The past weekend I had the privilege of watching Gautam Menon's latest offering, 'Vaaranum Aayirum'. Though i had heard mixed reviews of it (Suzy darling, with whom i went, said a friend had personally told her it was the pits), I figured Gautam Menon and Surya.. How bad can it be?
It wasn't bad. Far from it. It has to be one of the best movies I have seen all year. If there is one thing Bollywood can learn from the South, it is how to make great movies on big budgets. The usual tendency in tinseltown here is 'have money.. will spend on anything but plot or character development'. And the sad thing is, people still prefer the overbudgeted crap to the small thoughtful movies that have been coming these days in Bollywood (OSO's humongous success last year is a pointer to that).
Coming back to Vaaranum Aayirum, I found a lot of things going for it. Surya in almost every frame of the movie helped a lot. This guy has to be one of the finest method actors I have seen from the South. Over here, he had to play a multitude of characters and emotions, ranging from a sixties college kid to a drug addict and finally to an army officer. Not once did you feel not convinced by him. He brought an intensity and sensitivity to his performance that endears the audience to him and makes us care for him. And that is another great thing about the movie. I have not often seen a movie which deals with a wide range of issues as this does and pull it off. Over here you can see a father-son bond,a sixties romance, a modern day romance, tragedy, effects of drug addiction, a kidnapping and rescue, as well as an army operation. Thorugh all of these multiple themes, you get the feeling the director has done his research and paid careful attention to details. And you get drawn into the proceedings. Despite the length of the movie, I was left wishing for more from this magnum opus. Oh... and who can forget Sameera Reddy? Looking more beautiful and convincing than she has ever looked in any Hindi movie, she and Surya formed one of the best on screen couples I have seen in a long time. They just seemed to ooze chemistry.
After the excellent Vettayadu Villayadu, Gautam Menon is fast becoming one of my favourite directors. This one just re inforced my belief that while the Tamil film industry may churn a lot of trash, when they do it good, they do it better than the rest. This was the second one this year I have felt the same way, Anjaathey being the first.
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