Okay. My heart is trying to beat its way out of my chest. And I think my ears are ringing. That's just... normal after a V, right? Right? It's 3:17 AM and my room is pitch black except for the glow of my laptop, which just went to the "Are you still watching?" screen. YES, NETFLIX, I'm still watching, I'm just trying to reassemble my brain into something resembling a human organ. I just finished V and I feel like I've been in a fistfight with a neon sign.
I watched it at home, obviously. Curled up on my couch, sinking deeper into the cushions with every insane plot twist. There was no way I was watching this in a theatre, I needed the safety of my own space, the ability to pause, breathe, and question my own sanity. And let me tell you, I used that pause button a lot. Mostly just to stare at the wall and whisper "what... is even happening?" to myself.
So, Nani. Our Nani. The sweet, boy-next-door Nani. He just decided to burn that entire persona to the ground and dance on the ashes, didn't he? The opening scene. That's what's stuck in my head. The slow-motion walk. The leather jacket. The background music screaming "THIS IS THE VILLAIN, IDIOTS" as he marches into that police station. He doesn't say a word for a full minute, he just lets the camera drink him in. I was literally leaning forward, mouth half-open. My roommate walked past, glanced at my screen and was like "who's that?" and I just shushed him with a violent wave of my hand. It was a moment. A pure, unadulterated "I am the main character now" moment. The whole movie is built on that foundation of pure, uncut swagger.
And the action! Oh my god, the action. It's not realistic, it's not grounded, it's like a video game where someone entered the cheat code for infinite ammo and zero gravity. People are flying through the air. Cars are exploding for no reason. During the interval block, I physically recoiled. Like, my whole body jolted back into the couch cushions. It was so loud, so aggressive, so... extra. And I loved every second of it. But then... I don't know. I thought I loved that part, but now that I'm typing this... was it actually kind of dumb? The way he fights off like, fifty guys with a single chain? It's ridiculous. It's so ridiculously ridiculous that it circles back around to being brilliant. Or does it? My 21-year-old brain says "hell yeah." My tiny, nascent adult brain says "this is structurally unsound." I hate that tiny adult brain.
The whole vigilante thing, it got me thinking. Reminds me of this one time in 10th grade, there was this guy who was a total bully, always shoving kids into lockers. And one day, I saw him corner this quiet kid, and I just... froze. I wanted to say something, I wanted to be the hero, you know? To be V. But I just stood there, holding my stupid history textbook, and did nothing. Then, out of nowhere, this girl, Priya, who I barely knew, just walks up and dumps her entire carton of chocolate milk on the bully's head. Just... splat. And he was so shocked he just stood there, dripping. And Priya just said "Leave him alone, you drip." and walked away. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I still think about that sometimes. How she was the V in that moment, and I was just... a background character with a textbook. Wait, why am I telling you this? This movie has completely broken my brain. It's like it unlocked a folder of repressed high school memories.
So the plot. The plot is a straight line from Point A to Point B, but it takes the most scenic, chaotic, and explosive route possible. V decides he's going to kill a bunch of high-profile people. The cops, led by this intense dude who's always shouting, have to stop him. That's it. That's the movie. But it's not about the "what," it's about the "how." And the "how" is with more style than a thousand fashion shows. The villain, the politician played by Naveen Chandra, is so evil he might as well be twirling a mustache. He's a caricature, but in this world of heightened reality, he fits perfectly. He's not a person, he's a target. And a very shouty one.
I had to pause it halfway through. Not because I was bored, but because my brain was overheating. I went to the kitchen, drank a glass of water, and the silence was deafening. My apartment felt so... normal. So dull. Walking back to my laptop felt like stepping back into a different dimension, a dimension where the color saturation is cranked to 150% and every punch sounds like a thunderclap. That's the power of this movie. It completely hijacks your senses. It's not a movie you watch; it's a movie you survive.
And then the twist. The motive. They try to give it this emotional, tragic backstory. And honestly, in the moment, I was buying it. My heart was aching. But now, in the cold, harsh light of 3 AM, I'm questioning it. Was the motivation... a little thin? For all this... chaos? Maybe. Or maybe I'm just overthinking it. Maybe you're not supposed to think. Maybe you're just supposed to feel the bass in your chest and watch the pretty explosions. Honestly, I think that's it. This is an experience, not a narrative. It's a two-hour-long music video for a song that doesn't exist.
So yeah. I'm messed up. I'm wide awake, my ears are still ringing, and I have the sudden urge to buy a leather jacket and walk in slow motion everywhere I go. I don't know if it's a good movie. I don't know if it's a bad movie. It's just... a movie. It exists. And now it exists in my head, rent-free, probably for the next week. I just... I need to watch a puppy video or something. Something quiet. Yeah.
7/10. - solid
-ishaan