Anegan - All in One!

Apologies for a very late review even though I watched the movie 10 days back!

On the surface Dhanush and K.V.Anand combo seemed really interesting when they joined hands, but it shouldn't be forgotten that both have the reputation of dishing out ‘ambitious’ potboilers that turned out to be turkeys at the box office (For Dhanush it was ‘Nayyandi’ and for KV it was ‘Maatraan’ - both were ambitiously driven commercial crafts that faltered). But the upside of things cannot be ignored if the combo manage to work their magic on screen and that’s what seemed to have happened with ‘Anegan’ where the script was quite unique and deceptive with things aligned perfectly for a super hit!

Fantasy-meets-science-fiction-meets-mythology is what Anegan all about! The movie opens in the pre-independent ‘Myanmar’ with a title song sequence (Harris’s music was surprisingly good and gelled well for this portion). We are introduced to a Tamil labour community where Murugappan (Dhanush) meets Samudhra (Amyra) and its an age old episode where the downtrodden hero is separated from his rich girlfriend by her family members. The pair decide to elope, but sadly die due to betrayal from one of their trusted allies. The scene closes and then we are taken to the present where Madhumitha (Amyra) is treated by a psychiatrist at her facility while Madhu narrates this fairy tale and claims that she meets the people in her dreams in real life too. Likewise, this story oscillates between fantasy and reality and at some point we tend to lose the thread that tends to weave a complicated narrative on a largely commercial canvas. Finally when the dream meets reality, things start taking shape in its ugliest of forms and the real culprit is revealed in a standard masala fashion where good triumphs over evil.

The movie appears to be quite a mixture and fails to settle on a mood even until the climax. K.V.Anand is known for his slice of science fiction which has been an integral part of all his movies in the past, has once again leaned heavily on the ‘sensational’ script writing duo, Subha to have the science fiction element under the covers in order to pull a fairly orchestrated conceit. He has also been largely saved by the star cast in the movie that includes the likes of veterans like Karthik, who not only made sure that the proceedings were smooth but also sensational. Dhanush, the ‘actor’ was largely suppressed and the commercial mass hero in him was allowed to walk through with a bunch of goons to knock down whenever he gets to have a chance and that big climax fight that we’ve forgotten for a while in mainstream commercial cinema has got a rekindled passion.

The movie while loitering through various time periods, weaves so many knots. Only some were removed and some were left as it was. More than it being confusing, it was a bit of a disappointment that the mystery behind the knot remained unsolved. May be is it a cue for a second part? Not sure!

The performances from Dhanush and Amyra fitted into the commercial template. Amyra has made a fairly sensible debut and has got a meaty role which was justified with her above average lip sync and decent acting. Karthik has made a good comeback in a role that was kept under the wraps till the climax after which his centrifugal performance was at display where the good and bad got separated with panache.

Though KV deserves a pat on his back for a novel attempt at a complex screenplay that is risky and has taken the path less traversed, his crudity of blending science fiction with neo-liberal values takes a beating as it over-exaggerates stuff and often ends up by blowing things out of proportion.

Verdict: Worth a Watch!

Rating: 2.5 / 5