“Believe in yourself” is the tagline of Tamil star Ajith’s new film Vivegam, which will be released in August. After Veeram (2014) and Vedhalam (2015), Vivegam is the third movie in which Siva is directing Ajith. The film also stars Kajal Aggarwal, Akshara Haasan and Vivek Oberoi, who are unsurprisingly missing from the first teaser.
The message seems to be more important than the visuals. And Ajith directly addresses his audience.
Against the backdrop of a world map, a silhouetted Ajith begins what sounds like serious life advice. “Even if the world stands against you, under all circumstances, if the world keeps telling you that you have failed...until you accept it, no one can defeat you,” he says amidst a rapidly edited montage of snow-capped mountains, a government building, a forest, a tunnel and more important-looking buildings. Bullets whiz by in plenty throughout.
It is hard to conclude the context of this piece of advice from the 57-second teaser, let alone gauge a storyline.
Soon after, a clean-shaven Ajith walks into the frame in military fatigues and then a black uniform. Suddenly, the teaser cuts to a close-up of Ajith, who looks directly at us and shouts, “Never ever give up!”
Until August, at least.