Ayan Review: Surya's Aegan

Of late, Tamil cinema and expectations are not going along well together. I went into this movie mostly for the director KV Anand and the script-writers SuBa, who had earlier combined together to give a good thriller in Kanaa Kandaen. With Ayan, though, KV Anand succumbs to the second-movie syndrome. So, except a fine cinematography, we get bad screenplay, no story, unimaginative choreography, and some insipid performances.

Deva (Surya) is studying M.Sc. computer science while at the same time working with Das (Prabhu) as a smuggler, who smuggles to and from sub-Saharan Africa and Malaysia. Kamalesh (Akashdeep Saigal) wants to become the #1 smuggler and would go to any extent to achieve his goal. Deva and his friend Chitti's (Jagan) sister Yamuna (Tamanna) fall in love, but Kamalesh's plans threaten the lives of Deva and those around him.

In his recent interviews, Surya was seen yapping about a 'different story that has never been told in Tamil cinema'. No such story is found to be seen anywhere in the movie, even after the end credits start rolling. The main story has liberal borrowings from 'Kuruvi', several of 80's smugglers' movies of Kamal and Rajni, and even from Hollywood movies such as Blood diamond. There is a scene in the movie wherein a Tamil director is shown visiting DVD stores seeking story plots from Hollywood for his next movie. Probably KV Anand self-satirically says that the character is based on himself.

It could have been far better, though. There are several twists in the movie which could have progressed well to break the typical formula of Tamil movies. One such twist arrives at the Intermission, which, if cleverly executed, could have surprised us ala the Hindi movie 'Khakee'. The second half has too many of such twists, but by then we know where the director is taking us - a risk-free zone, so those twists don't amuse us much. Another downside of the second half is the huge increase in the irritability quotients of the female characters. Tamanna and Renuka were so annoying.

The development of love between the lead pair is quite lame. One can see Surya re-enacting his 'SOK' and 'Varanam Ayiram' lover-boy roles here again. His body language and dialog delivery are so predictable nowadays. Time for a change, dude! Tamanna, after a promising role in 'Kalloori', has joined a huge list of talented glamor dolls of Tamil cinema. Prabhu offers nothing new, except half the screen space. Having watched quite a bit of Akashdeep as Ansh Gujral in Star TV's "Kyunki saas bhi..", I know that he is quite capable of a more menacing villainy than what we see in this film.

There are some interesting chase and fight sequences, which have been inspired from the last two 007 movies. In an attempt to prolong the suspense of some scenes by using reverse shots, the director and editor have missed out providing suitable links between some scenes, which make the scenes jump so abruptly. The song sequences are also introduced out of nowhere, and hence they don't gel with the story well. The two songs that I loved to hear the most - "Vizhi moodi" and "Anbe anbe" had very poor pre-song scenes, which took away the effectiveness of the songs. While the dance steps in the former songs were cute, the less said about the latter, the better.

Overall, it is a movie worth watching once, if you go with zero expectations. Otherwise, being a Sun TV production, you can soon watch it in small screen "Ulaga tholaikaatchigaLil mudhal muraiyaaga"...