Vasanthabalan, a film-maker who makes films which revolves about deep human emotions and harsh realities of the unforgiving world, comes up with a period film this time. Vasanthabalan's handling of his script is a well-known fact and there i no doubts in his capabilities of offering a good film. His past records speaks for him with "Angaadi Theru" nearly missing the National Award and "Veyil" managed to get itself showcased in Cannes Film Festival. This time he has chosen to make a film based on India's National Academy of Letters/ Sahitya Akademi-winning novel "Kaaval Kottam" by Su.Venkatesan. Vasanthabalan has only taken a small subplot of the novel comprising 10-20 pages out of the 1000 pages and made it into a film. A film long in the making, it was much waited as Vasanthabalan has promised a racy and fast-paced entertainer. Did he deliver on his promise?
Characterization is very important for a period film because the artistes involved in such projects need to be as convincing as possible to portray the character that they play, or else it will fail to register in the minds of the viewers. The problem in "Aravaan" is that, all the characters were not properly etched out. The body language and dialogue delivery of most of the artistes was very contemporary in nature and did not reflect the 18-th century Madurai, which was portrayed in the film. Aadhi who was dishing out back-to-back failures in "Ayyanar" and "Aadu Puli" has done a good job, especially in scenes involving heavy physical movements such as the "Jallikattu" and racing sequences. His buff body is the result of extreme hard-work and he deserves a pat for it. A spirited performance from him and he was accompanied by another good performer, Pasupathy. It's been 3 years since the last we saw him and he too has not failed to deliver good performances. His hard-work is evident in the opening burglary sequence. Both Aadhi and Pasupathy has literally carried the film on their shoulders. Dhansikha and Archana Kavi dished out what was needed for their characters with Archana Kavi coming out as a better performer, though the former had more scenes. International performer Kabir Bedi was given a loose character with not much scope to perform. Singampuli's dialogue delivery do tickle the funny bones but its not in-tune with the timeline of the film. Bharath, Anjali, Swetha Menon and Sruthi Prakash makes cameo appearances to fill out the roles needed to push the story further. All the other extras should be credited and applauded as well for toiling in harsh conditions portrayed in the film.
S.Rajendran's costume department did a decent job with appropriate costume and detailings such as tattoos, jewelries and other accessories. Rocky Rajesh's stunts looked fake at certain sequences, especially when the "flying" effect comes into the fray. RK Vijaimurugan has done a wonderful job in the art department. His work on the village area brings to life the Madurai of the 18th-century and that too the life of thieves not kings and queens, only. Praveen KL and Srikanth NB's editing work was fine especially in the first robbery sequence and flashes of the good work comes sporadically throughout the film, though they could have shortened the length of the film, which was unnecessarily slow. Siddharth was brilliant with his cinematography. The opening robbery scene was the highlight with tight angles and interesting rotation shots, in the picturization of the houses. Also the running and chasing scenes in the forest as well as the "Jallikattu" scenes which were shot on normal photography camera's were very well made. Job very well done. Singer Karthik has made a decent debut in "Aravaan" as the music director. His songs vere simple and "Oore Oore" and "Nila Nila" being the pick of the lots. The former was the best shot song in the film with good camera movements and choreography, which kept the energy level of the song sustained throughout, and the latter with some postcard-worthy frames. "Naagamalai" and "Unnai Kollaporen" were done with montages and some good choreography evident in "Naagamalai" and also Vijaimurugan's good set-work of the local deity temple.
The script of "Aravaan" has its good and its weakness. On the positive aspects, this film manages to capture the attention of the audience due to its different periodic portrayal which revolves around an interesting group of ethnic tribes. Their culture, practices, lifestyle, custom are well portrayed and the "Oore Oore" song is the testimony of this statement. The minute details of the burglary methods of the tribal thieves, piqued the interest of the viewers. The hard-work of the entire crew is applaudable as its is no joke to film in barren lands with no basic necessities and its even more difficult to shoot action scenes in dense forests. Also, Su.Venkatesan's dialogues are a big help for the film. The flip side of the script is its length and screenplay. Vasanthabalan fails to sustain the excitement of the audience and the engrossing factor goes missing. The second half of the screenplay was not properly written with the movement in the timeline going back and forth which confuses audience, plus some sentimental and song sequences acted as speed-breakers to the pace of the script. A good suspense factor was kept secret until the climax of the film, but it was not put to use to its maximum effect, which pulls down the excitement level. Vasanthabalan could have avoided including additional stories and should have taken a better look at certain aspects of the screenplay, regarding the time-frame and appearance of the people. In the end, Vasanthabalan did come up with a message regarding the abolishment of capital punishment, but it doesn't really settle into the script well, and it baffles audiences on why he came up with that idea in the first place.
Vasanthabalan failed to keep his promise of producing an engrossing film but nevertheless, "Aravaan" is a good attempt at different cinema. A decent rating for the efforts of crew.
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
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