VISITOR COLUMN

Anjaan, produced by UTV’s Siddharth Roy Kapur and Thirrupathi Brothers’ N.Subhash Chandra Bose hit the screens on India’s Independence Day amidst high expectations arising from the stellar cast and technical team.

Another Mumbai-based gangster film from the Kollywood stables, Anjaan follows the tried-and-tested path where friendship, rivalry and betrayal play crucial roles to set the story in motion just like in other movies of similar genre.  The storyline from the start until the end is predictable although there are a couple of twists which seemed ineffective.  Like any other commercial film, punch dialogues are plentiful with one of it being repeated a few times.

Surya excels in his role as the stylish gangster Raju Bhai and his alter-ego, Krishna. He pulls off both roles with absolute ease. We have seen Surya playing the two-in-one role before so it isn’t a new thing. Vidyut Jamwal plays his first non-negative role in Tamil. Vidyut as Chandru, Raju Bhai’s best friend plays his part well but somewhat under-utilised. Samantha as Jeeva, Raju’s love interest looks gorgeous and had a good run in the film with her cheerful and bubbly expressions. The antagonist’s role is played by Manoj Bajpai and he pulls off an easy role as a suave gangster, Imran Bhai. Soori who plays the role of a taxi driver, evokes laughter with his one-liners as usual. The rest of the cast such as Dalip Tahil, Asif Basra, Murli Sharma do justice to their roles.

Anjaan featured a top-notch technical team, led by ace cinematographer Santhosh Sivan. The visuals are rich and the DoP’s expertise is very much evident in the end product. The action sequences are shot deftly and the songs are visually appealing. In the music department, Yuvan Shankar Raja has done a commendable job. The background music is apt, neither too loud nor monotonous. Stunts by Silva are well-executed although there were some stunts which did go beyond the laws of physics. Editor Anthony did his job well as the cuts were well placed although the end product could have been crisper.

Anjaan is an entertaining action-commercial film, which will please hardcore Surya fans and the action buffs. It also has its share of flaws such as a predictable storyline and climax, an unnecessary scene (Brahmanandam’s scene) and a lengthy runtime of 3 hours. It could have been a better end product. In a nutshell, go without any serious expectations and you will not be disappointed.

Rating: 2.5/5