An action drama that does what it sets out to do-Entertainment News , Firstpost

I don’t know if I can name Yaanai a comeback movie for Arun Vijay. However I can say that loudly for the film’s director, Hari. He can lastly heave a sigh of aid. The brand new motion drama, which is releasing 4 years after the ridiculous Saamy Sq., does what it units out to do. It’s not a return to type for the brainchild behind the Singam sequence. However then, what’s his authentic type?

Hari is thought for making masala films that really feel like they’re working on adrenaline. Though there isn’t a lot of that occurring right here, there are some locations the place his sparks flutter. And a part of that credit score has to go to Vijay, for he’s not simply the poster boy for muscle tissues and forthrightness, he additionally performs a personality that kind of speaks to the viewers straight.

Ravi (Vijay) will get down from his automotive and walks as much as a grave and pays his respects with the intention to construct a bridge for reconciliation in one of many opening scenes of Yaanai. And about half a minute later, the prime antagonist makes his entry from one other nook of the display and engages in a staring recreation with Ravi and the others. All people seems at all people and that results in the rise of rigidity within the air.

Lingam (Ramachandra Raju) is in no temper to shake fingers with Ravi and let bygones be bygones. He needs revenge, a blood sacrifice – you understand how this works in Hari’s world. And even on the planet of Tamil cinema for that matter the place the hero and his nemesis share a grimy historical past. Proper from this setup, Hari tells you whom it’s best to root for. The solutions are proper there: Lingam may be very dangerous and Ravi is superb.

However the tussle between the great and dangerous man doesn’t occur till one other hour. Lingam disappears for huge stretches within the center. And Ravi is left to cope with small fish. However the small fish additionally matter. He’s the youngest amongst 4 brothers and, so, is liked by all the ladies and youngsters in his household. It is a joint household that I’m speaking about. I couldn’t sustain with the variety of youngsters in the home, actually. And a big household doesn’t all the time imply a cheerful household. There are insults wherever he goes, and he digests all of them as a result of he’s man, as a result of he’s a household man.

Who’s a household man anyway? Wasn’t the protagonist of Maamanithan, Radhakrishnan (Vijay Sethupathi), additionally a household man? He runs away from his spouse and children when he finds himself on the backside of a rip-off. However he nonetheless makes certain that his hard-earned cash reaches them each month via his pal. In Yaanai, Ravi doesn’t pack his luggage and go to a neighboring state in the course of the evening. Relatively, he merely beats his attackers to a pulp and wins the argument. The cops, too, take heed to him with out lacking a phrase, as he’s wealthy.

Maybe, the most important downside of Yaanai is its comedy observe. Jimmy (Yogi Babu), as Ravi’s sidekick, is humorous. However when he roams across the city passing foolish feedback and consuming biryani for 5 rupees, it turns into a bit tiring. The standalone jokes aren’t contemporary and since Babu isn’t paired with actors who can match his verbal marathon, they arrive throughout as pointless and silly. Vivek did an amazing job in Saamy virtually twenty years earlier. However we’ve moved on now. We’d like comedy that flows together with the storyline and never the pungent bombs that stray away from the herd.

The insults that I discussed above primarily drop from Ravi’s brother (portrayed by Samuthirakani). This brother is the type of man who judges the individuals round him with regard to the castes they belong to. It doesn’t come as a shock then when his daughter falls in love with a Muslim. Ravi, too, is besotted with a girl who’s not from his caste – Malar (Priya Bhavani Shankar) is a Christian. And that’s how Hari covers the holy trinity. However Yaanai doesn’t shoot down casteism.

Ravi doesn’t maintain a mic and offers lectures concerning the wrongs which are spreading via our nation. He doesn’t make overt political statements, both. His conversations and confrontations seem extra like a squabble in a forest – the outsiders received’t get it. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless a step ahead. Nevertheless, the casteist, who’s additionally a wife-beater, will get away with virtually all the things he does. Is {that a} typical illustration of an Indian marriage? It’s kind of a punch within the intestine to see that some issues won’t ever change, on and off the display.

Love alone doesn’t win on the finish of the day in Yaanai. Dysfunctional households that stay purposeful throughout a malfunction additionally win right here.

Score: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Yaanai is taking part in in cinemas

Karthik Keramalu is a author. His works have been printed in The Bombay Evaluation, The Quint, Deccan Herald and Movie Companion, amongst others. 

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