Burma (Arya) is the son of a driver (Nassar) in a rich man Gurupadom’s (Napolean) house. Gurupadom is Burma’s role model and his dream is to be like him. But soon his father is framed by Ira (Kadhal Dandapani) the right-hand man of Gurupadom, and unable to bear the humiliation, he commits suicide. Burma grows up in the mean streets to be a gun dealer and waits for an opportunity to enter Gurupadom’s house and take revenge.

Soon he wins over Gurupadom and his only daughter Sangeetha (Kirat Bhattal). But Ira and Veeravel, Gurupadom’s elder son are tooth and nail opposed to him and fear that he will take over their empire. However Burma uses tact and cunningness to overcome their resentment and wins over Gurupadom’s trust. Slowly, he starts to understand the machinations of the power play in the underworld. He uses Gurupadom’s bitter foe A.K.Swamy (Avinash) to his advantage and causes havoc which leads to a gripping climax.

The moral of the story seems to be “Crime pays”! The basic thread of the film is taken from Sharukh Khan’s Baazigar(1994). Arya as Burma alias Vattaram is convincing though he has to improve on his dialogue delivery and voice modulation. A suited and booted Napolean is a revelation and he brings the needed suaveness to the character. Kirat, the Mumbai girl is promising, though she has hardly anything to do.

The major drawback of Vattaram is the failure of the Saran-Bharadwaj combination as the songs are not catchy enough. A hit number like “O Pode..” (“Gemini”) or a “Cheena Thaana…” (Vasool Raja MBBS) is missing in the film, though the background score is appealing. Saran has to be appreciated as he has made an attempt to make an action thriller without an item number, glamour, crass comedy and unnecessary violence.

Verdict: Racy