Anjaathe -- Movie Review

Is being different from the rest of the fare a criteria for a movie to be considered a brilliant movie? Should a movie be rated on its merit or should it be appreciated for trying something new (albeit failing in the attempt)? I sincerely believe that being ‘different’ is not enough for something to be considered as a ‘class’ movie. Appreciation is a totally different ballgame altogether for I am of the opinion that the good points have to be acknowledged so that someone can improve on those aspects in the next time around. Why am I talking about all this when I am supposed to be writing the review for the ‘Anjaathe’ movie? The simple reason is that this movie entirely fits the description above. This movie is nothing more than a pretender. Pretentious and full of false promises that never get realized at the end of the show!

There are some really cool scenes (The interview scene for Naren & his friend) and exemplary camera works (Showing just the legs of the main players during the scene where Kirupa brings home the villains) along the way that make you sit up and take notice. Sadly, these are few and far apart. The momentum that the story generates is lost in the tardy screenplay and the director seems confused about the genre of his movie. It starts off as though it is a tragic-comedy movie, moves to the action movie genre, then finally ends up being a psycho thriller. Each of these segments is adequate in its own way but when combined into a 3 hours & 15 minutes movie (No typo there. It is indeed 3 hours), it loses its sheen due to the director’s inability to stick to a particular theme.

Then there is the stolen background score towards the fag end of the movie. The theme music of ‘Signs’ is shamelessly lifted during the fight sequence between Naren & Prasanna. This lift of a popular theme stands like a sour thumb for Sundar C.Babu (The music director) who has otherwise done a decent job in the re-recording and the 3+1(Title bit song) songs. The clipped dialogues reminded me of Manirathnam’s ‘Agni Natchathiram’!!!!

There was nothing much to talk about in terms of the acting talents of the lead actors in this movie. I liked the role of Pandiarajan with his squint eyes rolling here & there, the unmistakable sign of working on something fishy. Prasanna was looking out of sorts in his role as villain. At best, his hairstyle would have made a poodle envious.

Last Cut: There are some movies that fail to make impressions of any sort in your mind. There is nothing terribly wrong with them for you to hate them completely. On the flip side, there is nothing really good that makes you remember it. ‘Anjaathe’ perfectly fits that bill. A pretender that could have been a lot better if the director had spent enough time on his screenplay.

Rating: 6/10