VISITOR COLUMN

'Mainstream' cinema to me is one which takes the liberty of overriding logical glitches in the script with irresistible engagement in story telling so much so that you tend to overlook these seemingly implausible things which wont most probably happen in real life for the kind of entertainment it provides. The more tautly and sensibly it is presented, the more it goes down well with the audience looking for quality in entertaining cinema. And this is where director Anand Shankar scores. Taking up a simple plot of wronged accusation, he has made a suspense trailer which catches you on the edge of your seats for most of the time. ' Arima Nambi' has several things going  in its favor like a watertight script, unexpected plot twists springing out of nowhere and powerful character. But what it essentially lacks is the 'credibility' factor which stunts the experience of watching a nail-biting suspense unfolding quite ostensibly, especially in the second half.  Having said that, the director also makes it really tough for the audience to ponder on it much with his superfast screenplay.

The director gets his characterizations bang on right from the main leads to the supporting artists. Rarely do we get to see a male lead in Indian cinema who takes a girl to a dinner date  the day after they met, has a few drinks with her, gets invited to her place at night and still refuses to judge her! Vikram Prabhu gets an awesome make-over as the energetic and charming Arjun Krishna, and he carries himself with style. But the ease with which a young banker grasps the gun and handles potentially life-threatening situations effortlessly never gets explained. Priya Anand plays the affluent Anamika like a breeze, looking confident and ravishing as usual. Again, she is not a silent spectator to be rescued by her lover at the end, but a character who uses her brains to help the protagonist. Anamika parties at the Hard-Rock cafe without posing as a slut, is comfortable with her alcohol, dates her male friend of two days and defends her decisions till the end. Bravo Anand! JD. Chakravarthy playing   the powerful 'wolf in sheep's clothing' antagonist fits the role perfectly.  MS. Bhaskar is a natural in his well written character, and brings in a key twist in the storyline.

Anand Shankar takes five mins to introduce the characters, and comes to the point straight away, and half an hour into the movie, we are stumped and started at the amount of things that have happened with no clues/connections whatsoever. He eases into the main resolution soon after while adding additional conflicts at regular intervals. Well done, again. He keeps the distracting songs to a bare minimum of three, which does help to pace up the narrative. The opening song at The Hard Rock Cafe has Drums Sivamani's name written all over it, and he impresses with his lively beats. His background score is again brilliant serving to edge the tension a few notches higher. R.D Rajasekhar's camera captures all the drama stylishly and makes even the most implausible scenes seem convincing. The film would have shaped better without the party song just before the interval and the duet in the second half. But alas!

However, Anand Shankar doesn’t let mindless mushy romance or dim-witted comedy come in his way of story-telling. The girl doesn’t break into a jive soon after her dad dies. The guy doesn’t make out with her soon after escaping from a near-death experience. The humor is subtle and inbuilt, and works very much to the film's favor.

Arima Nambi might have the staunch loyalists of logical cinema frown and wiggle in their seats. But what it effectively does, is enthrall the audience with a stylish, sensible, well-written suspense thriller which hooks you for most of the time.  Definitely worth a watch.