Aarambam

Its a rarity in movies that style meets substance. Vishnuvardhan’s Ajith flick Aarambam is one such movie where style and substance meet and make the film an entertaining watch. Having said that, the substance/content/story is nothing fresh or new but the treatment and presentation stands out for the execution of the plot. Credit for that goes to the script with very few dragging scenes. I would term the movie as a predictable action thriller that stands out for the style quotient.

And for that style factor, no better man than Ajith or Thala as he is popularly called and he is the right man for the role tailor made for him. The first half keeps us guessing as to what the character of Ajith is and the acts he commit make the viewers thinking but the latter half reveals the true story and by midway through the second half, we get a feel of where the film is heading.

I am not going to reveal anything on the plot now and become a party spoiler. You can watch it and know it by yourself the suspense and drama that unfolds.

director Vishnuvardhan did something that few other directors wouldn’t dare to in such kinda movies. He didn’t bring Santhanam to this movie as comic relief and assigned that responsibility on Aarya & Tapasee. This is kinda risk mainly because such people are expected in commercial masala entertainers. Second one if Ajith & Nayanthara aren’t portrayed as lovers. But as far as scripting is concerned, there wasn’t a moment which can be termed as innovative. But surely he had Ajith in the lead role because only a charismatic actor like Ajith can pull that role off. For example the “elevator” scene in the hospital was vintage Ajith with Yuvan’s terrific theme music. So the script is meant for projecting Ajith n Ajith only. But Vishnu did come up with some stylish frames which was kinda missing from Ajith’s previous hit “Mankatha”. Those frames did provide the fans to cheer. I found the college scenes of Arya pretty boring and avoidable. It affected the length of the movie somehow.This movie provides loads of moments which questions logic at many places (which is tough to reveal) and I believe it was an extremely feeble effort from the makers by expecting the audience to forgive such stupid flaws because its a commercial entertainer. It was quite weird to see many Tamilians in Mumbai..If thats so, why can’t they simply used Chennai as the backdrop???

This is Ajith Movie….Eventhough signs of ageing n potbelly is visible…the bassy voice n each moment he wears the glare simply cover those flaws. Aarya had to simply play the second fiddle n I am not sure what made him agree to this role considering his stature in the industry. This is my first Nayanthara cine experience after her comeback and she was looking hot n confident. Tapasee was loud n irritating with her “baby” talks. Rana Daggubatti looked cool in the cameo while Mahesh Manjrekar looked extremely comfortable in Tamil. Kishore, Athul Kulkarni,Suman Ranganathan etc etc did their job well while Akshara Gowda got surprisingly a good role.

Yuvran’s background score was one of the major lifeline of this movie eventhough the theme music did reminded me of the first trailer music of Casanovva. Songs are placed like any commercial entertainer starting with a dappankuthu song for the hero (Adadada Arrambame…) followed by a romantic song for the second pair (En Fuse Pochu…) followed by some fast numbers.Om Prakash frames just added to the style quotient of the movie while I wish Sreekar could have chopped down those college scenes as whole. the action choreography especially the boat chase and the commando attack were simply terrific

On the performance side, its the mass appeal and style of Ajith that stands out but Arya, Nayanthara and Tapassee have supported the main protagonist very well. Mahesh Manjrekar, Atul Kulkarni, Rana Dagubatti, Kishore and Suman Ranganathan forms rest of the supporting casts and they are fine in their respective roles.

The negatives I would say is the length which could have been trimmed a bit and also the climax was for me an average one. But that cannot take any credit away from the film.

The making style I would say is done in an enterprising way by Vishnuvardhan and this has been largely helped by the script and Ajith’s screen presence. Songs, background score and editing have played their part to help the film to a large extent.

If you are a Thala fan, Aarambam is a must watch and for others the movie won’t disappoint you.

My rating is 3.5 / 5