A trailer for the upcoming Hindi version of the Tamil blockbuster Vikram Vedha has been released by T-Series. Saif Ali Khan acts as the no-nonsense officer Vikram in the new film, and Hrithik Roshan plays the colourful mobster Vedha. The husband-and-wife directing team of Pushkar and Gayathri are responsible for both versions of the film. Like the famous scene from Michael Mann’s Heat, the almost two-minute teaser begins with the two protagonists seated across from one other. “May I entertain you with a tale, sir?” In Hindi, Vedha asks Vikram a question. Just listen to me very, very patiently.
We’re not only going to have a good time this time; we’re going to be surprised, too. Other than that one brief scene of Vikram practically tipping the table over on Vedha, the remainder of the teaser is merely a compilation of slow-motion “hero shots” of the two actors. As the two main protagonists prepare for a battle in the rain, we get glimpses of a spectacular action scenario involving dozens of extras brandishing massive weaponry. For Vedha, choosing between good and evil is a no-brainer, as she explains to Vikram. However, in this narrative, they are both bad. Roshan, who was born and raised in Mumbai, is making the type of creative and cultural leap that is best analogized by Ryan Gosling playing someone from Texas by adopting an accent for the job, which implies that his character belongs to a North Indian state.
However, the smooth-talking Khan remains silent during the entire two-minute preview. Both Khan and Roshan have been recognised for playing unconventional roles in recent years, although both are most known for playing romantic leads. In the Western Laal Kaptaan, he portrayed the archetypical Man with No Name, and in the stoner comedy Go Goa Gone, he played a zombie hunter. In addition, he portrayed a police officer in a Netflix original series called Sacred Games, making him the first prominent Indian film actor to do so.
Roshan’s most recent film, the 2019 blockbuster War, is where we last saw him in the role of an action hero. He made an effort at a Hollywood crossover with the film Kites in 2010. Radhika Apte, who co-starred with Khan in Sacred Games and is probably best-known in the West for her role in Michael Winterbottom’s The Wedding Guest, also stars in Vikram Vedha. Soon, she’ll be in the Shantaram show on Apple TV+. R. Madhavan played Vikram and Vijay Sethupathi played Vedha in the original Tamil version of Vikram Vedha. In other words, after seeing RRR, American viewers would be accustomed to the grandiose spectacle of Indian films and will be able to understand the grammar of a picture like Vikram Vedha. I’m particularly interested in the remade version, which seems to be a mashup of mainstream Hindi and Tamil film, two genres with quite different aesthetics. Bhushan Kumar and S. Sashikanth produced the movie, which opens on September 30.