Varanam Aayiram - Movie Review

The wife and i spent yet another friday evening at the sathyam multiplex complex catching up on famed director Gautham menon's latest offering staring his favourite hero surya. The promos of the movie were pretty cool showing surya in various getups including one with a awesome six-pack. The movie had also been in the news for various things including the fact that it was for 2-years in the making, financial problems with the rights being ultimately purchased by the infamous MK Azhagiri , the son of the Tamilnadu chief minister and its final foray into the theatres was eagerly expected. The music by Harris Jayaraj was already a hit with a number of soothing pleasant numbers.

At the end of the unusually long film (about 3.5 hours), i would say that it is a pretty good effort overall though by the time, we reached the end, most of the guys in the theatre including myself were yawning and this was not certainly due to the fact that it was 2:00 AM in the morning. The film tracks the life of Major surya who is embarking on an important mission to rescue a journalist who is held by terrorists and who has just been informed that his father krishnan (surya again) has just passed away after a fight with cancer. Krishnan has been surya's hero right from childhood and they have shared a close bond over the years. The film tracks the time from the glorious 70s when a smart young college goer, krishnan woos his college mate malini (Simran with a hideous wig) and marries her. Subsequent scenes then turn their attention on to the adventures of their son Surya who cruises through his life right from being a naughty teenager to a fun-loving college goer to his romances/failures and subsequently Surya discovering a mission for himself in life. A number of characters/ events are throw into the mix including: Sameera Reddy as the smart, acadmically brilliant Meghna who sweeps Surya off his feet in their fist meeting itself, which leads to a cute albeit cinematic romance which ends in a terrible tragedy; Divya Spandana as the calm neighbour pining for Surya and who ultimately marries him; the romance/love between Krishnan and malini as they help their son navigate through life etc.,

At the end, one was left wondering at a couple of things. Surya's outstanding performance in changing everything from his body language to his physical side in conveying the different characters. Rememeber Krishnan and Surya are characters essentially being essayed by the same actor but they have to appear on the same frame on a number of occassions. Think about the 6-pack clad Major surya and the aging Krishnan who can hardly talk as cancer grips him talking to each other in a single scene. The movie is an example for brilliant editing and the fact that surya has to transform himself into a number of characters itself justifies the 2-year long wait. Nevertheless, the movie was a wee bit too long and a number of things like surya's foray into drugs due to Meghna's tragedy, the susequent helping in the rescue of a friend's child from terrorists etc., only serve to elongate the story without any meaningful reason. Also the movie focusses little on surya's sister as all the action seems to be around Surya and a little more diligence in this angle would have aided the storyline better. This further frustrates the audience as an end seems nowhere in sight. The movie cannot expect a repeat audience and will be a product that can be consumed just about once.

All the actors do justice to their roles. Surya is outstanding, Sameera fits the role to a glove, Divya spandana is adequate and Simran is just fabulous as the ageing mother/wife (her natural outburst when krishnan is diagnosed with cancer is lovely and extremely natural) though her makeup as a college student was just plain hideous. Also this is one movie where the last line in the movie explains the rationale for the title as the family comes to terms with Krishnan's death (describing krishnan as the person who can tackle a thousand elephants with each elephant being linked to a new problem in life and who comes out succesful). Gautham who has been mentioning that this movie is a tribute to his own father who has been his mentor in life has done a competent job, however the issues in the movie especially the length of the movie are not going to set the box-office on fire. Gautham is defiintley one of our best directors with some really brilliant movies and i am looking forward to him learning from his mistakes and giving us some classics in the days to come. And surya does stand alone as the only beacon to the futue of tamil cinema as the only really talented hero from the current pack who really has the potential to become an extraodinary actor (and who does not get tied to the image hangover)