Three's Company. Review on Aytha Ezuthu Movie

Aytha Ezhuthu, Mani Ratnam's latest opus, hugely hyped, widely anticipated.. Touted as the story of 3 disparate men, and how their lives converge..

Before I begin on the actual movie, I need to rave about the music. It was mind- blowing! AR Rahman has excelled himself, both in the soundtrack and the background score. The song 'Jana Gana Mana' especially, manages to make you get up and cheer.

I'm not on the mood for playing spoilsport so I don't plan to give away too many details of the movie. Plus I've already read a few really good reviews on MS and they comprehensively describe the plot. I'll just give you my impressions of the actors and their situations.

The 3 lead guys, from different walks of life, are Inba (Madhavan), Michael (Surya) and Arjun (Siddharth).

Inba is a hot-blooded, highly-strung hired killer. He has no morals and scant redeeming qualities. He and his wife, played by Meera Jasmine, are deeply in love (or rather in lust!) so much so that his besotted wife is unable to break free from him, despite the fact that he beats and mistreats her. Madhavan has done a superb job with this character. He's managed to wrench himself from his cho-chweet Maddy image and adds a surreal dimension of creepiness to Inba. Meera Jasmine, as his foolishly devoted wife, also acts very well, but one cannot help but wonder why she stays with this ex-jailbird- psycho- killer for so long.

Michael is a firebrand student leader. This Young Turk believes in the ability of the youth to save India from corrupt politicians. He is fearless and fights against any sort of injustice in and out of the college campus. Surya is brilliant, absolutely fantastic in this role! While I had my doubts as to whether he could convincingly portray a college student, I came out of the theatre believing that no one could have portrayed one better! His prerequisite love interest is Esha Deol, a most unconvincing and poorly drawn character. If she had to be in the movie, at least a bigger role could have been given to her. Much as I admire her dress designer, anyone who has given a passing glance to the streets of Chennai would know that midriff-baring clothes like hers are not much in vogue here!

Arjun is a typical US-bound college student, well-off and with no serious ambitions apart from partying. He meets Trisha's character at a disco, and falls in love with her after 2 or 3 meetings. A bit unbelievable, I thought. Arjun's life changes when he saves Michael's life, when the latter was shot. He is immediately struck by Michael and wants to do his bit in improving his country by standing for elections. This change of heart was too drastic to be taken very seriously. One moment the guy is getting his US visa and the next he has become the perfect Indian boy. Trisha does an adequate job in her minor role. A lot of the scenes between these two are very filmy, eg. the DDLJ type farewell at the railway station, could have been avoided.

The movie has stunning visuals and 2 great actors. There is the typical Mani Ratnam style of flashing back and forth between the past and the present scenes.

All in all, this movie is very watchable. People do say that it's not upto the usual Mani Ratnam mark, but the concept is innovative enough to make it worth watching. Now I'm very tempted to watch Yuva....