Aayarthil Oruvan

AO

While watching AO this past week, the one thing which kept running in my head, was how far Tamil cinema has aged. And I deliberately chose the word aged rather than progress, cos progress seems to somehow puts a positive spin/connotation to it.

AO is unconventional. Some may decry it, some may proclaim it as the best of the year, and others like me may just go – “what the hell is going on here” right through the movie yet remain glued to the proceedings on the screen.

Cos not a lot of it makes a whole lot of sense, but there is a definite a new-ness to the visuals, the story lines and the characters, both in depiction and approach.

AO continues the trend of new age Tamil directors defying conventional cinema and not being afraid of taking it to outer reaches, darker places.

And Selvaraghavan (SR), after this monumental efforts will join the league of directors like Bala, Ameer, Gautham Menon, SasiKumar who have slowly but surely transformed the landscape of Tamil cinema, which has always worked well within the boundaries of populist entertainment. Even those handful of film makers who have attempted to shed the weight of commercialism (like Mani Ratnam, K Balachander, Balu Mahendra) have never really strayed too far away from the brahamanical , puranitcal framework of story-telling. In comparison we have the world of neo-realistic, raw & gritty cinema which new age directors revel in.

I wont dwell too long on AO's plot. A quick search in Wikipedia shall tell the readers all they need to know about the film.

But what I will try to attempt is to grade AO. And in order to do so, I would look at the intent and execution.

In terms of intent, a big kudos to SR and all the people involved behind the scenes who had the gumption (read Balls) to produce and create this epic. I praise the boldness.

In terms of execution although great strides have been made in the realm of story-telling, acting & cinematography, the special effects/visual effects domain continue to be stuck in the 90’s which is a big letdown. There is nothing more distracting then seeing a good idea on paper fail completely cos the special effects on screen look like a hand-drawn cartoon. And for audiences who are lapping up the wonders of Avatar, the f/x in AO will look clumsy and amateurish.

The story overall seems to suffer from SR's over-ambition. The tone and pace of the first half does not gell well with second half which takes a turn for the serious. The last 15-20 minutes detailing the torture and cruel treatment meted out to the captured cholas – Is this some allegorical references to treatment of Srilankan tamils? If so then it deserves to be in a different movie. In fact the entire second half deserves a movie of its own.

Credit to SR who at time seems to be chanelling either Quentin Tarantino (the F-bombs flying between Reema Sen & Andrea), Francis Ford Coppola (the Jungle sequences and the second half reminded me of Apocalyse now) or Peter Jackson and who has also liberally drawn ideas from King Kong & Gladiator and others and yet managing to ensure AO retains its own unique flavor.

At the onset Karthi seems to be stuck in Paruthiveeran mode, then disappears, and towards the end changes gears and becomes the reclusive hero. Reema Sen seems to be out of sync with her dialogue through most of the movie, but makes up for it through dynamic physical acting & body language. Andrea's character is too thinly sketched to work with. Parthiban brings an imposing physical presence as the towering Chola King. His introduction scene is well executed.

Definitely worth a watch. But go in with an open mind.

Nav