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Thursday, March 27, 2025
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TAMIL YENNAI ARINDHAAL...
EDITOR'S PICK
'Yennai
Arindhaal': Human drama beneath policeman's story (IANS Tamil Movie Review)
Rating:
***1/2
The real heroes of 'Yennai Arindhaal', the third film in Gautham's police
franchise after 'Kaakha Kaakha' and 'Vettaiyaadu Vilayadu', are the heroines
Trisha and Anushka, for whom the film's best moments have been written.
If you've followed Gautham's films, the kind of roles he writes for his heroines
and the way he portrays them are commendable even if they were to feature
briefly, and you wonder if any other filmmaker can supersede him in this regard.
Most of the film's story revolves around or should I say is linked to Hemalika
and Thenmozhi, played by Trisha and Anushka respectively. Ajith, who plays
police officer Sathyadev, puts his life on the line to protect them and not just
because its his job.
'Yennai Arindhaal' is the evolved story of police officer Sathyadev, who strives
hard to strike a balance as a family man as well. Everything about the film and
its protagonist Sathyadev is evolved to the extent that he's ready to accept a
woman with a child in his life.
In one of the film's best stretches he proposes to Hemalika, and as he waits for
her reply, he goes on to talk about things they plan to do as a couple -- like
how they plan to send her daughter to the best school, buy a piece of land and
settle down as a family.
He prefixes the word 'they' in these sentences to symbolically highlight she's
already been accepted in his life and he's ready to do everything together. In
an earlier scene, he drives her to the hospital when she's in labour, not as a
policeman, but while working incognito as an auto-rickshaw driver to nab a local
rowdy.
When they reach the hospital, she pays him (a man's got to earn, you see). And
when they meet in court a few years later, she thanks him and says her daughter
Isha came into this world because of him.
The icing on this relationship is the fact there's no mention about Hemalika's
first husband (Isha's father), and it really doesn't bother Sathyadev. Gautham
asks us, the audience, how many would be willing to accept a woman with a child
without even inquiring about her past. There's an indication that Sathyadev
might have learnt about Hemalika's past when he says how much he's impressed
with her decision to teach dance (she's a dancer) free of cost. As a policeman
it runs in his blood to do a background check on everybody he meets.
In the initial moments between Sathyadev and Thenmozhi, there's a lot of
talking, although they're strangers who've just met on a plane. When she feels
nauseated, he, a stranger, puts his hand on her shoulder to ask if she's
alright. For a change, he doesn't stalk her; it's the other way around.
There's even a moment when it almost looks like he's going to say I've fallen in
love at first sight but Gautham avoids these cliches.
In this story, the women also become the weakness of the heroes, for Ajith and
Arun Vijay, who plays the antagonist Victor. There are two scenes where both
Sathyadev and Victor end up doing something because of the weakness for the
woman in their lives. And it costs them heavily in their careers.
Talking about human drama, there's a lot of focus on friendship and betrayal.
Sathyadev is a man with an itch, as he describes himself, for inviting trouble.
Gautham uses a thin line to separate the police officer Sathyadev from the
gangster Victor. And the same line resurfaces in a scene towards the end when
both are talking on cell phones and the screen splits into two halves separated
by a thin black line.
The problem with 'Yennai Arindhaal', and of course with its creator Gautham, is
the filmmaker's growing obsession with some of his familiar tropes - the
hot-headed and loud villain Victor (Arun is terrific in the role), who reminds
you of Pandian from 'Kaakha Kaakha', the perennial danger the protagonist's
family gets into, the weakness for women, the role of a father, the songs that
stop and break into conversations and again continue playing, the narratives
that lose steam in the end and finally the length.
There's a wonderful father-daughter relationship. At one point, the film does
feel like a story of a police officer who wants to give his daughter a life his
father couldn't. There's also a brief flashback scene with Sathyadev and his
father, played by Nasser, and it only reminds us how much Sathya misses his
father when he tries to be dotingly good to his daughter.
Despite some tonal and length issues, Gautham impresses mostly in 'Yennai
Arindhaal', and gives this tale of a police officer a much need emotional tug.
Ajith's screen presence is unbelievably amazing and it takes guts for a star
with a crazy fan following to do something so bold. It's refreshing to see the
actor in Ajith overshadowing the star and going on to prove who is much better.
Filmmaker Gautham Vasudev Menon, who is currently basking in the success of his latest Tamil release "Yennai Arindhaal", says the film was meant to have traces of his earlier films because it was part of a trilogy.Read More
Ajith's 'Yennai Arindhaal' collects Rs.20.83 croreActor Ajith Kumar's Tamil action-thriller "Yennai Arindhaal", despite hitting the screens on a weekday, managed to gross Rs.20.83 crore within the first two days of release in Tamil Nadu.Read More
