Compelling viewing. Review on Anniyan Movie

I happened to see this movie in sathyam last week. The first impression is that it is a movie that is an excellent package of contrasting items molded very well. Since a lot of reviews have covered the plot I will not go into those details.

The brilliance of the movie is that a sequence of scenes tries to create the same effect as it happens in the real world but culminates in out of this world scenario.

Take for example the first sequence of scenes before the first killing by anniyan.

The way ambi applies the religious mark on his forehead, the use of TVS 50, the guy in the motorcycle who violates the traffic rules, the courtroom scene regarding the rent case where the judge and the petitioner look so real and not cinematic. They look so real and happening. Then the final showdown to this sequence wherein ambi visits anniyan.com to outpour his grief and anniyan emerges to kill using buffaloes.

This sequence repeats for most part of the movie, but in the second half the cycle is much shorter. So you don’t get bored seeing real life situations continuously like in art movies and at the same time not an overdose of extraordinary events like in a Sci-Fi or those similar kind of movies. Another thing to note here is that apart from Kadhal Yaanai, all the other songs are kind of dream songs and do not flow into/out of the scene.

In my opinion it is the director who is the first hero for this movie. A lot of details have gone into each of the scene. To say a few, the scene in thiruvaiyaru where ambi is about to prostrate before the heroine’s parents and the mother immediately removes her slippers, the Thiyagaraja aradhana festival with all the TV cameras and policeman, the necklace that the heroine’s mother wears in thiruvaiyaru is also worn by the heroine at the end in the train scene, the playing of Vishnu saharanama sloka in the background in the heroine’s house. Most of the scenes I think have been painstakingly taken to cover a lot of minute details. Also the director should have done a lot of research to bring in Garuda Purana, Charama Sloka etc and mould it into the movie’s storyline seemlessly. I think Garuda Purana should have been one of the keyword searches in google after this movie had been released!!!

Until the last scene you don’t see the actor vikram, but see him as Ambi, Remo and Anniyan throughout the movie. Vikram has lived the characters and I don’t think anybody else would have carried this movie better than vikram. Vivek is at his best in this movie especially in the train scenes.

The background score is really good and the songs sound great when seen in the big screen.

I am not going into the flaws into the movie since “Nothing succeeds like success” and looking at the crowds this seems to be a super hit this year and so flaws generally get overlooked when success is the outcome.

Overall it is a great movie to watch in the big screen with your friends and family. It is a great fantasy ride which is worth the money you pay.

Something to think about for anniyan: When ambi comes to the sangeetha sabha requesting a chance for the heroine to sing in the sabha, he comes with the recommendation of Vivek(Chari), but when refused by the secretary, he changes into anniyan and lectures about the ill effects of recommendation.