Yogi Review

Hitherto Ameer was looked up on as a director who creates heroes in Tamil film industry. But in the company of filmmaker Subramaniam Siva he has brought out the actor in him. The man who made movies like `Ram' and `Paruthiveeran', has taken to a different canvas this time. He has painted a 'red' Chennai this time around.

The movie which seems to be inspired heavily by Oscar winning Tsotsi, has undergone enough changes in the script to suit Tamil audience. It has action, raw action and free for all in Chennai. Gurudev's lens has captured Chennai in a different way.

The dim lighting gives right pep. Subramaniam Siva's script is rightly complimented by Yuvan Shankar Raja's background score. The violent first half has racy score while the second half is soft dominated by good use of violin as it deals a lot about the love shared between Yogi and a baby.

Ameer as actor passes out in flying colours. He is at his ease right from the first frame till the last. The director in Ameer has given way for the actor, who shakes his legs, emotes and flexes his muscles all through. Equally appealing ids Madhumitha. The actress plays Sulochana who comes across Yogi and slowly develops a soft-corner for him. She plays a woman who has lost all joy in life. Her eyes filled with sorrow and spontaneous body reactions evokes special mention.

Subramaniam Siva has chosen his star cast well. Be it lyricist Snehan who plays Yogi's friend, Vinecent Ashokan as rich entrepreneur of journalist Devaraj as menacing father of Yogi, all have done their part well.

Yogi (Ameer) is a man who keeps to himself. Born and brought up in Chennai slum, he along with his friends thrives of theft, robbery and occasional murders. Yogi is a youth nut to crack. He had a bad past and keeps it to himself. Yogi and his friends decide to rob a restaurant one night. When they finish their job, they are chased buy cop. Yogi manages to flee in a car. After giving a slip to cops, he gets shock of his life. He spots a baby in the back seat of the car. The human being in Yogi wakes up. He leaves the car and takes the baby with him to his house. He is slowly transformed.

Yogi comes across Raja Sulochana (Madhumita), a young mother who is deserted by her lover after giving her a baby. Yogi convinces her to breast feed the baby.

Sequence of events reveals that the baby's mother real mother Caroline (Swathi) is desperate to get her child back while her husband Linden (Vincent Asokan), who married her knowing well that the baby is not his, decides to fins the baby and kill it.

Meanwhile a flashback reveals Yogi's past. Thanks to his father (Devaraj) a beggar, he has had a terrible childhood. His mother ending her life and sister beaten to death by his father on front of his eyes. Though Yogi develops a bond with the child, he decides to leave it to its original parents. But fate has other plans. Yogi eventually loses his life only after reuniting the baby with her mother. The cops close in on Yogi as he decides to give the child back to its parents, leading to a climax twist.

Hats off to producer Ameer for giving a different film, certainly no mindless mass masala movie. But the gory and bloodshed could have been avoided. Subramaniam Siva has liven up the proceedings with a racy script. All in all, Yogi is a brutal yet livable experience on screen.