Yevan?
Oftentimes, the universe drops hints.
I knew something was up when, hardly after two weeks since opening, the folks at Dhanya replaced Aaranya Kandam with some other movie. But I brightened when I saw Bala’s new movie, Avan Ivan had released recently. The punchlines on the wall posters of the movie promised “competition, under the valiant charioteering of Bala”. (Btw, since when did punchlines sink to Sun TV Tamil-dubbed Hollywood movie levels?)
The rodent’s scent just kept getting stronger as I bought tickets. Um… prima facie, it doesn’t feel at all like a Bala movie, I thought.
Not to wax melodramatic, but I’ve just witnessed some spectacular pieces of acting that inspire awe as standalone performances, but hopelessly fall apart at the end due to an unforgivable blunder: there’s practically no story whatsoever. The movie goes down numerous blind alleys, tiring out the viewer and leaving him clueless as to what the hell the movie is all about. Damn it, the title promises some kind of contrast between two people! The movie isn’t even a saga that chronicles the lives of two people (one of the desperate attempts I made, mid-movie, to make sense of the burlesque).
I guess this is Vishal’s Bala movie. As with Vikram, Surya and Arya before him, he’s delivered a tremendous performance in his breakthrough movie - Bala does that to you, I guess.
First half comedy, second half grave denouement and strong climax. Either Bala’s tried to make a potboiler movie with some splendid sequences thrown in, or he’s tried to make a good movie and miserably failed. I want to believe it is the former. Meandering, irrelevant and contrived sequences abound - the whole second half, in fact. “Highness” Zamindar’s utter breakdown after learning about Arya’s girl gives one to expect the story to continue in this direction, but it fizzles out. Whatever happened to that lorry that Vishal drives away with that bears a crore’s worth of goods? Neither Arya nor Vishal perform convincing drunken acting. The two female interests serve only as eye candy, and the chemistry with their respective men is developed and abandoned. The two shrews, and indeed all other character developments work up great expectations, only to die out one by one. Worst of all, the whole cattle affair and eventual climax is a pathetic deus ex machina - serving only to tie a few of the many loose ends of the film and bring about a conclusion.
On the laudable side, it is, after all, a Bala film. His customary attention to detail enthralls. The fat kid impresses greatly! Vishal steals the show with his stunt sequences, intro dance, squint-eyed look, exposition of Nava rasas and his beyond-godawesome effeminate act. Super Subbarayan is super.
Feeling cheated and disappointed, I slowly made my way home. It is revolting to think of how some great individual performances have been made to look foolish. I certainly did not expect such drivel from such a director as Bala.
