Two Line Reviews - #224

Movie: Vaanam (Thamizh, 2011)

Plot: There is a slum-dwelling Raja, a prostitute Saroja, a village lady who are in bad need of 'Money' for various reasons. There is a Muslim jodi on pursuit of a lost brother & there is a rock band travelling from Bangalore to Chennai for a concert. Characters in these parallel tracks face problems simultaneously and converge at a place in the climax - for absurd reasons!

Highlights:

• The comedy scenes involving Simbu, Santhanam & Ganesh are the sole relief in this otherwise dud of a film.
• The performances of Saranya, her father-in-law thaatha & Prakashraj were notably good - they are the saving graces. Especially, the old man showing vulnerability instantly earns the sympathy.
• Some very few scenes towards the end of the first half - very few.

Lowlights:

• Converging tracks on the lines of Amores Perros, Babel alright. But there is no proper connection between the tracks. All so-called connections are deliberate and silly. That makes it a boring watch.
• The utterly terrible positioning of songs - all songs infact. (Never seen two songs played back to back in any film!)
• Simbu's love track completely lacks seriousness & so when he tells his lover that his love was true, it was such a silly thing to watch. There are so many such scenes in the film.
• The uninspiring background music , editing , poor graphics & side-screen techniques add salt to the wound.
• The final climax involving so called terrorists with back-packs & deepavali thupaakkis perfectly symbolise the amateurity of the whole film - Messages and all get delivered after the climax absurdities are shown!

This film's a torture!