Balaji Sakthivel, the man who gave us the trend setting film 'Kaadhal' is back with a bang! UTV Motion Pictures and Thirrupathi Brothers production 'Vazhakku Enn 18/9' is another gritty, realistic and hard hitting film about four teenagers and how their life turns upside down when they cross their path each other. Director Balaji Sakthivel deserves all credits for pulling off such a film with elan!

What's it about?

The film opens with Police Inspector Kumaravel (Muthuraman) investigating a mysterious case and the story unfolds through a series of events as explained in detail by the accused. Velu (Sri) comes to Chennai for work to save his family from debtors. Unfortunately, his parents get killed in a landslide accident and he has become homeless. So, he works at a road side eatery shop for a living. There he meets Jyothi, (Urmila Mahanta) who works as a maid at Aarthi's (Manisha Yadav) home. Due to certain misunderstandings, she hates him whereas Velu falls for her kindness, which reminds him of his mother. Meanwhile, Dinesh (Mithun Murali) a rich brat sees Aarthi and tries his luck with her. But she gets to know about his intentions and distances herself. What happens to these two when their life crosses each other's path is narrated slowly but superbly with few unexpected twists.

What's hot?

Director Balaji Sakthivel is the real hero of the film as he has worked out each scene with minute details, extracted amazing performances from the all new star cast and kept the audiences engaged throughout the film. Casting is top notch and even the secondary characters like Rani, Jayalakshmi etc are well etched out and given screen space to shine. Vijay Milton's camera work is astonishing as most of the scenes are shot using digi cam, but still the end product is of superior quality. Gopi Krishna's scissors are used to good effect to narrate this complex screenplay without any confusion. Guitarist Prasanna turns musician with this film and has done a decent job particularly in terms of background music.

What's not?

On the downside, there's not much apart from the unnecessary flashback of Velu, which is just included to extend the running time of the film. It reminds you of various village films and slows down the narrative, which is already moving at snail's pace.

What to do?

'Vazhakku En 18/9' is one of the gems in Tamil cinema. It has no star cast to boast off but definitely has a heart to give hope. It's a rare film among the huge lot of commercial movies and one cannot afford to miss it!

In.com rating - 4/5