Vaaranam Aayiram – Movie Review – So whats the story?

After these directors found a technology to flawlessly make a “double”, they have been flaunting it like mad.The movie revolves around Surya, as any tamil movie would. Just not one, but two. A story of a father and son, love between the two, the caring, the fights, the ups, downs and how the life goes on. This is all is what this movie is about.

The movie has three ladies, Simran, as the 80s kind of heroine, who falls in love with the 80s style Surya, in a song. Then comes Sameera Reddy, who the modern Surya meets in a train, and falls in love instantly, and then comes Divya Spandana, who falls in love with Surya. All of them have done their roles pretty well and you just can’t find fault. Surya’s daughter is played by an television artist and she has also done her role well.

Surya has proved to be a classic. Action at his best, as always. The father Surya seems to have been greatly inspired by Sivakumar (Surya’s real father). The style, the way he walks, the look and feel in most of the places, everything seems to resemble Sivakumar in his acting days.

An actor who was a pathetic dancer, has improved to such an extent, that in this movie he has mimicked none other than the Michael Jackson, and he has done that very well also.
As a school boy, as a college student, as a army man, as a father, as a lover… Surya has done his job very well.

Now on the movie, a subtle emotion between the father and the son. A storyline everyone in this world can relate to. Heard that this is a remake of the Hollywood superhit “Forrest Gump”. But, there are so many places where there is something like a missed link. There is actually no solid story rather than a man falling in love, giving birth to a son, who falls in love, his first love fails and the next one ends in a marriage.

May be, if this story was done by Mani Rathnam, it would have been better, like his “Alaipayuthe”, which I sincerely feel, is no story but a great movie.

Something which I never expected of Gautham Menon, er, Gautham Vasudevan Menon, to be precise. Yeah, his movies are emotional, but not so much. This seems to be a real dedication to a real life story. The way Surya woos Sameera is way too natural for a movie. Some directorial errors also, which is not usual of him. For example, Major. K.Surya, working for the Indian Airforce. But, some parts are made extremely well. Like his fight to save the kid, where the fight looks absolutely real.

Sameera Reddy seems to have a starting problem. The introduction was supposedly a great impression with high projection of her looks, as Surya falls in love at first sight. But she seems to have looked better in the later part of the movie, where these two spend their days in California.

Divya (a.k.a Ramya in Kannada film industry) looks good. Saree or salwar clad, a “homely” looking girl in this movie.

Half of the credit for direction can be attributable to the Choreographer. Everytime Simran or Sameera or Surya smile, there, there is a song with a 80s style Surya or a “hunk with six-pack abs without shirt” Surya dancing to the tunes. Really couldn’t keep count of the number of songs this movie had. Looks like they wanted to replicate the real 80s feel with so many songs. Surya has not missed a single chance to show his “stunning” work out for his six-packs.

The music score by Harris Jeyaraj is not his standard. Even though some songs are good, nothing seems to have stayed well back in the memory.

All said and done, after the movie, I came out to see an Audi parked right next to the parking lot. Looked around and found that the owner of this car was none other than than anxious Gautham Menon himself. Just looked at his face, all around watching and trying to judge people’s emotions and the outcome of his months of hard work. Its easy to watch a movie for 3 hours and comment, but watching his reactions, I felt the pain and hard work which he has put in and this is something like his dream coming to reality on screen. Never had the heart to go tell him that the movie was just above average.

Movie stills here