Vijayanand Movie Review: A wonderful journey of an extraordinary man

It is said that memories are simply moments that refuse to be ordinary. And with Vijayanand, director Rishika Sharma captures the life of an extraordinary man, who ‘made his own road, and drove on it too’. Depicting the life of Vijay Sankeshwar, the founder of VRL Group, Rishika’s second outing as a director tells the inspiring tale of the mammoth transport company, which started off with just one lorry. Rishika’s biopic adroitly stitches the ups and downs of his life, of course, sprinkling commercial elements while doing so.  

The film is told through Anand Sankeshwar, Vijay’s son, and covers many aspects of his father's life. The narrative begins with Vijay (Nihal) introducing his father, BG Sankeshwar (Anant Nag). In a flashback, we also get to see Vijay Sankeshwar's backstory, his growing-up days, and his childhood friends. We also get a brief look into his marriage to Lalitha (Siri Prahalad) and the turning point when he decides to get out of his comfort zone of running the printing press and choosing to get into the transport business despite the family's opposition.  Vijay takes a risk, defaults on debt, buys a lorry, and sets out to chase his dream. The path is exciting but filled with obstacles. One part that keeps the excitement going is how he goes about clearing the roadblocks of his life, and how he manages to succeed. The second half covers his brief entry into politics, and how he got into the media business and became number one.

Tracing the life of a personality like Vijay Sankeshwar is a huge responsibility, but Rishika makes it entertaining. Vijayanand never seems like an exaggeration; it remains pragmatic and inspiring. However, the duration of the film is a dampener, and repetitive scenes are a disappointment.

Despite this, the film is definitely watchable, especially for the dialogues in the North Karnataka setting, the retro-style scenes, the setups, and the background music, which keeps it entertaining. Nihal silences a certain section of detractors who wanted a notable actor to play the lead. His commitment to the role, even radically altering his features to fit into the character, is applaudable. Bharath Bopanna as Anand Sankeswar fits the bill and has given a neat performance. Anant Nag as BG Sankeshwar is the highlight of Vijayanand, who stays true to the character of a humble person in North Karnataka, and his presence is profound, especially through his dialogue delivery. Ravichandran too has a strong presence in the film, which has a decent performance by Prakash Belawadi, who plays a press editor. Other characters too have done justice to their respective roles.

Gopi Sundar's music gives the film extra mileage while Raghu Niduvalli's dialogues as well as Hemanth and Keerthan Poojary's efforts also stand out.

Vijayanand showcases an ambitious man's dogged persistence and perseverance and is definitely an inspiring watch.