When a Tamil film touts to be an upmarket, stylish and suave action romantic thriller, the first thing that it would do is to heavily borrow those quintessential elements from the Hollywood sweat shop that has over the years mastered the art and is making a living out of it. Arima Nambi too does the same with debutante director Anand Shankar roping in every possible ‘Hollywood-like’ elements in order to chart out a desi action thriller, but thankfully he saw to that the script was fast paced and engaging even though it defied logic.
Arjun Krishna (Vikram Prabhu) is an urban youth who falls in love with Anamika Raghunath (Priya Anand) when he first sees her at a pub! Over a period of a song, they become acquainted and exchange numbers. Soon they decide to meet on a first date, where both get drunk and since Anamika likes to have more booze, they decide to go to Anamika’s place to fetch some vodka (!?) There things go awry when Anamika gets kidnapped leaving Arjun in a helpless situation. Arjun takes on the evil forces behind the kidnapping with his brains and brawns to come out with flying colors!!
On the outset it looks like a tried and tested template for a fast paced action masala movie and no doubt that it is one. But what sets aside this movie from such past attempts were the gimmicky execution that demanded the Hollywood-like grandeur and the tactical underpinnings in the script that made it run on hot wheels! Constantly we are given doses of some tech-worthy jargons like social networking, IP address, Sim-tracing, etc. which adds to the trendy facade of the movie.
Some of the other elements like the first meeting of the lead pair at an upmarket pub (Hard Rock Cafe) where the hero pulls the guitar strings to woo the lady love and then his love interest reciprocating for that is not a norm in Kollywood, but nevertheless one should concede that it places some faux pas at times - we are watching a Tamil movie and to usher in that Hollywood morale, one need not just pull the guitar strings and break into a frenzy! It was pretty disappointing!! (But strangely I didn’t feel the same when a similar scene was staged in Aayitha Ezhuthu during the Siddharth -Trisha episode - maybe because it was a tad more subtle and classy?).
Vikram Prabhu, the hulk who made an impact in Kumki, somehow seemed to lose his way in Ivan Vera Maathiri, but now he looked dashing and was looking completely in control on what he was expected to deliver. But I feel somewhere he needs to start experimenting with his characterization as he may soon find himself treading on thin ice if he continues in this fashion and also his scope would be limited. Other noteworthy characters are that of M.S Bhaskar as SI Arumugam and J.D. Chakravarthy as the evil minister.
Music by ‘Drums’ Sivamani who is making his debut as a music director was not impressive, but the BGM seemed to keep pace with the narrative. R.D. Rajasekhar’s cinematography largely focuses on the grandeur aspect of the script but rocks the screen too often than not, resulting in a mild migraine. The movie at 2 hours and 30 minutes in length felt a bit too lengthy especially towards the climax. A tighter finish would have augered well for the packaging at large.
The biggest setback however seemed to be the defiance of logic and also the banal way in which the protagonist is shown as a one-man-army! But thanks to a fast and engaging narrative, the audience are given an anesthesia that puts them to sleep for a while such that they realize their ticket’s worth only after the show is over!
Verdict: Worth a Watch!!
Rating: 2.5 / 5
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