Aathi is yet another action masala from Vijay and Ramana duo. Their previous venture ’Thirumalai’ is said to be a turning point in Vijay’s career. Aathi is also very important for the actor after a series of successes at the box office. When I went to the theatre, I was amazed by the crowd pulling capability of this actor. It was not even a weekend, the theatre also was just a second class theatre in Bangalore. But still, this actor had pulled a lot of crowd to the theatre.
Aathi is a remake of telugu flick Anthanokkade. Vijay has again resorted to remake after a series of original movies in Tamil. The movie opens with soothing background music showing Trisha enjoying nature. The soothing music changes violent and I just sat straight after seeing the next scene. But the movie doesn’t justify the thrill created in the opening scene. It again turns to be the old revenge drama. The story deals with two people Anjali (Trisha) and Aathi (Vijay), why they want to take revenge on the same person RDX (ya, name only!)(Saikumar), what is their relationship, and how they do it. The story is not new and so is the screenplay. The movie goes interesting till the plot is revealed and starts dragging in the second half. The second half has got a lot of action sequences, but still it drags as everything turns predictable by then.
The main factor that makes the movie unpleasant is the blood and violence. The movie has got scenes like hero killing one of the villains by slicing his head on air, killing the main villain by slicing his throat using a family photograph, a few to mention. Even writing these makes me uncomfortable, then you could imagine how it would be in the big screen. The other factor that makes the movie uninteresting is the feeling of deja-vu throughout the movie. Though Vivek’s comedy track is enjoyable, it resembles that of his previous movies, especially ’University’. The chasing and revenge taking scenes resemble that of the recent movie ’Aaru’.
The movie has got some interesting and enjoying moments here and there, especially those between the leading lady and the hero. The first song ’Konja konja’ and ’Athi athikkai’ are hum-worthy numbers by Vidyasagar. I wonder if ’ippo illaatti eppo’ would be hit as that of ’apdi podu’, since ’ippo illaatti eppo’ is the only catchy line in the whole song. There is nothing much to mention about the background music, as there are only gunshots and bomb blasts throughout the movie.
On the technical side, the camera effects and lighting are bright throughout the movie. Though it is suited for an action movie, it is irritating to the eyes. Editing is good, but the movie as a whole becomes dragging in the second half and therefore needs trimming. As usual for a Vijay movie, the choreography is nice in songs though the locations are not new.
As a whole, too much of blood and violence makes the whole film unwatchable!