Vaaranam ayiram meaning "thousands of elephants" is a movie about father-son relationship. An emotional drama which pays tribute to all lovable fathers is the crux of the movie. But does it really touches your heart and stirs you, sadly not. Its a movie coming from Gautham menon and surya combo after their massive hit movie, kaaka kaaka. So the expectations are understandably high. I watched this movie without any preconceived hype and expectation but still it isn’t emotional overall except some of the scenes.
So where does the movie falters. The movie starts with an aged father krishnan(played well by surya) experiencing the effects of throat cancer and been bed rested with able support from simran played as wife of father krishnan. The shocking news of his father being deceased is passed on to major suriya( played by surya - dual role) who is on a rescue mission along with fellow army men. A mentally shattered suriya recollects his past and his relationship with his beloved dad. The movie unfolds the flashback that is recollected by suriya.
Interesting romantic interludes between father surya and simran followed by "mundhinam parthane" song were all nostalgic. simran looks cute in the 60’s-70’s costume and good chemistry shown along with surya. Young surya showing up matured act and getting inspired from his father’s words, shows the director’s well developed characterization. Surya as an aged father shows tremendous body language. But young surya’s six pack ab is not vitally utilized and doesn’t makes a mark.
Sameera reddy is refreshing and has done a flawless acting other than looking vivid on songs. Divya spandana looks natural and all the leading actors have played their parts well. The cinematography of Ratnavelu is on par with hollywood. Movie goes from chennai to US, Kashmir, Delhi and some of the beautiful locales were captured effectively by the cinematographer. But the movie tempo goes so slow in second half. Antony’s Editing could have been better.
Songs are already chart busters and one of the best music by Harris jeyaraj. A special mention needs to be given for choreography and beautiful picturisation of songs, "mundhinam, adiya kolludhe, nenjukul peididhum and yethi yethi". Though there are too many songs, you feel the burden only in the second half as it hampers the already slow tempo of the movie.
The movie hits hard on chain smoking and its ill effects and it should be applauded. The narration covers surya’s romance, his deep love to sameera and his steps to woo her in whatever way he can, followed by a tragedy. These all goes interesting in the first half. BUt the plot fails to gear up in the second half and falls flat. There is no feel in the scenes that follow in the second half. suddenly you see surya roaming in streets of Delhi in search of a kidnapped child. These scenes and the action that follows does not gel with the movie. Audience were not able to connect to the sequence. Similar feeling happens in the rescue operation that happens at the climax and they somehow miss the feel and essence to make viewers thrilled. These scenes just look like included for the sake of bringing some action to this movie.
Anyways the director should be applauded for giving a offbeat narration without cacophonous villain, comedy track, item number, punch dialogues. It certainly a different bold attempt by the director compared to his earlier movies. It doesn’t resemble any of his earlier movies but if the director paid attention in screenplay especially in second half it could have been a classic. If the screenplay could have been tighter with strong emotional scenes and duels, then it would have really rised tall. The movie misses the soul and a clear disappointment.
P.S: Mr Gautham, if you happen to check this review then my kind request to you. You may keep the best pure tamil title’s for your movies, but you must also give the same importance in your film dialogues. This movie is loaded with too much of english conversations, too much for a middle class family. Not a walkthrough for rural people. Please correct.