One good performance and technical excellence can rarely hide all the other flaws
in a movie but in the case of Kamalhassan's ambitious Aalavandhaan, they sure
come close. His performance as the psychotic and the technical expertise evident
in most frames of the movie almost take our attention away from the wafer-thin
story and meandering screenplay. Unlike Hey Ram , that
was easily identifiable as an art movie because of its theme, Aalavandhaan
is definitely a commercial outing. Inspite of that, this is a movie that will be
enjoyed more by the discerning viewer who appreciates the attempt at providing
something new in Tamil cinema and the effort that has gone into the same rather
than the average viewer looking for casual entertainment.
Vijaykumar(Kamalhassan), an army major, is all set to marry his sweetheart
Tejaswini(Raveena Tandon), a TV newsreader. He takes her to meet Nandhakumar(Kamalhassan),
his twin brother who is now the inmate of a mental asylum. Vijay and Nandhu
had been illtreated by their stepmother as kids and while Vijay had escaped her
clutches by being adopted by his uncle, Nandhu ended up in the asylum after killing
her. Seeing Tejaswini brings back memories of his childhood and believing
that she is just a reincarnation of his stepmother, he escapes from the asylum
with the intention of saving his brother from her.
Kamal tries a lot of things in this movie. When they work, they work very well indeed
but when they don't, the result is a failure of the same scale. One such unique and
trendsetting feature in this movie is the use of animation. Used at two places, it illustrates
how the same technique can be both effective and a turn-off, depending on how applicable
and useful it is. Kamal's hallucinatory trip
in the shopping mall after he is stoned is interesting initially as a clever way to
showcase a trip into his mind but it goes on for way too long. Since it is just a
stand-alone sequence that goes nowhere, the use of animation here seems more like
a show-off. On the other hand, the animation at the end of Kamal's encounter with
Manisha is brilliantly executed. It serves to reduce the level of gore, allows him to
perform superhuman acts and speeds up the sequence.
The flashback is handled very well and manages to be absorbing inspite of the
age-old story of kids being ill-treated by their evil stepmother and their father,
who is under her spell. But after this, the movie descends into regular masala
fare with false alarms, chases, explosions and even a cheesily executed balloon
ride. But the final Kamal vs Kamal encounter is a technical marvel. Though the
use of graphics is rather obvious at a couple of spots, the sequence makes it
easy to believe that we are seeing two actors facing off each other. But the
result of this encounter, with signs of a change of heart in both characters, is
disappointing. The movie does manage to end with a nice, ironic touch though.
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