One of the few directors in Tamizh cinema with a high success ratio, Gautham Vasudev Menon comes up with a experimental and daring movie after scoring with his Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya big time. He has chosen the psychological thriller genre which is quite a rarely chosen one in Tamizh cinema.. Many comparisons have been made with the ever green Bharathiraja classic Sigappu Rojakkal before the release of this movie. After watching the movie, there's only one verdict and it's DISAPPOINTMENT. It's no where near the Sigappu Rojakkal and Gautham did not deliver on his promise of a thrilling movie. The movie fails to do that so and there are quite a number of loopholes which questions the logic of the screenplay.
On the acting front, there aren't much of characters here as the whole movie is focused on the lead artiste. Newcomer Veera has delivered a very good performance as the psychologically affected teenager who also happens to suffer from multiple personality disorder. Gautham has done a good job by extracting the best from Veera and his body language and tone was perfect though at times he tends to shout too loud. But kudos to him for balancing the act of 3 different personalities. Sameera Reddy as the tortured 'prisoner' did a fine job as well and she really conveyed the emotions wonderfully. Swapna as the caretaker of Veera was brilliant be it in the flashback and also as the 'illusion-ed' Meenakshi Amma.. Deva as the police officer was an average act as he did not really fit in to the role as he looked amateurish in a police uniform.
Gettin on to the technical department, the usual Gautham's team is behind all the work and except for the absence of the music director. Manoj Paramahamsa did a good job with his handling of the camera with many top angle shots especially in the scenes focusing the perimeters of the house and zooming into the face of the characters and most of the duration of the film has been filmed at night. One particular shot which really deserves plaudits for the director and the cinematographer is the opening shots of the credits where the firing of the police officer with a gun shot takes place. That slow moving and water splashing end to reveal the title credits was simply superb. Rajeevan has come up with simple house sets and mostly depended on Gautham's favorite colors of white and blue. Anthony's editing was fast and sharp with the transition of scenes with the viper effect being the highlight. Nalini Sriram has little work to do as there's not much of scope on costumes since every character has to be dressed like an ordinary person. Coming to the captain of the ship, Gautham should be appreciated for coming up with a movie which dwell on the psychological thriller genre there must be some suspense element in the film which was really missing since it really fails to thrill the audience. It only made some of them to squirm in their seats. It was a novel attempt from Gautham to come with a film without any sort of music but that decision did not really work in favor of the film. A sudden silence together with raw and natural sounds in a film can elevate the thrilling moments in a film with has good background score but a whole film with only live sounds will actually take out the eerie feeling created by haunting music. Though it is chilling to know that this movie was based on a true story of a psychologically affected person, Gautham failed to create a tight and engaging screen play as sometimes the movie tends to drag. By the way it was cheeky of him to come up with a scene where the characters in the movie goes to the cinema to catch a movie of his own with the title "Abaayam" which also happens to be a thriller with the poster of Veera!!
Overall, Gautham should have done a better job in coming up with a more convincing and gripping thriller and it was a heavy disappointment to see him fail in that aspect. Technically the movie is of high quality and international standard but then the main criteria is weak. Hope Gautham comes up with a better package next time.
Rating: 1.5/5 STARS
BY: TAMIL
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