AAL MOVIE REVIEW

'Unnai Pol Oruvan' made the phrase "the common man" popular among masses. Now, debutante director Aanand Krishna has used the same theme for his movie, 'Aal' and its unsurprisingly not a coincidence, when the subject matter is about extremism and the so-called "Holy War" concept. With a small team of unknown artistes and young technicians, can this film hold its waters against the slew of Tamizh films getting released by each week ?

Vidharth plays the protagonist here and he carries of his role with ease, though is with utmost conviction, is a different question. The earnestness is there and the capability to perform is visible but the charisma and screen presence is certainly missing. His dialogue deliveries are quite flat and there's not much of voice modulation here. Hardhika Shetty's role is of no importance at all for the script and her entire screen timing must have been less than 5 minutes ! Even her glam rain song had razor-cut treatments, in its editing. Wrong choice of movie, lady ! The producer Vidiyal Raju plays the antagonist and he seems to be comfortable in his role, since it only warranted him to mouth some dialogues in close-ups. The film has quite a few minor characters whom, don't really leave any impact on the film, due to poor characterizations.

Art direction by G.Vijaya Anandh was apt for the film. since the film had plenty of real life locations. The set properties for the homes of various geographical and societal elements, were well put up. C.Mahesh's action choreography suited the script's raw element and gave the film and authentic feel. The chase sequences in the very tight lanes of the housing areas, were well executed. M.Ramesh's Bharathi's cuts were too sharp at times, and some sort of lags could have helped the film imbibe the emotions and intensity of the subject. But the duration of the film was kept at minimum length as possible, which is applaudable. Cinematography by N.S Udhaya Kumar's was functional and the effort taken to capture the beauty of Sikkim's capital, Gangtok is noteworthy. The action sequences were well captured on camera, with some top-angle shots. But he really could have avoided some cringe-worthy close-up shots of people puking and gobbling up food in a very unpleasant manner. Its not really a necessary to have such shots only for the purpose of establishing the lower-strata society's sociological habits. VFX by Pixel deserves credits for the well-cut climax sequence, which had the freeze-frame shot technique, put to good use. Probably, the films best moments !

Johan's musical score is melodious but its a little generic for contemporary tastes. Nevertheless, they are worthy numbers if you are to listen to the audio tracks, separately. "Poda Po", written by the late legendary poet Vaali, is the introductory song of the protagonist and has montages of Gangtok's landscape and the famed, Sikkim University. "Androru Naal" is a cool, melody number and was shot on Vidharth and Hardhika Shetty. Sikkim's beautiful mountainous regions were captured for this song, and there's also a small portion shot on the lead pair in a rain environment, just for titillating quotient (though the fast cuts, defeats the purpose !). "Dammal Dammal", is a situational song and shot on Vidharth on the run, with a red suitcase, in harsh urban terrains. Johan's background score is filled with significant theme music pieces, and they seem to gel with the screenplay, in certain places.

'Aal' is actually an inspirational work and is an official remake of UTV Spotboy's 2008 Hindi film 'Aamir', starring Rajeev Khandelwal. The screenplay for 'Aal' is credited to both Aanand Krishna and 'Aamir's director Raj Kumar Gupta. Ironically, 'Aamir' itself is based on an 2005 English/Tagalog, Filipino film called 'Cavite', directed and acted by Neill Dela Llana and Ian Gamazon. The screenplay is quite straight-forward and has some interesting action-packed, nail-biting scenes, but its not thoroughly engaging nor gripping and the staging goes flat at times. The dialogues by Aanand Krishna is very much generic and and doesn't pack the punch needed for such psychological cum action thriller. The "Jihad" extremism issue is mentioned so lamely, it doesn't really rile up our psyche. The patriotism element in the climax too looks forced but the VFX-filled freeze-frame shots, makes up for some of the insipid moments in the film.

'Aal' - Good intentions, decent technical outputs, not-so good execution.


Ratings: 2.25/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL