Adanga Maru - Techno-driven revenge thriller

Jayam Ravi has donned the khaki successfully in two films 'Thani Oruvan' and 'Bogan' and his third outing is with debutante Karthik Thangavel who has tried to dish out an age old wine in a new techno coated bottle.   Will 'Adanga Maru' strike a chord with the audience remains to be seen.

Subash (Jayam Ravi) is a new recruit Sub Inspector who is as straightforward as they come.  His motto is to punish criminals by legal means or otherwise and proves it twice by giving a beating to a minister's son incognito and by instigating protestors into acting violently on a wine shop bar which causes public hindrance.  Subash has a wise mentor in senior sub-inspector Chandran (Azhagam Perumal) while the station inspector Muthu Karuppan (Mime Gopi) is corrupt.  While investigating a rape-murder case the hero crosses paths with four men who are sons of the rich and powerful in the city.  In retaliation, the men with the help of the Joint Commissioner (Sampath Raj) wipe out the hero's family.  The rest of the screenplay is how Subash now a common man uses technology to wreak revenge on all the villains.

Jayam Ravi is present in every frame from the beginning until the end and his acting is what keeps the audience hooked.  Ravi's emoting is touching when he faces deep personal loss and then maintains the anger in his eyes and body language for most parts of the screen time to make a strong connect with his character.  Jayam Ravi's fit body build is another huge advantage as he has no difficulty in convincing the audience that he can beat up a dozen henchmen.  Raashi Khanna appears as the love interest of Ravi and is an eyeful in the romance and the song sequences.  She also has a small part to play in the revenge in the second half.  Muniskanth and Azhagam Perumal are impressive as the good cops while the baddies Sampath Raj, Mime Gopi, Babu Antony, Gajaraj, Mathew Varghese and the four boys are just about okey-dokey.

The first half sets up the character of the hero and his predicament in an interesting manner and curiosity is raised as to how the hero will take on the police force and the powerful villains single-handed.  The use of cellphone technology to outwit such powerful opponents is also stokes the interest.  The sequence that takes the cake is the one in which one of the villains is killed by creating a mobile game in which the public participates in.

On the downside, the story is dated and if you rip off the technology aspect it resembles the revenge dramas of the Jaishankar era.  In the second half, the director makes a complete mockery of the police force and keeps on piling up the mostly implausible technological murder sequences one after the other with no respite.  Other than Jayam Ravi's character all the others are written as mere caricatures which weakens the screenplay.  Contrived twists and turns are a regular feature of this screenplay which after a point is mind-numbing. 

Sam CS is slowly cementing his place as a bankable music director and here too his theme music for Jayam Ravi stands out.  Sathyan Sooryan's cinematography, Ruben's editing, Lalgudi N Ilayaraja's artwork are top notch.  Stun Siva has choreographed some breathtaking stunts while Viji makes his presence felt with the sharp dialogues.  Sujatha Vijayakumar has seen to it that her maiden production venture has a look of quality throughout.   Director Karthik Thangavel has focussed on the technological aspects in the screenplay, which are interesting but at the same time, stronger characterization and a more gripping narration could have made for a better film on the whole.

Verdict : Go for this techno-driven revenge drama for which Jayam Ravi has put in a lot of hard work.