When
a director debuts, great things are not expected.
It is unfair to ask a newcomer to match up to the
more experienced hands in the field. However, the
debutant is expected not to make a complete hash of
the job at hand. Chella somehow manages to do exactly
that. He had with him, all the makings of a winner.
Ajith, hot after Varalaaru; Asin and Ajith’s
pair in Varalaaru, Vivek and a few others. But the
movie does not live up to what was expected from Ajith
after Varalaaru’s success.
Beginning
with the script, (written by the director himself)
it stops and starts every few minutes. The momentum
is never really gathered, it’s all in
fits and starts. The script writer appears confused
as to how he wants to treat the movie. The movie
begins with Ajith being shown as a priest (Aalwar)
in a temple. Righteous as the hero is supposed
to be, he becomes a thorn in the flesh of a
few devious guys. They wipe out his family and
what follows is the hero’s saga of vengeance.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it. But things
could have been executed well even with this
pretty jaded storyline. The director’s
immaturity shows through. He tries to delight
Ajith fans in a very honest attempt but sadly
falls short.
Ajith’s
presence is the only thing that makes one sit
through the movie. Scenes involving the Ultimate
Star leave an impression. But the moment he
is off the screen the movie sags and drags until
he returns again. Other characters have not
been well etched. Asin is wasted. She comes
and goes in the songs. The few scenes that she
has, appear tiring. Keerthi Chawla, the other
heroine has almost nothing to do. Vivek, out
of form for quite some time continues his lean
patch. His attempt at making the audience smile
elicits little response; the script too fails
to support him.
Veteran,
Manorama comes and goes, not much to mention.
The main villain’s ‘cast in stone’
expressions do not help the cause of the movie.
He does not look threatening enough to give
strength to Ajith’s character. The fight
scenes, choreographed by Super Subbarayan are
one of the few highlights of the movie. Ajith
has performed each one of them wholeheartedly,
hats off to him. Camerawork too maintains respectable
standards. Music by Srikanth Deva is ordinary
at best. It doest not support or do much harm
to the cause of the movie.
All
in all, a movie that fails to impress because of
the director’s inexperience. Cannot say that
Chella has no future, but he needs to work very
hard on his script writing and presentation. Ajith
on the other hand squanders all his hard work with
a poor choice of film. He certainly must pay more
attention to the offers that he accepts. Being a
director’s actor is fine, but he must know
where to draw the line and ask for better handling.
As an actor and star, Ajith does his lot with commitment.
