It is quite common for Tamil industry veterans turning producers to launch their son as hero. Veteran comedy and character artist Delhi Ganesh is the latest to join the long list. He has produced the film ‘Ennul Aayiram’ directed by debutant Krishna Kumar to launch his son Maha as a hero. Let’s see whats the film has in store.
Ashok (Maha) is a carefree orphan youngster who works as a bartender in a star hotel. He falls in love with Suhasini (Mareena Michaels) and wins over her heart after a few sincere attempts. Suhasini’s parents arrange for her marriage without her consent prompting her to to elope with Ashok. But an unintended crime committed by Ashok is part of his history and he keeps fearing of a backlash at anytime. Somehow this leads him to become an accused wanted by police.
What finally happens to Asho is something you have to watch in theaters.
As the makers have assured and having watched the trailer, we enter the movie hall expecting a thriller. The film starts with the introduction of multiple characters with detailed backgrounds. Thankfully this does not test our patience as we are used to such unrelated character introductions in thriller flicks we have watched in the recent past. A lot of screen time has been allocated to establish the work life of the hero in a star hotel bar. This kind of a setting detailed on screen is something new to Tamil audience. Then the scenes portraying the evolution of love between the lead pair also gets the time more than required. But this is also bearable as the romance scenes have some elements of freshness.
The first half of the film also includes a casual sex encounter between the hero and a young woman (Shruthiyugal)deserted by her husband. This is not something we regularly see in Tamil films at least in the recent years with its obsessions for a U rating from Censor board. This has also been captured subtly and sensually which may come as a surprise to a section of audience and a shock to others.
This woman comes as the tenant of the girl who is in love with the hero. This makes us expect a crisis for the lead character in this angle and it would have been interesting if the writer-director had pursued this. But sadly that single woman’s character gets a sudden end in the name of a car accident death, within a few minutes after the interval. This makes us wonder why that character and its relationship with the hero got a lot of detailing in the first half just to be ended abruptly in the second half without making any impact in any other character.
The incidents that follow are neither interesting nor convincing. The hero becoming guilty of killing a stranger could have been portrayed a little more convincingly if the director had had a little respect for logical thinking of the viewer. The hide and seek episode between the police and the hero drags and ends up to the point which we would have predicted much earlier.
The length of the film with quite many unwanted scenes ( despite most of them being well written and executed neatly) is another big problem that makes the film a tedious watch.
The technical brilliance of the film is something which helps us sit through. Debutant Cinematographer Athisayaraj has done a tremendous job with his lens. The visuals are pleasing and that is a sweet surprise it is something we would not expect in low budget films like this. Not only this, Athisaryaraj excels with his selection of angles for many shots. The suggestive shot to convey that the hero is walking with his head in the beach is one best example.
Gopi Sunder’s songs despite mostly bothering us with their placement (especially in the first half) are pleasing to listen. His re-recording is also apt for the film.
Though we cannot say Maha is a completely qualified hero he definitely shows promise. He gets to romance, fight, make fun and emote in the film and he does all these without a considerable flaws and makes us feel that if he gets better scripts he would emerge as a decent hero. Mareena Michael gives an impressive performance as a middle class girl with independent thoughts and a caring attitude. Vincent Ashok as a menacing police officer makes the right impact with his performance. Shivaji as a well-wisher and senior colleague of the hero deserves a mention.
Verdict : Some neat performances and technical brilliance wasted by a directionless script.
Comments