VALLINAM MOVIE REVIEW

Director Arivazhagan, who made name with the well-made thriller 'Eeram', is back after a hiatus with 'Vallinam'. Being in the making for about 3 years, this sports based flick has Nakulan aka Nakul making a comeback of sort. Produced by Aascar V.Ravichandran, can Arivazhagan deliver another well-packaged film and make a firm mark in Tamizh cinema ?

Nakulan takes it serious this time and has delivered an earnest performance. His enthusiasm and physical atheleticism fits the role of an amateur basketball player. The vigor and energy he posessed helped him to adapt quite naturally as a sportsman and its very much commendable of his effort to undertake basketball training as a preparation for the film. He has experimented with his dialogue delivery, which is more subtle and mellow compared to his earlier films, but its not convincing overall, especially in the climax. Nevertheless, its a very decent performance and hoping he delivers more. Debutante Mrudhula Basker carries herself comfortably as the heroine, though she has not much scope as a character in the film's overall plot. A standard performance, standardly dubbed by Savitha. Siddharth Jonnalagadda plays the antagonist and his body language and facial expressions fits the character well, and aptly voiced by Aravind Krishna but his character loses steam as the film progresses. Jagan provided the comic relief and his satirical comments and one-liners are fun to listen to. Jayaprakash scores in his brief but important character role with a gray shade but Atul Kulkarni's true potential was not utilized at all though his character carries some weight in importance to the story. The rest such as Amzad Khan, Anumapa Kumar, Chandru, Mathivanan Rajendran, Santhana Bharathi were adequate with good cameos from Krishna and Aadhi, as well as RJ Balaji.

Shanmugha Priya handles the costume designing and her works sufficed the need of the script, since its a college based script, which has not much of an extensive research and execution. Sibu Joseph J.V's editing pattern fits the style and story presentation of Arivazhagan's script, though many a few sequences could have been edited out to make it a little racier. Silva's action choreography was good, especially in the pre-climax fight scene as well as the much spoken about train sequence in the very early stages of the film. T.Suresh's production design must be commended, especially for the climax basketball court set, which really imbibed a basketball tournament feel to it. Also, the props used for interiors such as the swanky and posh heroine's home, or the boys hostel rooms were very apt and realistic. Bhaskaran K.M's cinematography is a real asset to the film. The basketball game theme provided a good platform for him to showcase his expertise in coming up with creative shots and angles. The credits should be shared with Arivazhagan who handled each basketball matches' game and action set pieces, alongside with specialist game choreographer, Mime Gopi. Besides the games', Bhaskaran K.M's color tone and the light hue approach for some scenes, are eye-pleasing. But he could have avoided the overusage of shadows, particularly in the beginning sequences. 

S.S Thaman's previous collaboration with Arivazhagan in 'Eeram' was splendid and it looks like Thaman has found a partner who extracts the best from him. 'Vallinam' has very good scores and background music as well, which fits the mood and nature of the script and proves to be very effective in conveying the director's vision. "Maaman Macha" is a typical college-buddy song, with plenty of montages and dance scenes interspersed in betweem. Bhaskaran K.M's cinematography in this particular song was good, especially with the light tone. The pick of the lot "Uyiril Uyir" is a letdown, in terms of picturization. The song had montages of the hero finding himself falling for the heroine, as well as dance sequences against a cowboy and hip-hop theme bacgrounds. "Nakula" is a romantic number shot on the lead pair, on the beaches, during the high-tide moments. "Vallinam" is a situational song, highlighting the progress of the hero's basketball team in the tournament, which had good lighting for the basketball matches. "Uyiril (Reprise)" is a bit-song showing the separation of the lead pair and had good framing from the director and cinematographer. Thaman's background score works very well for the film, especially with a special 'Vallinam' theme track which plays during the opening credits scene.

Arivazhagan has chosen basketball as a tool to highlight the actual theme of his script, which is the discrimination and marginalization of sports in the society and the over-trumpeting of cricket. Its interesting to note that the director has chosen cricket as an 'antagonist' for his film. Arivazhagan's subtle story presentation and sharp dialogues, goes hand in hand, pretty well and proves to be his forte and USP. But the film has its own shares of flaws. There's no depth in the writing, where more intensity could have really revved up the proceedings of the screenplay. The romance and friendship portions are shallow in terms of writing, and the dramas fail to make a serious mark. The detailing in narration is missing, which is essential for these sort of story presentation, which has a slow and steady pace screenplay. A more organic development could have helped the film to achieve better output and its annoying to notice Arivazhagan's attempt in adhering to standard Tamizh cinema "masala" commercialization. But Arivazhagan should be appreciated for showing the basketball game as a proper game and his artistes as proper basketball players. The authenticity and detailing in those aspects are applaudable. Also, one can note that Arivazhagan has a a good sense of setting up frames, which shows his distinct touch of quality. In conclusion, Arivazhagan deserves kudos for choosing a sports-based theme for his script and highlighting the plight and discrimination of other sports in the state, but its definitely not on par with his 'Eeram'.

'Vallinam' - A not-so hard consonant ! Expected more.


Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL