BEHINDWOODS COLUMN

How can a classy cop go down to the road and dance for a peppy number? How can an elegant gentleman use profanity with such style and ease? How can a dancer look so beautiful in a simple saree with a big round bindhi? Yes, it can happen in Gautham Menon's Yennai Arindhaal. While all my colleagues went ga-ga about using a ‘mass’ hero in Gautham Menon’s film and how they were waiting for its release, I kept calm and waited for the storm. It was a direct hit; right on my face. I sat in the theater amidst all the howls and screams stunned, for giving us Ajith as Sathyadev who you would fall in love with. Not a single movement, I consumed the film frame by frame without a blink. I experienced a new profound love for Ajith and Gautham Menon. I have defragmented the film to my understanding. 

 

Ajith vs Sathyadev

 

With a bucket of ‘mass’ films like Kaththi, Lingaa, ‘I’ and now Yennai Arindhaal, most people watched them for its star value. To me Yennai Arindhaal was all about Sathyadev and not Ajith. Gautham Menon has taken out the mass factor in Ajith and gave him the Sathyadev mask. And without a doubt Ajith was the perfect fit. Well, this is how a film should be taken. A director should want to fit in a hero/actor in the lead role in his script rather than write a script for the hero/mass factor. Only Ajith could do the perfect Sathyadev. Be it using abusive words (though it was muted, lip movement says it all) or wearing those classy white shirts on khaki pants or confessing his love or enacting a caring father or dancing for a ‘kuthu’ song, such multifaceted elegance and effortless performance can’t be found in any other actor. Sathyadev definitely marks a new Ajith to all his fans.

 

GVM’s touch

 

When it is a love story there is a trademark that GVM makes the best use of. Although Yennai Arindhaal consisted almost a mix of Kaakka Kaakka and Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu and the story was very predictable from the beginning, those sparkling moments of action sequences, the much-needed and well-fitted song breaks and all his characters make the film a definite watch (more than once). The story displays human emotions more prominently than just a tough cop fighting to save the world. Here Sathyadev is a poised gentleman and a classy cop who falls in love just like any other person from an upper middle class segment.

 

Portrayal of women in GVM’s films is something that I always look for. Though Trisha comes in just for a few minutes in the film, she depicts an independent and a single mother whose other half is her daughter. Beauty in the eyes of God, purity in her nature and serenity in her looks, Trisha steals the first half of the movie as she took Hemanika to the heights of Jessie from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya. Anushka Shetty plays another independent single woman who falls in love with Sathyadev at first sight! Can it still happen? ( the love at first sight). In GVM’s film, it can, in the most convincing way.

 

The most sought after villain

 

A lost talent redeemed himself and regained some momentum with his performance here. This was Victor played by Arun Vijay at par excellence. One thing about Victor in Yennai Arindhaal is that, he looks as classy, angry and fierce as Sathyadev. His high energy performance in the last 30 minutes stole the show and that intensity was needed. The phone sequence for 5 minutes where Sathyadev and Victor talk (in split screen), showcases his unknown performance facet in a brilliant way. Be it the stunt sequence or showcasing his love interest, Arun Vijay deserved the much-needed appreciation.

 

Expectations fulfilled?

 

I watched this film as a neutral audience. To me this film brings back the Ajith of yore from performance based movies like Vaali, Villain, and Citizen, he was a class apart to take a script like this after Arrambam and Veeram, and it is a daring move. In Harris’ music composition, the songs and BGM were very apt. The background score not once looked like it was propelled into the film, but it blended in the film with an urban and contemporary touch.

 

Though Yennai Arindhaal is a predictable feast for GVM’s crowd, watch it for the long lost Ajith who is there in every frame of the film but not once does he bore you. Watch it for the emotional connect with the silver screen that you have longed. Watch it for the union of brilliant performers, contemporary storytelling and newfangled love interests.

 

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