Surya's "Aadhavan" Movie Review

Producer : Udhayanidhi Stalin
Director : K.S.Ravikumar
Cast : Suriya,Nayantara,Murali, Vadivelu etc.
Music : Harris Jeyaraj
Cinematography : R.A.Ganesh
Screenplay,dialogues : K.S.Ravikumar

K.S.Ravikumar's 'Aadhavan' begins with a bang and goes well till half time and then starts fizzing off, ending in an usual, masala kind of climax. The film is very much staple diet for Suriya fans, but may not be as appealing to all.

The story of 'Aadhavan' is set in Kolkata. Aadhavan (Suriya) is a contract killer working for Ibrahim Rowther (Sayaji Shinde), who had brought him up like his own son and whose son (Anand Babu) is Aadhavan's friend and aide too. Aadhavan does his job, ie, killing, with all perfection and the group thus gets high-profile, bagging assignments all across the world. But he misses his target for the first time when he tries to shoot a senior Judge Subramaniam (Murali), who is heading an enquiry commission that could bring disaster upon many. The assignment is given to them by Dr. Abdul Kulkarni (Rahul Dev), who is the one to be affected most if the reports by the enquiry commission comes out. Anyway Aadhavan is not the one to give up. He plans some other moves and manages to get into the Judge's house, posing as a servant. The Judge has brought in his big, joint family there and very soon Aadhavan wins over the hearts of most of the members in the family, especially the Judge's mother (B.Saroja Devi) and the Judge's neice Thara (Nayantara). What all happens then forms the rest of the plot.

The plot is fine for a K.S.Ravikumar- Suriya film. The plot is developed well for quite some time, but post interval it all goes wrong at some juncture and then things go on the usual track, making 'Aadhavan' just another masala movie with a typical ending. The climax sequences are all of the usual kind and give us nothing new or different. Added to that is the entry of director Ravikumar (this is something that we expect) along with producer Udhayanidhi Stalin just before the end credits. The attempt to portray Suriya as a ten year old could have been avoided and a ten year old boy could have been brought in instead to play the role. Cinema is not about such gimmicks, but of course since Cinema is also about marketing and selling, this could be accepted to some extent. But still, that portion doesn't look that great. Nothing much to jot about the movie except that it's a typical Suriya brand of masala flick and would be OK for Suriya fans.

Performances

Suriya gives a mesmerising performance, in his typical style and does all that he can to satisfy his fans. Nayantara is good. The late actor Murali is good and B.Saroja Devi is impressive, appearing on screen after a long gap of over a decade. Vadivelu is his usual self and gives us enough of his brand of hilarious comedy. The rest of them suit their roles.

Technical aspects

Cinematography by R.A.Ganesh is good. Don Max has tried a lots of tricks at the editing table and the art-work by Rajeevan also is worth mention.

Music

The back ground score is fine indeed, but coming to the songs, they are of the typical kind that we get to see these days in Suriya flicks. And aren't there too many songs, coming in at the most importune moments?

Script

K.S.Ravikumar, who has based the script on story by Ramesh Kanna, has done it in his typical style. The film thus has all the ingredients that a typical Ravikumar film has. But he could have done a better work of the script and the film would have been far better.

Direction

The direction is typical Ravikumar style with all the ingredients and hence there is nothing specific to mention about 'Aadhavan'.

Overall verdict- Masala fare; for Suriya fans Rating: 2.5/5