The following article is by Uneshddarann Nagandran and it is not IndiaGlitz's take towards anyone or anything

My rating, overall: 9.45/10

VERDICT: Raja Rani is a perfect love puzzle with strong story, compact screenplay, ablaze colors, phenomenal music, cutting edge cinematography, solid characterizations and extremely satisfying humor being parts of it. It is the latest masterpiece to line up in the collection of cult classic heart wrenching love stories Kollywood has ever produced, such as Mouna Ragam, Alaipayuthey and Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya.

IN DEPTH REVIEW

STORY (1/1)

There is life after love failure. There is love after love failure. What happens when two individuals with past love tragedies are brought together by marriage? What could possibly further occur the moment each learns the partner's past? Watch Raja Rani to find out.

SCREENPLAY (0.8/1)

It was very amusing that Director Atlee has crafted a commercial platform for a serious and tough love subject. What was even more surprising was, the debutant has pulled it off with no rooms for flaws at all. He has made the journey of watching a multi-layered storyline so fun and satisfying. Raja Rani was full of engaging and novel scenes. Some examples of them are the mirror reflection fight scene, Nayanthara and Jai interactions, Santhanam's imitation of Rajinikanth and so on. The songs were planned really well by his screenwriting too. Despite of these, Nazriya's death was very predictable. It could have been written and planned differently. Plus, some story-telling portions could have been extended a bit longer to show the gradual process of Jai falling for Nayanthara, and Nazriya falling for Arya. In a way, it was abrupt. The peak of screenplay excellence was during the pre-climax twist. Overall, Director Atlee has done an excellent job by writing a fast, gripping and tight screenplay, which was the main reason for Raja Rani's success.

DIALOGUES (1/1)

Comedy is indeed a serious business, as Raja Rani has proved. The dialogues have been penned with so much of detailed attention to bring out the most laughter from audiences. Even so, it appeared very casual and impromptu in the movie, thanks to the characters who utter and complement it with the right expressions. Although Raja Rani speaks about the good and bad; the plus and flaws of love, the dialogues were not preachy and classroom like. In that sense, it helped audiences to relate to and understand a character's emotions easily.

CINEMATOGRAPHY (1/1)

When it comes to camera work, nothing could go wrong for most of our Kollywood's products. Raja Rani was no exception. Debutant George William's cinematography is world class, to put it simple. He has used the camera subtly yet very effectively in accordance to what the movie needs. The church wedding credit scene at the beginning; Oday Oday and Chillena songs picturization; Nayanthara's post marriage fits attack and Nazriya's tragic accident scenes are some examples of camera wonders in Raja Rani.

EDITING (0.9/1)

If Raja Rani was not edited properly, audiences would have left the cinema theatre baffled, as Raja Rani has multiple layers of stories. Credit goes to the editor for giving us a neatly patched full fledged movie. The reason why the movie appeared brief and tight was, apart from the screenplay, was also due to the editor's contribution. Song placements were very well done. The minor flaws would be the slow-mo effect used in the first 30 minutes' hospital scene and the fast-forward effect used for the New Year fireworks scene. Although it was very short and negligible, but on a minute scale, it prevented the movie's editing to be perfect and matured.

PERFORMANCE (1/1)

Nayanthara, Jai, Santhanam, Sathyaraj, Arya and Nazriya. This is the order that goes from the best to good performers in Raja Rani. After all these years of appearing in commercial movies for skin shows, it was stunning to see Nayan bringing out a stellar performance, thanks to the director. Her expressions and dialogue deliveries were something that we have never seen before from her. She has obviously raised our expectations for her upcoming Tamil remake of Kahaani, Anaamika. Jai received a golden opportunity to showcase the performer in him through Raja Rani. What a show! He has the natural ability to joke and appear innocent and that has aided the movie a lot. One of Santhanam's best lifetime comedy entertainers would be Raja Rani. He is a good example of an actor who is constantly improving his performance and Raja Rani has brought him to a whole new level. Sathyaraj is such a darling and natural actor when he chooses the right role. Virus in Nanban, Anna in Thalaivaa and now Mr. James in Raja Rani. Arya and Nazriya did full justice to their given roles, but were outshone by the rest. Sathyan in his small comical role definitely scores.

CHARACTERIZATION (1/1)

Director Atlee has built his characters with almost perfection. The bold and outgoing Nayanthara; the innocent and insecure Jai; cool and dashing Sathyaraj; the rash Arya and bubbly Nazriya. These characters did not step out of their characteristic boundaries and that made the movie flow smooth and understandable.

MUSIC (1/1)

Songs (0.5/0.5): All the songs in Raja Rani were chartbusters already, and it was very mesmerizing to experience it on silver screen. Be it Oday Oday, Chillena, Imaye Imaye, Unnale, Hey Baby and the symphony A Love For Life used for the title credit, Director Atlee has made full justice to the presentation of those.

Background Music (0.5/0.5): If the dialogues and sound effects were muted, the background music alone could tell Raja Rani's story to us. That was how effectively G.V Prakash has composed his story-telling tunes, as how Rahman did for Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya and Ilaiyaraaja for Mouna Ragam.

ART (1/1)

Settings (0.5/0.5): Raja Rani offered us a variety of scene settings. The director has lightened up the movie with different backdrops, such as hospital, beautiful house design, Bharathanatyam school, church, airport, cinema theatre, malls and so on. The movie would have been a tiring watch if it only had several stagnant places to show. Watch out for Oday Oday song's backdrop!

Costume Designs (0.5/0.5): Deepali Noor scored big time with her costume designs, once again. Her choice of costume colors, especially Arya and Nayanthara's matches the backdrop.

OTHER NOTABLE/RELATABLE DEPARTMENTS (0.75/1)

Visual Effects (0.25/0.5): The title design was interesting, but the 'karasey' graphics animated scene was unnecessary.

Choreography (0.5/0.5): Oday Oday and Chillena songs were enhanced by short, simple and catchy dance steps.