Jayam Ravi, who has been having a fledgling career thus far with back-to-back failures, has put in his utmost and sincerest performance in this film. As 'Aadhi' he dished out a laid-back, calm but an angry young man, who finds a better life in the dreaded underworld. His voice modulation for this role sounds rough and menacing, which is a good changeover for him. And as a surprise packet just before the interval, he emerges as 'Bhagawan', a creepy gangster, who borders the quality of an gender-queer ! He worked out the body language very well, but a couple of scenes do shows his uneasiness in handling such a bewildering character, which reminds us of Prakash Raj in 'Appu'. He performs the action sequences tirelessly and has put his heart and soul in executing each moves. Definitely, this film has provided the most challenging acting assignment, thus far in his career. Kudos to Jayam Ravi for daringly experimenting ! Neetu Chandra, scores extremely well in her role as well, which has varied dimensions to it. Her role, is definitely not the typical, regular Tamizh cinema heroine and she too gets to perform her own fight sequences. And boy, did she put her 4th Dan Taekwondo skills, to good use. A stunning effort from her ! But her dubbing was a total letdown because of the poor lip-sync. Neetu needs extensive brushing of her Tamizh ! Saiju Kurup, as the corrupt police officer was not bad, but the poor dubbing works, mars his acting efforts. There are a bunch of character artistes involved in this film, such as Sudha Chandran, Sai Ravi, Babu Antony, Karuna, Mohan Raj, Bharani and etc but a few of them have been totally wasted, especially Sai Ravi and Sudha Chandran, who lacks proper screen timing, making them redundant to the need of the script.
Due to the long duration of the shooting period, there are several departments which had more than one lead technician. The costume designing by Nithya and Rafi, together with Karishma, was appropriately done but Ravi's 'Bhagawan' could have been taken care off better, especially the overtly flashy and bright jackets ! Vijay Rathinam's sound designing was well taken care off, especially for the action and chase sequences, and the usage of Auro 3D sound recording, must have enhanced the sound quality, by manifolds. Art direction has been handled well by Jacki, Prem and C.G Aanandhan. The interiors of the homes of both Ravi's were well decorated, in accordance to the locality of the geographical locations. The warehouse and police station setting was well taken care off, as well. Action sequence designing has been handled by Ameer himself and Rajashekar provides the choreography of stunt sequences. The action scenes are intense and heavy-duty, especially the warehouse and the climax sequences, shot in Fort Jaisalmer. S.P Ahmed's editing style for the action sequences is questionable. The cuts were too quick, it was pain to the eyes after a little while. This is because the camera angles by cinematographers, R.B Gurudev and K.Devaraj, were tight and close to the characters and the quick cuts by S.P Ahmed, were unpleasant to the eyes. Cinematography was good and the lighting, maintained a dark and gritty look throughout the film, though the color tone of the Thailand episodes, could have been better.
Yuvan Shankar Raja and Ameer, combine well, in delivering chart-busting songs, but sadly the songs are a letdown. The songs are not catchy and is more experimental, in nature. "Eisalaamey" is a club song, shot in Thailand, with catchy dance number by former lead actress Sakshi, who is aging gracefully. The lighting and set designing, gave a seedy club look, perfectly. "Kaatriley" was shot in the Rajasthan deserts, on the lead pair. The editing work is commendable, in this song and the lead pair, was looking good. The "Yaavum" song's opening lines were partially used for a situation. The "Bhagawan Rap" song was shot on the transgender Ravi and is used as his opening song and also appears in the closing credits, featuring Ameer and crew, swaying to beats, which was shot in Canadian streets. "Agadam Bagadam" is a groovy Hindi number, shot in the picturesque Goan beaches, with plenty of foreign and model dancers, belting out lively dance routines. The song had plenty of cut-shots, but could have been shot more stylishly. The background score was much better than the songs, and Yuvan's usage of various styles, fits the screenplay very well.
Ameer is a director par excellence, and is seen as an perfectionist. And that is why its shocking to see Ameer leaving plenty of loose ends and loopholes in the script ! How does one start a chase in Goa and end up fighting at Fort Jaisalmer, far away in Rajasthan, within one singular chase ?The first half of the screenplay lacks grip and is very much predictable. Also, a few sequences reminds us of Al Pacino's classic 'Scarface' but stylish, nevertheless. The second half has more pace, once 'Bhagawan' comes into the picture and when the other surprises starts to unravel, one by one. Before the start of the film, the viewers were cautioned of the excessive usage of other languages and heavy subtitling, due to the demand of the script. But what we get to see is Tamizh dialogues overlapping the Hindi dialogues, which gives us a dubbing film, effect ! What is the use of inserting a language-usage disclaimer, then ? And the tagline doesn't serve its purpose either. It is indeed a mafioso story but a mafioso, love story? Definitely, no ! The love sequences were very short and had no substance to it. Ameer leaves us with an open-ending, which suggests us that there might/could be a sequel to this, but does this script really warrant one? Not necessary and Ameer has to come up with well written script, if he ever thinks of following up with a sequel.
'Aadhibhagawan' is certainly not on par as Ameer's previous flicks, but its worth watching for the efforts of the lead pair, Jayam Ravi and Neetu. Raw, violent and moody, 'Aadhibhagawan' is not for those, who were expecting another classic like 'Paruthi Veeran'.
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
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