Anja Singam, Annan Vikram - Part 2

[raghavendran]

Vikram, though can be rated better than actors of his gen, is hardly a comparison to the likes of KH / RK.

The reason is simple - he hasn't succeeded being versatile and is like all of his peers in that regard. He had been extremely successful in murattu / macho / toughie roles (and quite convincing in those movies where he had to don the role of an "average" person before suffering and turning into a toughie adi-dhadi man).

Even most of the actions / emotions that he needed to show in his two celebrated roles (deranged Sethu and brute-like pithAmagan) were closely related to such macho stuff - i.e. his "comfort zone" plus some sheer indifference.

Where "softness / humor / konjal / kuzhaiyal / kenjal / paridhAbam" etc were unnecessary. In other words, while Vikram did a fantastic job, the roles themselves didn't call for 'nava rasam'.

Going one step further, IMO, if people felt bad for those characters, it was more of Bala's success than Vikram's as even average actors with a similar "physical personality" could have managed to get at least 50-75% there, by just keeping their face indifferent and going through the motions. Remember, even Thiyagarajan-the-stone-face was tolerable and successful as MambattiyAn? (In addition, there was IR in both these cases to do some heart pizhinjals).

Without such directorial brilliance, for example, Vikram was pathetic in Kasi, in a not-so-macho role, for e.g.

exactly wat i saw