@AchchamYenbadhuMadamaiyada / @AYM – Movie Review

‘Achcham Enbadhu Madamaiyada’ directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon is a yet another thriller where an ordinary man sees an extra-ordinary situation that he cannot withstand. Looking at the inconsistency in writing, it is obvious that Gautham Menon has been in a dilemma whether to try more of a ‘logic less commercial’ stuff in the second half or to stay with his regular style; that has been the biggest issue with AYM.

GVM has also experimented on blending 2 extremely contrast genres before and after the interval. The first half is a complete romance drama that focuses primarily on the love episode alone. After a very long time, a Tamil film has all its 5 songs in the first half itself and no one will see them as speed breakers. All the 5 songs are very well-picturised and are value-adding to the script. The picturization of the much anticipated ‘Thalli Pogaathey’ is a small disappointment, despite being placed in a perfect situation where the script takes a crucial turn.

The startling interval block sets the bar high for the second half. Whereas the second half was so faltering with a very convenient writing (It was indeed a surprise to see guns that never runs out of bullets in GVM’s films); nevertheless to say, the climax was a very big let-down. Few scenes that were made in GVM’s style shined as his signature, while many others were like uninteresting clichés. Surprisingly, the dialogues in this GVM film were not too sharp; some simple conversations like ‘Naama thappey pannaadhappo nammalai thappaa nenachaa, thappaayidum’ were likable, however dialogues in some pivotal scenes were not inspiring.

The repetitiveness in the dialogues, the too-much usage of ‘voice over’ for the protagonist, the villains who were not so menacing over a point of time, twists that did not make any impact at all, things that looked so hurried and abruptly done – all together spoilt the second half completely. The climax twist which was supposed to be a ‘mass factor’ was neither convincing nor cheered by the audience – that twist and the small flashback about the villains was badly executed.

Coming to performance, Simbhu has given a great comeback and tried his best to save the film doing his part fairly. His measured performance in the love scenes and emotions in the second half was commendable. It was so lovable to see him deliver such a quality performance after a number of overdone masala acts alone. All credits to GVM who does make the best use of this guy’s charisma and acting potential. If STR does focus on his career sincerely and start choosing projects wisely, then there is no stopping for him from becoming a star loved by everyone. Manjima Mohan’s chemistry with Simbhu in the first half was too good, but she was so invisible in terms of performance once the film gets in to the action track. A.R.Rahman’s chartbuster songs has been the primary crowd puller for this film; the background score highly contributes to the intensity of the film – the BGM in the pre-climax and climax portion alone looked so ordinary. Dan Macarthur’s wowtastic cinematography has been another biggest asset of AYM, offering us the best of the exquisiteness of Kanniyakumari, Kerala, Chennai and Turkey.

On the whole, Achcham Enbadhu Madamaiyada is a middling entertainer with a pleasant first half 🙂 and a highly disappointing second half 😦

– Rahman (www.fb.com/rahman.machinist)

@YennaiArindhaal – Movie Review

For so many reasons, Ajith’s #YENNAI_ARINDHAAL is one of the most anticipated films of 2015. Since this is the first time Ajith and director Gautham Vasudev Menon are teaming up, the audience are looking forward for a massive action thriller with GVM’s classy touches. There is another special reason for movie buffs to expect ‘Yennai Arindhaal’ that the most loved GVM – Harris Jayaraj combo have reunited after 6 years; also, the pretty pair Ajith & Trisha are acting together for the 4^th time. ‘Yennai Arindhaal’ also boasts of a strong technical team including the Australia-based cinemtographer Dan Macarthur; the scripting team has very promising names like Thiagarajan Kumararaja and Sridhar Raghavan. The film’s principal photography began in April 2014 and the shooting was wrapped in January 2015. The songs are already a big hit and the trailer was very impressive; hence, there is sky-high expectations among the audience. Has Gautham Menon given another interesting Cop film that satisfies the audience’s expectations? Read on, to know!

STORY:
‘YENNAI ARINDHAAL’ is the story of a man’s (Sathya Dev) journey, from the age of 13 till the age of 38. The tale revolves around the people whom he meets in his life during that time period.

