Vandhaan Vendraan

Plot

The movie opens to a school where a boy recites before the school. Another boy is seen running to school as he is late. The teacher punishes him comparing to the boy who recited earlier, who is his younger half-brother. Enmity grows in the older boy as he is always compared to this younger brother. The younger brother burns the photo of the father of the older one as he was the reason for his defeat in the school's kabbadi match. In retaliation, the older brother throws the younger one into a well. Watching him get drowned in the well, the older brother runs away from the village.

The movie then opens to Mumbai, few years after the incident. Ramana (Nandha) is an underworld don doing smuggling business with the help of local police and political support. He tries to kill Govardhan, who is a rival to Ramana, but he fails. Arjun (Jiiva) tries to see him for many days but is not able to. Finally, with the help of Delhi (Santhanam) he manages to see him and tells him about his life-story. Arjun is a boxer and he accidentally meets Anjana (Taapsee Pannu) while going to a boxing selection match. He could not attend the match because he spoils the miniature Anjana was carrying for her interview the same day. He helps her out and in turn Anjana travels to Kerala to meet the person in charge of the boxing selection match so that Arjun can get a second chance. However, it turns that Arjun has come with her to Kerala to express his love for her which she does not reciprocate. Finally, she agrees on the condition if her father (Raviprakash) agrees. When Arjun meets Anjana's father, he is accidentally shot by Ramana when he tries to kill Govardhan. Anjana proposes a deal to Arjun that if he makes Ramana surrender to the police, she will marry him and Arjun has come to Ramana to make him surrender, but Ramana's gang thrash Arjun and throw him out.

Anjana pesters Arjun as he is taking a long time to make Ramana surrender. In order to speed things up, Arjun demolishes Ramana's smuggling business and leaks about him to the Mumbai press. Ramana's business is sealed by Mumbai police and they plan an encounter for Ramana. Since all this happened because of Arjun, a fight ensues between them where Arjun is stabbed fatally by Ramana at the end. Delhi finally tells Ramana that Arjun is the brother he threw in the well in their childhood. Also, what he told about Anjana and her revenge for her father's death was all his imagination so that Ramana will have compassion for their love as Ramana's love was a failure. Arjun has thought Ramana would succumb to Arjun's plea and surrender to the police so that he would escape from the police's encounter and he can return to their family.

Ramana realizes himself and surrenders to the police. In the end, a girl identical to Arjun's imaginative Anjana meets Arjun similar to their meeting in Arjun's imaginative story.

Cast

Production

Reports had claimed that the plot was based on the American film Going the Distance, which was denied by Kannan. The scenes were shot in Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering with all lead roles.

Critical reception

The film opened to mixed and negative reviews. The critic from Sify rated the film as "average" citing that "the key problem with the film is its script and narration", whilst describing Thaman's music as the "major plus point". Behindwoods gave 2.5 out of 5 with a verdict: "Fairly entertaining with an unexpected twist".

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Thaman. The soundtrack launch was held on 21 July 2011 at Sathyam Cinemas which was attended by several prominent celebrities. The soundtrack received mixed reviews. Behindwoods.com gave a score of two and a half stars out of five and deemed the album as a "Decorous effort by Thamman", further citing "Vandhaan Vendraan has some promising tracks that urge music lovers to hear them over and again. With couple of songs ‘Anjana’ and ‘Kanchana Mala’ turning to be cherry-picks, rest of the songs might gain the attention with the visuals."