There's a chance you'll enjoy Dream Valley Corporations' `Vamanan' a lot more, if you went in looking at it as some mindless comedy Or a film with decent action and a lot of glamour. The film is packaged to seem like an action entertainer. Sadly, most part of the film has turned out to be an entertainer of the unintended variety.
Why does the film's storyline give you a sense of deja vu? May be because you have seen a film lesser than a month before called `Muthirai', with a premise similar to this one. The film is about how a video tape unintentionally records the death of a politician (Delhi Ganesh) by another Anbu (Sampath), and how people in possession with the tape are being killed.
But the director Ahmad doesn't stop at this, making it more complex by roping in many more characters. That turns out to be the film's biggest strength and weakness. While these characters, from "Neeya Naana" Gopi, Thalaivaasal Vijay, Raguman to Lakshmi Rai are involved in the tape, there's ample scope for making the screenplay more interesting. Instead, it ends up looking too complicated or too silly, with a climax that looks highly out of place.
This is Jai's first film after the blockbuster `Subramaniapuram', and expectations are bound to be high. Jai plays the role of an aspiring actor, Anand. So one does wonder if all those scenes in the film in which different people discourage him saying he can't act at all, are meant to be real life accusations. Be it in his voice modulation, or getting out of the grumpy look he wore for `Subramaniapuram', Jai has a long way to go. But it's not perhaps his fault that such a big success in the name of `Subramaniapuram' came so early in his life that his experience isn't able to do justice to it.
Needing good acting is Lakshmi Rai too, who is definitely better off having someone else dub for her. She plays a model Pooja in the film and the director has clearly gone by the usual portrayal of all beauty no brains, in etching her character. Debutant Priya, enacting the role of Divya, Jai's love, doesn't have a lot to do.
Santhanam- That's someone you'll look forward to in the film, as he keeps most of the film going but, his character holds no merit as the cameraman of a serious channel. Urvashi, much like her act in `Siva Manasula Shakthi', hardly gives her vocal chords rest as Priya's mother, but her facial expressions are a delight to watch.
Sampath's role as the politician Anbu, makes you wonder why he is relegating himself to stereotype villain roles. Thalaivasal Vijay, one of our more seasoned character artistes, is as convincing as ever. Raguman's character is a give away from the start, and Jai's trust in him is nothing short of silly.
The camerawork is interesting in parts, but there's definitely nothing exciting to suggest. Yuvan Shankar Raja doesn't go beyond rehashing his earlier tunes. Lucky Star is a captivating number though.
As the case with most films these days, the first half entertains. The second half stutters.
Bottom line: Much ado about nothing.
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