ARIMA NAMBI MOVIE REVIEW

“Rowdies can stab with a knife, shoot with a gun, but when it comes to fighting, they fall on the weaker side because of their excess consumption of alcohol and biriyani.” This dialogue delivered by an interesting character in the film sets up Arima Nambi.

 

The movie is pleasingly stylish (kudos to the wondrous visuals by R.D Rajasekhar) and engagingly pacy. The opening of the story in a pub might set one on the verge of expecting a candy floss romance tale. However a rapid series of events that follow, pull the audience out of the initial impression they might have developed, getting them to witness an applause worthy climax at the Chennai airport. The movie surprisingly does not have any mushy romance scenes (no time for romance in the script), which explains the director’s keenness in brewing out a sensible entertainer.

 

Director Anand Shankar appears to have been an obedient student from the A.R Murugadoss school, chanting the efficacious ARM mantra – make it pacy and stylish – keep the audience guessing  – hold on to the pulse of the people.

 

Vikram Prabhu is robust, good looking and every time he takes on the baddies, his physical appearance justifies every punch he makes. He has been able to deliver exactly what was required and the handsome hunk is just getting better with every movie.

 

Priya Anand looks elegant and definitely in vogue. Her performance is simple and mature.

 

Anand Shankar has been astute enough, not to include mindless comedy elements that any commercial entertainer would demand. The movie - which easily falls in the thriller genre - however does have some good humour. (Now comedy and humour are different from each other – aren’t they?)

 

The selection of the villain is an interesting move by the casting team, whose name, if mentioned, might be a spoiler, as it is palpable that the director wanted to keep the face of the villain as a surprise, by the way he is introduced in the film.

 

Talking about surprises, it should be noted that M.S Bhaskar’s character in the film is a surprise element that the actor has packaged well.

 

Sivamani’s music has blended well with the breath-taking visuals captured by cinematographer R.D Rajasekhar, which might make one want to overlook the wanton placement of the romance song in the second half of the movie.

 

The director clearly has adequate knowledge of the present day world – the general hang out spots of the youth, the world of the internet – and a lot of research appears to have gone in to learn the type of gadgets policemen and media use for investigations and tracking. A minor flaw would be the “upload” interface on YouTube. 

Also Vikram Prabhu's character fights his situation with ease and with a lot of skill. Justification of how the character with his humble background is able to do what he does in the movie is not strong enough, making it one of the glaring weakness in the script. 

 

Kalaipuli S. Thanu’s V Creations marks a decent comeback by producing Arima Nambi, which is a gratifying commercial flick, with some neat performances all round.