Cast: Vikram, Aishwarya Rai, Prithviraj, Priyamani, Karthik, Prabu, Ranjitha
Banner: Madras Talkies, Big Pictures
Production: Manirathnam
Story, Screenplay and Dialogues: Manirathnam
Dialogues: Suhasini Manirathnam
Music: A.R. Rahman
Cinematography: Santhosh Sivan
Story
Prithviraj, a righteous cop married with a classical dancer Aishwarya Rai and they moved to Ambhasamuthram village in thirunelveli district due to Prithviraj job transfer. He comes to know that he is transferred for stopping the realms of Vikram who is a tribe in that village. Vikram has his own principles and he himself enters into each issue of the village and solves that issue with his unique handling which is not acceptable by law.
On a mission, Prithviraj shoots Vikram in his neck in the occasion of Vikram's sister Priyamani's marriage. Somehow, villagers rescued Vikram and helped him to escape from that place. Meanwhile, The policemen surrounded Priyamani and brought her to police custody for extracting the place of Vikram's hiding out from her.
But, In police custody she was brutally raped by the police men. So she attempts suicide for her disgrace. For revenge, Vikram kidnaps Aishwarya rai and holds her for fourteen days in his place. Simultaneously, Prithviraj tries to find her with the help of Karthick who is a forest guard.
But in fourteen days, Vikram falls love with Aishwarya rai and explains how Prithviraj and his team of police men has done offensive crimes to his family and villagers. Slowly, Aishwarya likes from her heart Vikram for his honesty and the way he treats her. Finally the surprising and yet unpredictable climax reveals how Aishwarya was rescued and whether Vikram was confined or not.
Strength
The cinematography has done a fabulous job in this film featuring the most surprising and beautiful locales of India. Most of scenes were shot in water background which feels us a fear with amusement. The Background score and the songs are as usual a great treat from A.R.Rahman.
The editing promotes the film one level up with International standard. The flow of the story is unique as unlike other films which has twist at interval and that leads to the climax. The dialogs are lengthy when comparing to other Mani Ratnam's movies and it shows the composure of each character.
Finally the cast of the film is amazing and the come back of Karthick is really a pleasure for tamil audience. Vikram has done a fantabulous job and his looks were very raw and real. Aishwarya Rai really done her role with a mesmerizing performance. She was gorgeous in her classical dancing in a song 'kalvare' and other stunts in the forest. Prithviraj is smart and done his role perfect. Prabhu is really looking like a gangster first and instant he makes us hilarious by his folk slang. Priyamani as always bear the same bold lady character and she has done it perfectly.
The last ten minutes of the film was really astonishing and the fight between Vikram and Prithiviraj in bridge is such a memorable stunt forever in Tamil cinemas for its photography and the risk involved in shooting that stunt in that depth.
Weakness
The story is inspired by the Indian epic Ramayana. But the view point of the story is driven from the villain point of view i.e Ravana. That makes the film reviews from the audience with different different opinions as it is a controversial subject.
The lead characters Vikram (Ravana), Prithiviraj (Rama) and Aishwarya Rai (Sita) are not pure enough to hold the titles because the characters are neither white or black rather than they are grey.
For tamil audience, the issue between policemen and the villagers are new to the subject and its not reflecting any resemblance of current affair as like Hindi version of Ravan which depicts about Maoist groups in north east India. So The issue has to be fully explained here in order to get the character of Vikram. But that was not done. So mostly, the first half of the movie looks like a fiction.
Overall, we cant accept the film like this with very clumsy screenplay in first half and unjustified manner of story telling from The great legend Mr.Mani Rathnam.
Rating: 3.5/5 (Three and half stars out of five stars)
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