Yennai Arindhaal (If you happen to know me) - A cocktail of old and tasty wines bottled new!

There it is… a movie that was teasing the cinephiles for the past 2 or 3 years now has finally come alive. A trendy and stylish film maker like Gautham Menon directing a star like Ajith would truly go down in the annals of Tamil cinema as a landmark film if not for anything but for their sheer collaboration. What better way can GVM greet ‘Thala’ but with his league of ‘style meets substance’ series of cop movies, which not only brought Gautham to the main league but also a star like Surya. Also a huge question hinges among the audiences, especially among Ajith’s fans that whether this movie belongs to Ajith or Gautham? Though the question appears naive, it carries way too deeper connotations in terms of the invisible rivalry that exists between any star director while directing a star actor. I can firmly say that the film truly belongs to Ajith who has elevated this ordinary piece of story a notch higher to appeal not only to the classes but also to the masses.

The story travels through the life of ‘Satyadev’ (Ajith), an upright IPS officer who tries to save ‘Thenmozhi’ from the clutches of a dreaded gang. The reason is revealed through a long drawn out flashback that had very little to add to the mainstream story. It was like a sales agent narrating his own life story instead of giving a concise pitch of the product that he was trying to sell. All said and done, the technicalities in the movie were top notch as with all GVM movies, so it was bearable. Dan Macarthur’s cinematography needs a special mention here as the frames looked crisp and fresh. Also Harris Jayaraj’s bonhomie with GVM has always been a talking point - though this movie is in no way special when compared to their previous collaborations, but HJ has dished out his magic sauce for GVM in terms of BGM.

Another problem was that the movie takes a real good 2 hours to finally take off and get fixated to a one on one rivalry. 2 hours is too much of a price to pay and that too we were taken a detour to so many subplots which were merely showcased to add a dash of emotional element. Maybe GVM would have wanted to employ a ploy of that of a personal revenge saga with a vested interest to save the public - but the same has been beaten to pulp by the director himself in ‘Kaakha Kaakha’ and ‘Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu’, but still Gautham feels that there is enough juice left in it.

I was able to identify scenes from so many of his previous movies, especially the flight scene remembered me of the train sequence in ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’, but here the girl (Anushka) gets swept instantly by Satya’s charm unlike in VA. The subplot where the ‘single mother’ (Trisha) rekindling her romance blatantly points to Jyothika’s role in VV. Also an emotional connect to Satya’s dad had a dash of ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ in it. But still the success of GVM was that he was able to showcase them in new light with good actors.

Coming to the performances - Ajith’s screen presence is the axle on which the story and screenplay manages to spin. Toast to the actor for allowing GVM to mould him as per his whims and fancies without forcing him to make any commercial compromises. Weakest characterization was that of Anushka’s (Thenmozhi). She was merely there to run around Ajith and get mocked by Vivek for her height (in Lingaa it was Santhaanam who did that). Trisha had a brief role that was made to look substantial, but as an afterthought, I felt that her episode could have totally been taken off or could have been narrated with a few scenes and a song (but there were 2 songs and that made it worse) as it was done in VV for Kamalini Mukherji. Vivek’s role cannot be described as that of a comedian, but he does some humorous stuff with his quick wit. Arun Vijay, the antagonist - his role was so predictably etched, that the moment we lay eyes on him, we know what’s exactly is in store. Gautham’s style of depicting the villains with an uncombed wild look applies to Arun Vijay as well. He tried to do a ‘Pandiya’ of KK, but his role was suppressed for too long a period even though it was well done.

The movie with it’s 176 minute length doesn’t find justification for so many scenes and heavily leans on Ajith’s charisma, which the actor has carried with grace and poise. I feel that GVM wanted to convey everything that was written on the script book either through lip synced dialogs or through intellectual or philosophical voice overs. That may not hold  true everytime as it should have been conveyed visually with effective scenes, but the problem here is that there were very many scenes which were effective but were neutralized by lethargically paced voice overs and musings that tried to vouch for our emotions. The movie can definitely be watched once for its style quotient, a slim element of thrill and above all Ajith’s screen presence that truly holds everyone spellbound.

Verdict: One time watch!

Rating: 2.5 / 5