Much to the delight of Ajith fans, music director Anirudh Ravichander had announced that a teaser from Vedalam’s song ‘Veera Vinayaka’ would be unveiled at midnight. As expected, minutes after the teaser was launched, #VeeraVinayagasongteaser, #powerpackedveeravinayaka, #Vedalamsongteaserat12am were trending on Twitter. Or, as one fan put it,
#VeeraVinayagaSongTeaser : 114,858 Views, 16K Likes, After 1 Hour… Still Counting…!! #PowerPackedVeeraVinayakapic.twitter.com/fVLxgqCOtB
— Mukesh khanna (@Mukesh3101) October 28, 2015
As the teaser begins, Ajith looks directly into the camera, points his dancing stick at it, and mouths ‘Ganapati Bappa Moriya’. Red shirt, salt-and-pepper hair, and a screen full of dancing bodies. His eyes look a little sleepy, as if he’s been shooting all day. There’s a burst of flowers and colour, saffron everywhere. In the middle of all that is a massive Vinayaka statue. The camera then alternates between the two – the dancing devotees (Ajith plus everyone), and the huge Hindu elephant idol. Ajith usually sticks to simple dance steps, but here he’s gone all out. By his standards anyway. Comparisons with ‘Villu Villu‘ from Vijay’s Villu and the Ganpati song from Any Body Can Dance are inevitable, and so far, for all its colour and stomping, this isn’t looking too bright.
The 17 second ‘Veera Vinayaka’ teaser is more noise than melody. There’s no subtle moment thrown in which makes it anything but one more choreographed chorus song. No twist of lime, no daredevil expression, not even a second of heartfelt connection between the idol and the hero. Ajith smiles and does his best. After the initial close-up, the almost runs from him, sticking to medium and long shots. And it’s over.
In between, Lakshmi Menon, who plays Ajith’s sister in the movie, briefly appears in a Bengali outfit, a white and red saree. We know that a part of Vedalam is set in Kolkata. It’s hard to tell from the artificial looking set, but this must be from those Kolkata scenes.
Ajith and AM Ratnam have earmarked Thursdays for releasing Vedalam promotional clips, including the teaser, audio and trailer. Vedalam, directed by Siva, stars Ajith, Shruti Haasan, Lakshmi Menon, Kabir Duhan Singh, Rahul Dev, Ashwin Kakumanu, Soori and Vidyullekha Raman. Produced by AM Ratnam under Shri Sai Ram Creations, Vedalam will go head to head at the box office this Diwali with Kamal Haasan’s Thoongaavanam.