainer and the gripping screenplay combined with Vijay Sethupathi’s scintillating performance makes it a film that can be enjoyed with family and kids.

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Masss

Story:
The film begins with a murder of a cop. Then follows the investigation. Then we have some twists which get unfolded later with a unique cat and mouse game added with humour. There are extraordinary scenes such as the phone conversation scene between Sethupathy and his son, market chase, interval twist.

Performances:
Vijay Sethupathy has done a brilliant role. It seems as if he(Vijay Sethupathy) had turned as a cop in his real life. No one could have done this role other than him as it has some humour involved in it and he has mastered it through his experience. Ramya has done a neat job as a house wife. She and Sethupathy have brought in the real life essence in the movie.

Analysis:
A cop story usually has a villain with 10-15 Tata Sumos giving punch dialogues and challenging the hero. The hero in turn challenges him and kills him. Fortunately, this is not Sethupathy. To its surprise it has a mediocre story with a very good screenplay. That makes it worth a watch. But there are a few scenes which could have been avoided such as the extra love portion between Sethupathy and Ramya, the third song which lowers the pace. The climax ends abruptly. It could have been justified with the cop's brilliance. The camera work adds beauty to this thriller. The background is ok. But Unlike "Naanum Rowdy than" the background fails to create an impact.

Director's Cut:
It seems as if the director has written a story which could not be done by anyone except Vijay Sethupathy. Its a brilliant idea to choose Ramya as she looks like a house wife and has done a complete justice to her role. The director has brought in the love scenes well which were criticized in his previous movie for its slow pace.

Verdict:
A lovable cop.

Everything was awesome except the abrupt climax ending. Vijay sethupathi rocked as a Police and Remya was equally fit for the role. An awesome Police story.