Seethakathi- This isn't Vijay Sethupathi's 25th film, more like VJS's 25-min film.


Seethakathi is a semi-satirical film about Tamil cinema and an endearing drama about stage plays and stage performers. It attempts to show that stage is losing its prominence and the struggles stage plays go through amidst other forms such as cinema and digital entertainment. There is a scene where this is beautifully potrayed. Vijay Sethupathi as Ayya returns home in an auto rickshaw, taking in the sights of malls, people taking selfies, teenagers addicted to their phones and men crowding around Tasmac shop.


Vijay as Ayya Adhimoolam stuns us with his versatility as we see him play a variety of characters over a period of few decades in fleeting shots. There is a 8-minute lengthy scene (filmed in a single shot) by Vijay sethupathi essaying the role of Aurangzeb with gravitas, making us realise his love and respect for art.

While talking to the other stage artistes, VJS asks one of them, “naalaiku ready ah?” 

For which, the other guy replies “neenga solli kodutha maathiriye paniduven ayya.”

And VJS, “naan sollikodutha maathiriye panrathuku nee yethuku? Neeye pannu.”

Just like the first few wonderful minutes of the film, the positive points about the film in this write-up might end here. If Seethakathi is a stock market, the 25th minute is the exit point. This isn’t Vijay Sethupathi’s 25th film, more like Vijay Sethupathi’s 25-min film. The film that majorly discusses and jokes about incompetent actors and the kind of films being produced recently, on its own, does the same thing to the audience- betrays us by advertising Seethakati as a Vijay Sethupathi film.

The Hindu newspaper writes,

//Seethakathi is structured in a unique style; it starts off slowly and picks up only after a while. It takes some time getting used to the pace, and for an impatient audience, this might come across as a downer//

We are already dealing with the betrayal by the promotion of Seethakathi as VJS film and now the label ‘impatient’.   There is a huge difference between merely boring slow films and contemplative cinema, unfortunately both bear the label of ‘slow cinema’. I still remember as a 6-year-old child watching Balu Mahendra’s ‘veedu’ and crying my heart out whenever they showed the grandpa’s character.  When I watched ‘sila nerangalil’ in Netflix, a film about AIDS awareness, I wept for Prakash Raj’s character. The 2-hour- film ‘merku thodarchi malai’ displayed the daily struggles of villagers in the most convincing way even though the pace of the film was slow.

 All these films are contemplative cinema and not slow cinema. It is reflective. It guides us through a strong narrative as though an angel is holding our hands, making us beautifully float through the aisle in a magnificent church.

Here, in Seethakathi, there is no character that we are emotionally invested in. There are some good performers like Archana (Ayya’s wife) and Mouli (Ayya’s stage coordinator) and producer-actor (Sunil). But none of them allowed us to be in their world. The connection between the audience and the story being told on screen further drifted away once we realise that Vijay Sethupathi isn’t going to be in the story anymore. 

In this film, there is no sutble or great ambience. Even the film shooting spots shown, aren’t value-adding to the story. There aren’t any layers for us to feel. Template comedy genre like ‘enna aachu enaku’ and ‘ppppahh’ was tried in this film, that didn’t work for me. Repetitively saying ‘ma’ and an actor trying to show navarasam in one reaction didn’t evoke any laughter.

The first 25 minutes are already at a pace for a different set of viewing and thus, as audience, we are preparing ourselves for productive and convincing slowness for the rest of the film, only to be let down by just merely boring slowness without any conviction for doing so: its emotional effects, its ambient effects, and its meditative effects, which are all unfortunately diluted by condensation rather than for the story to be enhanced.

The film emphasises that ‘kalaikum kalaignargalukum azhivey kidayaadu.’ (There is no end to art form and artistes) But for god’s sake, a film needs one. The 475-minute first half and 590-minute second half, are another enormously painful portion of watching ‘Seethakati’.

While driving home after watching the film, they played Malabar Golds and Diamonds shop radio ad where Vijay Sethupathi kept promoting listeners to visit the shop.

And my mum looks at the radio, 

“eppa mattum pesu. Paduthiley pesidaathey.”

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