There aren't many movies at the end of which you're not sure about whether or not you liked the past two and a half hours. Varanam Aayiram is one such. There were loose ends, the narration wasn't exactly seamless, the dialogues were ordinary, even puerile at times. Yet, it had some kind of appeal I couldn't bring myself to scoff at.
Varanam Aayiram is one of those rare movies where a guy ought to be accompanied by his dad and his girl. Ideally he'd want to divide his attention equally between them and the movie, switch shoulders to rest his head, depending on whether its old Surya or young Sameera who's painting the screen with class or oomph, as the situation may warrant. My case? Well, my dad's 500 km away from where I stay, and well, anything said about a girl at this point of time might result in banishment, so I'll keep shut here. ;)
The characters more or less do justice to their roles. One might accuse the elderly Surya of overdoing a throat-cancer patient. Or scorn at the teenaged/grown-up Surya end 100 out of 108 of his dialogues with 'Daddy'. Or gape in shock as the heroine nonchalantly reveals that she has an admit at UC Berkeley (Holy Cow, candidates from BITS and most IITs get balled, and here's an REC Trichy female talking about it as if it's as straightforward as adding water to milk!). Or grumble about how long the bloody chopper would remain airborne, before the director was done with describing the elder Surya's life history replete with larval and pupal stages of his son. Or stare in disbelief in the end as the rest of the family sans the elderly Surya smile, minutes after his final rites, in an attempt to get on with life. But that, in essence, is what Varanam Aayiram is all about. Resilience. The grit to bury the past and move on. Not many can do that. I am not sure I can.
However, having watched the movie, what one does not complain about, are the following. Varanam Aayiram, Karanam Ezhu ( Yes, yes, I smell rotten tomatoes).
1. Simran. Probably one of her best roles yet. That of a 70s college girl, (where she resembles Asha Parekh to a large extent) followed by that of a caring wife and concerned mother. Graceful role.
2. Sameera Reddy. I never thought I'd say it. 'Howl' is just about what I can manage at the moment. All apologies.
3. Major K. Surya. With a body built like a tank, he's set to take over as pin-up in many bedrooms across the state.
4. Divya Spandana. The rebound. She's what one might call pleasantly plump and pinchable. I tend to favour those that fit my description. My apologies, again.
5. Harris Jayaraj. He scores. And scores brilliantly. Be it the classical number sung by Sudha Raghunathan or the modern-day number with guitar riffs (it's a mild copy of an ACDC hit, but what the hell :) ) Well worth queueing them up in a loop and enabling the Repeat option.
6. Sights of the US. Neat camera work. Makes you want to board the next flight and tour.
7. The Director's intent. He goes the extra mile to tell you why fathers are so special. And why it's important to move on in life. And so you put up with all the claptrap about Surya going insane, getting into drugs and the like, all in some kind of hope that your patience will pay off sometime soon.
It does. It's a Gautham Menon movie after all.
There's never quite someone like a director wishing to tell his own story.
