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Vaaranam Aayiram – Review |
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| Behindwoods
Movie Review Board |
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Starring:
Suriya, Simran, Sameera Reddy, Divya
Direction: Gautham Menon
Music:
Harris Jayaraj
Production: Aascar Ravichandran |
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Gautam Vasudev Menon’s Vaaranam Ayiram is intended to
be a biography of an ordinary man. What could have been a
subtly told story turns into a sloppy fare with way too much
of daddy-glorification and emotional I-love-you-and-I-see-you-in-everything-dialogues.
However, this memoirs-of-my-dad would have been a wonderful
watch if it did not adopt a schmaltzy narrative often, more
often than you think actually, interrupted with songs.
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Gautam
has derived inspiration for Vaaranam Ayiram from his
own life and hence the movie is by and large close to
real life with only very few scenes seeming out of place.
Like the middle-class Surya, whose dad struggles to
keep up with his family’s expenses, flies down
to the USA in search of his love-at-first-sight Sameera
- now that is far fetched. However, as clichéd
as his love might seem, his sufferings sound more genuine
– a feeling that the ‘Anjale’ song
only upsurges.
The movie opens with an older version of Surya, suffering
from throat cancer, succumbing to his disease. With
the bare minimum background score and subdued acting,
the scene helps to mound the expectations for a few
minutes. The news then is conveyed to the son, played
by Surya again, who is on a defense operation somewhere
in Kashmir. The rest of the movie is the son’s
reminiscences of his father – the son’s
role overriding the father’s in the process, however.
The first half of the movie drifts away with nothing
significant in the offing. In less than half-hour, it
breaks into two songs. Surya (dad/son) falls in love
twice and loses the love of his life. The second half,
however, spruces up with the kidnap episode and the
journalist rescue operation.
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Vaaranam
Aayiram is an out and out Surya show. When the man disrobes
his tee to flaunt his rippling muscles acquired after hard
slog, the ladies scream their lungs out. His subtle expressions
after losing out his dad to cancer score as good as his screams
and emotional turbulence after losing his girl. Surya Senior’s
makeup screams for attention, though.
Simran comes a close second with her puffed eyes and refined
articulation of emotions announcing that she is ageing gracefully.
Sameera has a constant grin, which is adorable. But all she
could come up with after seeing her stalker at her doorsteps
in the US is a surprised expression after getting a scoop
of her favorite ice cream unexpectedly. Surya – Sameera’s
first meet in the train is well conceived and executed. Divya,
however, is in her quietest form oozing loads of sophisticated
attitude.
There are touching and heart-warming moments in the movie;
however, they are few and far between. Like the scene in which
the cancer patient dad expresses his helplessness in telling
stories to his grandson since his vocal chords no longer support
him and Simran’s emotional silent outburst when she
is being told that her husband is about to start his final
procession to the burial ground.
Harris’ music complements Thamarai’s lyrics with
almost all songs, albeit termed as interruptions, hummable.
And as Sudha Raghunathan breaks into the Anal
Mele song in her unconventionally mellifluous voice, the movie’s
sluggish pace is curtailed. Adiye Kolluthe, partly rendered
by Shruti Hassan, seems to mark the beginning of Tamil punk-rock.
The three hour long movie advocates non-smoking heavily and
hits the smokers hard with the harsh reality of its consequences
– cancer, for instance.
Verdict
- Surya show!
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