Asuravithu Review

The story of angry young man, taking the odds of the otherwise harmonious society has been the theme that created many superstar avatars in filmdom. This is also the case with A K Sajan's 'Asuravithu'. Following every conventions of that underworld movies, 'Asuravithu' provides the basics for a big star launch, but fails with its predictability and unripe star at its helm.

Planned as a sequel to 'Stop Violence' where young Prithviraj showed his mettle as a dependable action star in the role of 'Saathan', this 'Asuravithu' has Asif Ali as 'Don Bosco' the son of Saathan, who was killed in the final encounter of  the prequel.

Don Bosco is nurtured with seminarian etiquette's by Baburaj, a priest with arsenic tongue, after being abandoned by his mother fearing Pathamkalam Abbaji (Vijayaraghavan), a Jew who is controlling the Kochi underworld. Once while returning from the Bishop house he witness the murder of a customs officer(Rekha), executed by Abbaji's grandson Aron. But the police lead by C I Somasekharan beats him to pulp as he refuse to give a false testimony. The local boat owner Marty (Samvrutha Sunil) who is often called in for police drawings is smitten by love for Don, and helps him out of the police custody. And when back to seminary, he realizes the facts about his father, a notorious goon who was killed in an encounter with Pathaam Kalam, years back. The incident and several squabbles with Abbaji's family changes Don forever, making him a real don rechristened as Don David who fears none, even god.

The problem with the movie is the amateur handling of the scripts by AK Sajan, who though did a decent job of connecting the films together and penning some fabulous dialogues, failed to go for a sensible later half, taking the viewers for granted. With plenty of blood and gore and lot of killings, often like a child play, the laughs are more than indented surrounded around the screen graphics of `Don' and a "D-Company" seal displayed whenever Don makes a kill. Then, that cliched slow-motion walks with girls keeping the umbrella over Don and the protagonist wearing suits in the heat of Kochy (We didn't have so much heat when Mammootty did the same for 'Samraajyam', two decades ago)   and all that auto expo visuals all through the second half, make  it more silly enough that digestible. Besides, the writer also seems to have depicted the seminary life in bad light, just for arousing some silly jokes and villainy.

Asif Ali, though not a perfect fit for the character does his best in the former half with inner conflicts, well maintained in his looks  But in the later with the Don's walk around in suits, sunglasses, and roving jaguars and Porsches, he is unconvincing and pale in comparison with our front line stars with little energy and screen charisma. Vijayaraghavan, I M Vijayan and Siddhique are wasted in their roles which are poorly written. There are three characters in this movie who stands out including Baburaj, who gets the maximum applause's for mouthing some of the best lines in the film, rightly continuing his dream run that started with Salt N Pepper. Lena, as Don Bosco's mother does a convincing job and so is Samvrutha Sunil who plays Don's love interest. Though she hardly shares any chemistry with Asif on screen, all her scenes are good and watchable.

In the technical front, it is fine work in camera from Vishnu Narayanan, which is the heart of the movie. The cameraman has captured the best from the available locales, giving definite impressions that he is here to stay. The colourist has also worked overtime to give the fine tones of the flick. Some of the action sequences are pretty good without thugs flying all around. The BGM is loud but effective and the editing and art direction are also slick.

Asuravithu may not be of much use to Asif Ali, the star who was suddenly into big league after the success of 'Traffic' and 'Salt N Pepper'. In the B O, the movie has less chance to hold on, for more than a couple of weeks.

Rating: 4.5/10