First things first! Director Gautham Vasudev Menon is very well-known for showing actors in a very different style from their usual one in his films or in a style in which they were never seen before (‘Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu’ Kamal, ‘VTV’ Simbhu, ‘Kaakha Kaakha’ Surya, ‘Pachaikili Muthucharam’ Sarath Kumar). Same way, #Thala Ajith is seen in a completely new Avatar! Believe me, no director had shown him this handsome and charismatic in any film never before, especially in the pre-interval portions; even haters will enjoy watching Ajith’s screen presence in this film. Director #Gautham_Vasudev_Menon has given an emotional action thriller for #Ajith fans. With no doubts, people will have a lot of expectations for this film in comparison with KAAKHA KAAKHA and VETTAIYADU VILAIYADU; that has been the biggest challenge for the director actually. Despite the fact that GVM has not made any changes to please Ajith, he has made some commercial compromises like unwanted songs and adding Vivek’s character which was not a necessity exactly.

The film starts with the introduction song of Themozhi (Anushka), followed by the Hero & Villain’s intros respectively; then, begins the flashback. The film takes more than 30 minutes to settle down and then goes in a right flow. The final cat & mouse game between Sathya Dev and Victor was interesting, however one feels it is too lengthy after a point of time; also, the too-much of shouting over the phone was also disturbing. The romance portion in the film is so lovely and has worked out very well, despite the fact that it heavily reminds us of Raghavan – Aaradhanaa’s love. As like in all other films of GVM, #YA also has sharp dialogues. Not only in the heroic build-up punches, but also in very casual conversations. A scene where one of the villain asks the other ‘Enakku konjam time venum’ and gets a reply ‘Ethu illaiyo athai than ketkura nee’ is an example. Other punches like ‘98% police kaaranga Gun’aiye thoda maataanga’, ‘Unga ammaa poi sollala’, ‘Tableukku munnaala utkaara mudiyala.. nikka mudiyala.. thaanga mudiyala’ were few mentionable dialogues. The aptly placed popular lines like ‘Sandaiyila kizhiyaatha sattai enga irukku’ were really enjoyable.

Even though YENNAI ARINDHAAL is completely GVM’s film, it is Ajith’s show all the way! Ajith occupies the screen in 90% of the scenes and has given his best in all aspects as Sathya Dev, which will be a great treat for his fans. It is delightful to see Ajith in such romance portions; I believe the last time we saw him in such a role was in KANDUKONDEIN KANDUKONDEIN only! Arun Vijay, an actor who is in the process of stabilizing himself in the industry after giving a decent film must be appreciated for daring to choose such a negative role in a mass hero’s film. He has actually risked his career by doing this, but all his efforts are paid off fruitfully; he scores equalling Ajith in the last 40 minutes. Most of us would have thought that Trisha cannot be seen so beautiful in a character like Jessie in VTV, but Gautham Menon has disproved it in this film with lots of angelic looks. Trisha looks so gorgeous and her performance is lovable in the role of Hemanika. Anushka comes in a very small role and has nothing much to speak about. Even though not necesaarily needed in the script, Vivek provides the needed humour relief here and there. Baby Anikha as Sathya Dev’s daughter is so cute and has delivered a beautiful performance; though the team could have spent some time on finding two kids looking alike or taken some other efforts to show some difference when the kid is 6 years old and 10 years old. All other actors including Avinash, Ashish Vidhyarthi have done their part in a decent manner.

The film boasts of its technical finesse. Dan Macarthur’s cinematography is one of the biggest assets of #YA; his adorable camera work in both the action sequences and in the cool song visuals is of commendably high standards. Harris Jayaraj’s songs are of great value to the film; however, the BGM is so ordinary & repetitive and fails to be consistently good, it also looks hurried. The Harris – GVM magic in background score is totally missing (even though the film had awesome scoring in few scenes)! Anthony’s editing could have been much more better, where we feel not being in sync with the story’s flow few times with jumps here and there. Surprisingly unlike other GVM films, songs appear in YENNAI ARINDHAAL without a reason or purpose. Both ‘Yen ennai’ and ‘Mayabazar’ songs are just mere additions, which seems to be added only to increase the screen space for the heroines; also, Adhaaru Udhaaru song looks forcibly added and does not add any value at all. To be frank, removing all these 3 songs will make no difference to the film. The biggest minus of Yennai Arindhaal is its 3 hours running time, the slow paced screenplay, the first 30 minutes which isn’t much interesting and the lengthy pre-climax portions. Also, Yennai Arindhaal reminds us of GVM’s previous 2 cop films to a great extent both intentionally and unintentionally.

Having said the pluses and minuses, 2 things are for sure…
1) Yennai Arindhaal will be one of the notably important films in Ajith’s career.
2) He will do a film with GVM again sometime soon.

RATING: 3.5/5

VERDICT: A clear winner for Ajith & GVM combo!

Review by: Rahman

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