Valluvan review: a sharp hook, a blunt thriller

A serial killer who leaves Thirukkural couplets scrawled in blood on his victims, each one arguing that a just ruler must weed out the wicked the way a farmer clears his field, is a genuinely good hook. Valluvan has the idea. What it doesn’t have is a screenplay sturdy enough to carry it.

The bodies pile up, a politician, a cop, a lawyer, all picked off by someone working from a philosophy rather than a grudge. Senior officer Prem Kumar follows the case toward a meek food delivery rider (Chethan Cheenu) who spends his free hours at an old-age home. Those quieter scenes, him and Ashna Zaveri tending to the forgotten elderly, are the warmest stretch in the film, and they hint at a gentler movie hiding inside this one.

The thriller around them is creakier. Shankar Sarathi has a real subject, a justice system that fails the people it should protect, but the plotting is muddled and slow, padded with template scenes and a couple of frankly ugly choices the cause doesn’t justify. The one fresh wrinkle, that the killings don’t stop once the obvious suspect is in hand, is also the only time the film truly surprises you.

The cast does what it can. Chethan is natural across the action and the softer beats, Prem is steady, and Ashna’s late turn is the film’s best-kept secret. Manobala drops in to lift a few scenes, a warm reminder of a presence Tamil cinema has lost. Worth a look for the idea, not for what it does with it.