Multiple Personalities But No Character. Review on Anniyan Movie

For those who like a small review: ''This movie is boring and badly made''

For the rest

Story: -

Ambi (Vikram), an orthodox Iyengar (a sect of Tamil Brahmins) is very obsessed with following the rules and obeying the law. He cannot tolerate injustice, negligence and flouting of the rules.But, being a weak person he is unable to fight the injustice that has become a part of everybody's daily routine. So, whenever he is in despair he cries and visits https://anniyan.com where he can enter the details of the crime that he could not stop.

Anniyan (Vikram) is a self appointed punisher. He punishes anyone who disobeys the rules according to what is prescribed in Garudapuranam. Garudapuranam is a guide to the punishments given to people based on the crime they commit.

Ambi loves Nandini, who he knows since childhood. Being a timid guy, Ambi is unable to express his love to Nandini. But, when he finally expresses it, nandini promptly rejects his love because he is so obsessed with rules and she finds him boring.

Remo (Vikram) is a flamboyant guy who makes nandini fall in love with him.

What happens when these three personalities come together forms the rest of the story.

My opinion:-

Anniyan is probably the most anticipated tamil movie of the year so far because so much has been said about the cost of the movie. If someone invests Rs. 26 crores in a movie then they should make sure that the end product is beyond excellence.

To me, the basic three ingredients of a good movie are: -

Only if these three ingredients are good the other aspects like Music, Songs, Locations, Camerawork, Action / Stunts etc. can add value. Anniyan misses the mark in all the three aspect I have mentioned above.

The story (though it sounds different/new) is a simply a repeat of Indian / Gentleman / Mudhalvan / The Mask with Matrix inspired stunts.

The story telling was a bumpy ride with Shankar unable to decide what to focus on. If his focus was to give a message then he fails miserably. Indian, Gentleman and Mudhalvan were far superior products. I think the story lacked depth and Shankar concentrated too much on style and much less on substance. Maybe after filming it half way through he realized that he was remaking Indian and lost interest!!

The Music and Songs are barely bearable. Camerawork and locations were excellent, The action and stunt scenes were.. well.. disappointing! I dont know why everyone wants to redo matrix!! The Anniyan character is not supposed to be superman or superhuman. It is not acceptable to see Vikram jumping across floors, flying etc.

Acting:

Vikram

Ambi: I think Vikram did'nt suit the Ambi role at all. Putting on the iyengar ''Naamam'' (a thin red line on the forehead) and the ''poonal'' (sacred thread) is not sufficient. His iyengar accent and body language was bad.

Anniyan: I didn't like his potrayal of Anniyan either! It was a half baked character. The voice modulation of Anniyan made it very difficult to understand what he was saying (or maybe the theater where I was watching this movie had bad sound effects!)

Remo: I thought Vikram was ok in this role but this was a totally useless role with no reason to be there in the movie!

Sada & Vivek and Prakashraj

Not much to do, but they do their parts ok.

Verdict:

The movie was atleast 20 minutes too long and it could not hold my interest. Though the last 20-25 minutes were good and Vikram did well in those final few scenes, it was too late and too less.

My guess is that Anniyan will prove to be a critical and commercial failure. Rs. 26 crores wasted! Shankar did a wise thing by not releasing the movie with Chandramukhi.