Monday, January 16, 2006

Aathi review - Sify.com

Movie Aathi
Director Ramanna
Producer S.A.Chandrasekhara
Music Vidyasagar
Cast Vijay, Trisha, Sai Kumar

By Moviebuzz -->
You can't judge a film by its teaser. After seeing the slick trailer of Aathi on television, one anticipated a cracker of a movie from Vijay's home production. Alas, it turns out to be just another assembly line revenge drama, with lot of blood and gore.

The opening scene of Trisha in all white like an angel sitting on a white bench feeding a white pigeon by a calm ocean and Devan coming and sitting by her side and exchanging pleasantries and suddenly she whips out a knife and kills him saying that she has been waiting for this moment for many years! It is the best scene in the film which indicates to the audience that it is a revenge drama.

Aathi follows the hoary formula of the 70's family- revenge drama(Yaadon ki Baarat type, where a young boy and his cousin his childhood sweet heart are witness to their happy joint family of father, mother, grandpa, uncles, aunts being butchered by a group of baddies!

The boy and his cousin are then separated, and after they grow up take revenge by eliminating the baddies, without knowing they are related to each other till the climax !

Aathi(Vijay) lives with his foster parents( Manivannan and Seeta) in New Delhi. He takes up a course in a Chennai college against his parents wishes, as he has a mission in life to eliminate the killers of his family.

Similarly Anjali(Trisha) studying in the same college has her own agenda to seek revenge on her parents killers, and she is assisted by her uncle(Nasser).Soon Aathi falls in love with Anjali, as she brings back memories of his childhood sweetheart and cousin who loved to dance in the rain.
The baddie brigade is headed by a guy RDX(Sai Kumar) and his minions. How Aathi and Anjali, without knowing each others real identity take revenge on the villains forms the rest of this vendetta tale.

Aathi is violence unlimited. There are more than 20 to 25 killings in the film. Some are hacked to death with sickle and swords including an interval freeze shot of a baddie's head chopped and flying in the air, others are shot at point blank range with blood oozing out.

Finally in the climax, a battered hero kills the main villain using a broken photo frame of his family picture as flying saucer to slit his throat! There is excess of blood and gore in this Vijay film.

Well, director Ramanna can justify the violence by saying that he was making the Telugu remake, of a revenge drama. But no excuses for brazen plugs for products (a ice cream, biscuit etc) which intrudes as placement ad's. The love story between the lead pair is only established through songs and dance which is thrust into the narration.

Ramanna inundates the script with action sequences and graphics of blasts, but they fail to accelerate the nearly three hour sluggish pace of the film. Vivek is a pain as his comedy track is the same that he did in his earlier film University of a college student who apes Tamil cinema's larger than life heroes.

The only redeeming factor in the film is Vijay with coloured hair and brooding eyes, in superbly choreographed action scenes of Peter Haynes. Trisha looks great and has equal footing with Vijay. The melodies of Vidyasagar are good but wasted in a revenge drama.

The villains are all stereotypes found in many earlier films. Sai Kumar as the main villain is always screeching, Prakash Raj in a cameo as a police officer and Nasser are adequate. Soundarrajan’s camera using a stedicam for the chase scenes is thrilling.

It is only Vijay's strong screen presence that makes Aathi, somewhat credible. At best, this hit and run revenge flick adds up to a action feast for the festival audience.

Verdict: Action Unlimited

Source: http://sify.com/movies/tamil/review.php?id=14121150&ctid=5&cid=2429

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