Vaaranam Aayiram Review

It was one of those arduous weeks, where nothing seems to be going right. First couple of my favourite t-shirts got ruined, due to mixing of wrong set of clothes while washing. Next the visit to PVR cinemas got cancelled due to the lack of tickets. Not a great beginning to a week, but finally ended up doing some serious work at office. Coming back to the movie, this one was on my list of movies to be watched, ever since I heard the songs. But I never planned it for watching it in Bangalore. As things would turn out, on a dull Thursday where random power cuts seemed to be more erratic than women’s mood swings, I fell asleep on my table and my mind drifted onto a dream. It was a multiplex theatre; I was standing there not able to get tickets, while one of my friends pops out of nowhere showing of her credit card and tickets that were bought by her to me. Thanks to show of antics, I snapped out of my dream and sleep, it was almost like a challenge laid out to me, whether I could tickets in a multiplex without a credit card on a Sunday. Well, the next day after I walked around my area to find the new multiplex in my neighborhood. As with most things I life, you keep searching for things far and wide, when it’s actually near you all the time. In fact the Inox multiplex was more near to my house then my office, yet I never seemed to realize it. It was all set for Sunday night show at Inox theatre (never mind the fact I paid 180 for this movie i.e., I am sure a few of my friends jaw would have dropped on reading this). The only dampener being one of my friend who would have showed up with me, failed to come cause of his illness, leaving me a loner at the multiplex. As the say, if one door closes, the other door opens, at least it did for some time before shutting altogether. I had my seat number next to a decent looking girl (I couldn’t make out the details in darkness of theatre though). Just as I thought something was going for me, her dad who was next to her, exchanged the seats and sat next to me, moving the girl out. It’s not as if I was bothered about it, may be I should have said to him, if your daughter had just come alone, she wouldn’t have minded sitting next to me at all. But seeing movies alone is boring affair, though this was a Tamil movie, there was no need for translation, nevertheless a willing translator next to me as I got for ‘Rock On’ would have made it more pleasurable.

The movie starts with Major General Surya looking back at his life, when he hears his father’s demise while on a rescue operation. The first song where you have surya’s dad (again played by him) chasing Simran is like Om shanti Om’s Dhoom taana song, where you have old filmy dance sequences and movie sets. But Surya has done a good job mimicking Shivaji Ganesan. As the flashback continues, you have him wooing his class girls during his school life, which ends up in fight between two guys (not surprised). May be the director thought the college love stories have become so common, here he conjures post college love story. The guy ends up meeting his girl of dreams i.e., Meghna on a train journey. Guess what, its love at first sight. He even proposes to her there in the train only to be rebuffed by the girl (Of course, hero will win back the girl otherwise its not Indian cinema). The love songs which he sings to woo her are one of the highlights of the film (especially the “Nee en Inniya Pon Nilavae” song, even I might try my hand it pretty soon). Of course the best song of the film “Oh Shanti Shanti” is too good. You do feel there are lots of songs in the first half, but you never realize that thanks superb composition by Harris Jayaraj. Coming to the story, Meghna goes to US to study MS, our hero follows to her to US ( certainly not for an MS, but to win his girl back from US at least the immigration guys seem to buy his reason for wanting to travel to US). May be techies should stop applying for H1B visa’s and start loving American girls, they would have better chance making it there, given the US economy downturn. Eventually our hero wins her heart; they even end up sleeping with each other (Tamil cinema slowly catching up with Bollywood). Unfortunately just after this wonderful experience Meghna is killed of in a bomb blast. With it ends the first half.

As you might have guessed, Surya is grief stricken. He drinks; smokes and takes to drugs unable to bear the loss of his love. But his father somehow finds this, tries to rehabilitate him. He sends him to Kashmir, where a kidnapping of a child gets Surya’s attention. He goes about rescuing the child after discovering Gangster – Police nexus. In the process, he discovers the hidden passion in him, to become an army man. He joins the army, meanwhile our heroes sister’s friend confesses her love for him (Cheese, I wish all women would muster up courage like that, makes a guys life a lot easier). Finally after a lot of reverse wooing by the girl, our hero relents to accept her love and ties the knot with her. To make a long story short, he grows in his career to be a major general, performs some awesome rescue missions. Rewind to the present, our hero Surya completes his valiant mission and returns home after only to find his father dead. The story ends with a bit of nostalgic touch to it.

The film as a whole is bit long; I couldn’t wait for it to end. To tell one love story in a movie is challenging enough, but to squeeze in three love stories is a bit too much. Obviously the first half where the most of wooing love sequences take places is the funniest part of the movie. Whether playing the role of 60 year old father, a budding young lad in school or a Major general, Surya has done a great job with his acting and also molding his body to suit the role. Of course, I can’t forget gorgeous ladies of the movie, I know that Deepika Padukone left this movie for Om Shanti Om (Vaaranam Aaiyaram was her first movie by the way), but thank God she left; otherwise we wouldn’t have Meghna who is even lovelier than Deepika. To sum it up Vaaranam Aaiyaram, as a whole is watchable with an enjoyable first half and a second half that you can’t wait for it to end.

Rating: 2.5 / 5

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