Vijay Antony, who has the penchant for selecting characters with a liberal dosage of grey has once again gone for a tailor made one in the political thriller ‘Yaman’ directed by Jeeva Shankar which should surely benefit from the current political scenario in the state.
Tamilarasan (Vijay Antony), is seeking money to save his cancer afflicted grandfather ( Sangili Murugan), agrees to go to jail by accepting to take the blame for a drunken and drive accident. In jail, he meets with the first connection to a political web and from then on gets embroiled deep into it and how he emerges the victor forms the rest of the cleverly weaved intriguing screenplay.
Vijay Antony again has played to his strength and is uniformly good as Tamilarasan whether it is showing his love to his grandfather, maintaining a dignified approach to lover Mia George or dealing fire with fire in his political ascendancy. He is especially good in the near realistic action sequences. Mia George as the actress Ahalya as nothing much to do except look pretty standing beside the hero. The solo song and the duet she has with Vijay are two major irritants in the flow of the screenplay. Veteran Thiagarajan makes his presence felt as the seasoned politician while Arul Jothy as the minister Thangapandian makes a lasting impression in the role. Charlie, Sangili Murugan, Swaminathan and all the other actors have done complete justice to their roles.
Jeeva Shankar has written and directed ‘Yaman’ and one can say that he has redeemed himself after his previous fiasco. His dialogues are the backbone of the film and are so close to reality that every word spoken has the desired effect on the audiences. The screenplay, which moves at a slow pace is still engaging due to the clever use of betrayal as a motif throughout. The master stroke is in the climax when the hero unknowingly avenges his father even as he accomplishes the dream of both his father and grandfather. The brilliant camera work by the director himself cleverly hides the low production values and the feeling that only the characters of ‘Yaman’ exist in the city. Editing by Veera Senthil Raj is neat, although the first twenty minutes could do with some trimming to make it more peppy.
Vijay Antony the music director has used his own "Mascara pottu mayakiriye’ tune from ‘Salim’ in the background to good effect while all the songs in this movie are a huge disappointment. Logic takes a beating as it is highly unlikely for a common man casually handling a ruling party minister and getting away with it. The solo song and involving Mia George and the duet can be removed to save the audience from a lot of pain.
Verdict: Go for it to watch a mostly engaging and intriguing political thriller that has come at the right time.
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