Vel featuring Surya, Asin and Vadivelu is a little better than Azhagiya Tamil Magan but that’s small consolation for Tamil movie fans.

Vel’s biggest weakness is its pedestrian, beaten to death simplistic story of two brothers separated when young and growing up separately.

Repeated in Hindi, Tamil and other Indian language films ad nauseum ad infinitum over the last five decades, these “lost and found” films constitute a boring genre unique to Indian movies.

Cast in a double role, Surya plays both the brothers – Vel and Vasu.

The younger brother Vasu grows up with his real parents in Chennai and becomes a private detective.

Cast in the role of a TV reporter Swathi, Asin plays his lady love but this time the extraordinary chemistry Surya and Asin brought forth in Ghajini is missing, partly because Vel’s story is so effete, completely lacking in punch.

Meanwhile, the older brother Vetrivel A.k.a. Vel is adopted in the Dindigul area by a family, which is forever battling a vicious local goon called Sakkara Pandian (Kalabhavan Mani).

Since the enemity between Vel and Sakkara Pandian is the slender thread on which much of Vel hangs, the movie unravels pretty quickly.

Sickles keep flying and Sakkara Pandian keeps yelling at his factotums and at Vel. And that’s it.

Although a better actor than Vijay, Surya seems to be stuck these days with sub-par stories like the dull love triangle in his last film Jillunu Oru Kadal and now Vel.

Vadivelu’s comedy scenes are so poorly integrated with the rest of the movie that they come across as amateurish and provide little joy to viewers.

Good music can sometimes salvage even mediocre movies.  But none of the songs in Vel rise above the ordinary.

All in all, Vel is yet another Tamil movie that left us utterly dispirited and fatigued at the end.

What a shame that two of the most anticipated movies this Diwali – Azhagiya Tamil Magan and Vel – have turned out to be such duds.

If most Hindi films are bad these days, Tamil movies have moved beyond the pale.