Did Vijay Sethupathi overshadow Vijay in Master? Here’s what Lokesh Kanagaraj has to say

Lokesh Kanagaraj addressed the on-screen rivalry between Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi's characters in Master.

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that director Lokesh Kanagaraj has taken the Tamil film industry by storm. With his latest film Master, he has tampered the typical template of a mass-big-star-masala-film.

Master is a very important film in Vijay’s career. It shows the superstar’s willingness to reinvent himself so that he remains appealing to the younger generation of the movie-going audience.

But, a part of the audience seems to feel that Vijay Sethupathi’s character overshadowed Vijay’s character in the film. How so?

For starters, unlike most of his previous films, in Master, Vijay’s JD doesn’t always come out on top. He suffers beatings, humiliation, guilt, and personal loss. On the other hand, Vijay Sethupathi’s Bhavai always maintains a dominant position. He even gets to speak some of the best lines of the movie. While Bhavani gets a strong backstory, JD’s past is only mentioned in passing.

A powerful villain, especially in terms of physical prowess, has become a rarity in Vijay films in recent years. The last film, in which Vijay faced a serious adversary, was Prakash Raj’s Muttu Pandi in Ghilli (2004). And Lokesh understands the importance of an all-powerful villain to make the hero’s character more appealing and necessary in a story.

If you feel Vijay’s character got a raw deal compared to Sethupathi’s in Master, Lokesh has a piece of advice for you. “When you watch the film, if you see Vijay, not as Thalapathy Vijay (the star), just as a character named JD, you may not feel like that,” he said in an interview to Film Companion.

“When I narrated this story to Vijay anna, he knew that the hero and the villain will be equals. He also knew a superstar was going to play the villain. It only signifies his large-heartedness for doing this movie after knowing all these. This is exactly what Sethu anna (Vijay Sethupathi) also felt,” Lokesh added.

Lokesh added that if he had underplayed the villain role, it would have greatly affected the intensity of the narration.

Indianexpress.com’s Manoj Kumar R wrote in his review of the film, “Lokesh had promised a Vijay film which would be very different from movies that Vijay usually does. Did he deliver on his promise? Yes. Master is the most fun, sensible, enjoyable and good looking movie that Vijay has done in a long time.”

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