Anniyan – A Grand Illusion!
Anniyan—The much awaited movie featuring the explosive Shankar-Vikram combination.
I made my way to the hall with bated breath, carefully ignoring any comments about the movie that seemed to float their way down to my ears or eyes!
I wanted an unbiased perspective on the movie and to dissect the style of Tamil’s cinema’s greatest illusionist ever – director Shankar.
The story is quite predictable and falls into the genre of Shankar’s earlier films like Indian and Gentleman.
Ramanujam (also known as Ambi), an honest lawyer (an oxymoron?) is unable to digest the atrocities in the society, but being a powerless person he can only watch in disgust. Also, he’s also unable to convey his romantic feels towards Nandini (Sada), who detests his strict adherence to rules.
Several issues like the bad quality of brake cables, the food in the railway catering, and the apathy of the people towards accident victims affect him deeply.
He enters his complaints on a mysterious website, anniyan.com… and the wrongdoers are killed in gruesome manner by a character who proclaims himself as Anniyan (also played by Vikram). DCP Prakash Raj investigates these murders. Vivek is his sidekick and offers some hilarious moments during the investigations!
Meanwhile, a character Remo appears (also played by Vikram) and wins the heart of Sada, after she outrightly rejects Ambi.
Remo and Anniyan are everything that Ramanujam is not – daring, forceful & romantically enticing.
The rest of the movie revolves around revelations about the identity of these characters and some good message for the public given with a pinch of sugar, packaged with fights and song sequences. It is really in the novelties surrounding the main storyline that the attraction of Anniyan lies. On the whole, Anniyan contains enough entertainment value to carry you into its world during the 3 hours. On further dissection we may realize that there’s nothing really new in this movie! So if you expected Out of the world stuff then there can be some disappointment! The performances are first rate, especially Vikram’s.
I’ve wondered how Shankar is able to present a known concept (that others try umpteen number of times and fail) and still catch the attention of the audience for 3 long hours…
After watching Anniyan, things became a bit clearer…
Like an illusionist who creates a temporary suspension of belief, Shankar weaves his tale in such a way that the audience (or atleast a majority of them) doesn’t actually want to question the believability of a scene while they are watching it and would rather enjoy it! In hindsight there may be some critical analysis, but nevertheless the experience is really enjoyable!
Take the scene where thousands of buffaloes march down a small mountainous pathway into a cave. The scene where hordes of policemen wait patiently for a wanted man to finish his grand lecture to a audience before deciding to zero in on him (in vain, ofcourse!).
Or the exaggerated romantic stunts of the character Remo (played authentically by Vikram- he transformed himself to a Latin star!).
Set in any other movie, the same scenes would get yawns from the audience.
An example is the much touted film in the same genre, ‘Citizen’. Ajith’s ploys fell flat in the face of insipid direction that failed to get the audiences’ attention before unveiling the grand effects!
Let’s analyze the reasons for this hypnotic effect in Shankar’s movies. One, he allows the viewers to visualize the premise so strongly that people involuntarily want to favor the hero’s cause no matter what! For eg. the issues plaguing the society and their aftermath are shown crystal clear right at the beginning. Also, the strong conviction to cause of each of the characters (ambi, remo, anniyan, prakash raj and nandini!) allows us to get involved in their cause easily! After all, who doesn’t like people with conviction!
Two, the introduction of novel elements coupled with the grand scale of presentation.
For eg. the murderer leaves a clue after each act, pointing to the mysterious Garudapuranam.
The concept of taking the wrong doers in society to task, with a personal tragedy siding the hero’s cause has been repeated too many times to evoke the viewer’s interest these days. The addition of the Garudapuranam (a myth listing the punishments meted in hell to wrong doers) angle to the killings adds spice to the tale. It also gives a chance for the movie to present a mystical dark side, something that entices the audience purely for its freshness of concept, if not for its mysterious allure! Compare this with a (boring) movie called ‘Arasaktshi’ with a similar theme, where Arjun eliminates bad lawyers from society… The contrast is striking!
But still, the movie is not as hard hitting as I expected it to be...
There were times when the movie seemed to drag, like when the social issues were listed one by one right at the beginning… The pace in the first half was hardly comparable to the whirlwind flow of Mudhalvan. By the time the first half unfolded, two murders had taken place and some preliminary investigation had begun by Prakash Raj (policeman posing as a villager, though I didn’t see any justification for that!). The story really didn’t have anything new until then…. And the action sequence in the second half with the karate experts, though imaginatively picturised, was too lengthy and overdid the freeze frame Matrix style effects…
But every time the movie seemed to get close to boring, there was Vivek with his comedy lines to pep up the audience. Vivek’s comic sense is one of his very best in this one! His comedy in the train is sure to be remembered for years!
And the songs, picturized on a grand scale with unique backdrops, popped up at regular intervals and were a sight for sore eyes! Some of them were speed breakers but the music and the grand picturization take the attention away! Particularly, the Kumari song seemed to be forced into the narration, and the picturization though scenic lacked the expected creativity in presentation…
Sada had good scope for displaying her acting talents and did justice to the task.
Prakash Raj did a stunning job, capturing the viewer's attention especially in the climax scene...
And when the time comes for some pathos, there is the quintessential flashback bringing out the reason for the protagonist’s conviction to his cause – Ramanujam’s sister had died due to the neglect of duty that has become so commonplace.
Comparing it with Shankar’s earlier movies would definitely take away the charm of watching this one, for the similarities are quite glaring at times. Even the tone in which Anniyan speaks during the killings reminds us of Kamal during the famous ‘Nizhalgal Ravi killing scene’ in Indian. I wouldn’t blame Shankar too much for coming back to a social theme similar to his earlier ventures. He tried something different in Boys but that didn’t win widespread acclaim, so he’s used a tried & tested formula with some welcome additions, to give people just what they want!
(Continued in the Comments section!)
