Vaaranam Aayiram

I have always been a Gautham Menon fan and I was definitely looking forward for this movie to hit the screens. After reading a few reviews with mixed opinions, I went to the cinema with no expectations today morning.Before I point out the plusses and minus's of this movie (in my opinion), let me just talk a little about the movie generally.
As most of you all would have known already, Surya's donning two roles, as a father and the son. Simran comes as the mother and Sameera Reddy and Divya Spandana also form an important part of the movie.

The story is simply about how a father influences a guy's life, in the son's point of view.
Naturally, one starts comparing this with Cheran's Thavamai Thavamirunthu (TT) as both these movies deal with the same theme. But, it must be noted that Cheran and Gautham are two different directors and they treat and direct their movies differently.
Unlike TT, Vaaranam Aayiram (VA) focuses on the son and his life and how the father makes an impact in his life. Dialogues by the father like, "Pursuit what your heart wants" and "Whatever happens, life must go on" are nice to hear,watch and is definitely motivating and cements the fact that Krishnan is such a positive father. But, unfortunately, that's the most the father does. He encourages Suriya (the son) to do what his heart desires and motivates him, helps him when he needs him the most but something was just not there. The part where he advices Suriya (the son) to focus his energy in a positive way and when he asks him why he has build his muscles for (trying to say that he should fight back) were good. Still,I am not sure what, but I just felt that they could have exploited their relationship a little more, may be.

I must say that the movie was NOT bad, it was quite good, but in parts. As in, I enjoyed the movie in parts. It was nice to see a collection of different stages of a man's life. I loved Suriya's younger days, in his teens on how he retalliates when a senior beats him up and after he loses his love, the way he mourns and calls his dad and informs him what had happened. These were certain scenes/parts that moved me a little. Also, once Suriya turns to drugs to continue living. All these were potrayed in a very realistic manner.
Yet, something was lacking,missing in the movie. I am not sure what but it could have been more intensed may be.
Anyway, lets look into the positives/plusses in this movie:

1. Surya: He has always performed well post-Nandha and once again, he is simply amazing in this movie. Right from the old father,Krishnan, the 17-year-old Suriya (the son), the lover-boy Suriya, the drug-addict Suriya and the army-man Suriya....he is simply awesome. He has really put in so much of effort not only on his expressions and body language but also his physique. He seriously looks like a 17-year-old during that period of the movie and with a six-pack, he looks so much more convincing as Major Suriya.On the whole, Surya has basically done a fantastic job.
2. Songs/Music: Harris Jeyaraj scores yet again. I have written enough about the songs, in one of my previous posts but let me tell you once again, Harris rocks!!! The background score is also good. Songs have been picturised well and my pick of the lot would be Mundhinam,Yethi Yethi and Ava Enna.

Yes, after watching the movie, I had only 2 reasons to recommend it to others.

Now, let's move on to the minus points.

1. Star casts: I have no complaints on Surya but just wish Gautham had chosen someone else than Sameera and Divya. Simran did a splendid job as the mother but the other two, were just off the mark. Sameera looked sweet in certain angles but didn't quite play the role fittingly. Divya too, failed to do much in a role that offered quite some opportunity to shine. She looked dull and plain and was just there doing nothing more than delivering her dialogues just as that,mere dialogues.
2. Theme potrayal: The father-son relationship theme is a noble one but I just felt that it was not exploited deeply. The emotions and sentiments were there, but they were not engaging and gripping enough. As I mentioned before, the struggle of Krishnan (father) was not shown much and everything associated with the father as in his love story and all were shown in a very short amount of time. But, I must say that watching how the son is influenced by the father in each and everything he does was good. I was only moved a few times through out the movie and one of the scenes which were pretty touching was the beginning of the movie.

People tend to compare this movie with Gautham's previous ones but we must realise that this deals with a different theme. VA is a nice movie, but got draggy in the second half and a lot of elements were not convincing enough. Overall, it's a must for Surya fans and thats much about it.

That's all for now, chao!