I tend to have a lenient view of a movie that gets atleast one of its acts right. A recent example of this would be Poovellaam Kaettuppaar. Inspite of the initial, tiresome romance, it earned two stars based solely on its successful laughs-per-minute ratio in the second half. But the second act of Veera Padhakkam (which in all fairness, occupies only the last third of the movie) is so bad that it wipes out the little excitement generated by the marginally interesting proceedings preceding it and then some. The movie, which holds our interest for quite a while by introducing a protagonist with questionable ethics, spirals downward into predictable cliches and cinematic implausibilities once he turns over a new leaf.

Satyaraj probably considers Manivannan as his godfather. Through movies like Nooraavadhu Naal and 24 Mani Neram, Manivannan built Satyaraj up into the leading villain in tamil cinema. He also helped Satyaraj make the crossover from villain to leading man with movies like Vidinjaa Kalyaanam. Their pairing since then has been responsible for both successes like Amaidhi Padai and duds like Ganam Korttaar Avargale. No prizes for guessing the category into which this movie falls.

Ever since the kid saw his father being beaten because of his caste but his uncle(who belonged to the same caste but was a policeman) being felicited, he has dreamed of being a police officer. Kalivardhan(Satyaraj) has finally achieved his aim and as a strapping young man, is now a police constable. But we understand his attitude towards his job when his first complaint after completing his training is that he was never taught how to earn bribes! Looking to climb the ladder of success by hook or crook, he casts aside his uncle's daughter Thangamma(Radhika) who has been pining for him. She ends up marrying an upright trade unionleader('Nizhalgal' Ravi). With the help of the local MLA and a rowdy Vadivelu(Raghuvaran), he steadily ascends the rungs of authority, finally becoming the DGP. On the way he weds Visalatchi(Urvasi), the MLA's daughter and then MLA, who has since become a minister. During an encounter at the factory of his friends, Kalivardhan kills Thangamma's husband and she has been leading a wretched life since then. He runs into her through her son and realises the error of his ways.

The movie sustains interest as long as it deals with the corrupt policeman. Satyaraj brings back memories of the 'villain' phase of his career as the crooked policeman whose only ambition in life is to attain a position high up in the police hierarchy. His initial tasks as a constable include doing the household chores for the SI. The scene where their roles are reversed, with Satyaraj now higher up than the SI, is fun. Manivannan takes aim at both the police and politics during these portions and several of the sharp dialogs find their mark. But the jokes work only at the right places and some of them seem ill-timed. The shot at Jayalalitha (and Sasikala) for example, does not fit in and seems cheap.

Thankfully, romance is pushed to the background with Satyaraj dumping Radhika early on. Urvasi falling for him just because he helped her become a better public speaker (through a single letter he writes to her) is rather unbelievable. But the sweetness in this doesn't last for too long either with Urvasi finding out soon that he married her for the position and power and refusing to talk to him from then. The scene where Satyaraj breaks down while explaining the reason for his corruptness seems to have been inserted just to unearth some sympathy for his character. But it is not effective especially since there is no change in him after that either.

The movie takes a nosedive from the scene where Satyaraj becomes a new man. Though Radhika's positions is pitiful, it is questionable if that would be enough to change a man who is corrupt to the hilt. It would have helped if there had been some scenes that revealed a soft spot in his heart but Satyaraj is till then portrayed as nothing less than an animal and this scene is not forceful enough. And then there's the question of why he had to quit his powerful post of DGP and become a union leader to help the people. Couldn't he have done more by remaining as the DGP? The plight of Manivannan's family only serves to underscore this fact.

One can't help feeling that the talents of the big cast have been wasted. Barring Satyaraj, none of the other roles has much screen time or enough scope. Radhika plays the silent sufferer well. Urvasi seems miscast as the MLA/minister though that could be because of the poor way the character has been shaped. Raghuvaran has a rather sorry role while Senthil and R.Sunderrajan are wasted. Manivannan has some fun when paying Satyaraj back for folding the hand of his full-hand shirt. Deva's songs are not even worth mentioning.