Some amount of realism in the key scenes between these characters would have helped the film stay more engaging. In scenes where they aren’t shedding tears, it’s the audiences who are left to suffer. The film is bogged down by the highly melodramatic scenes between Rajinikanth and Keerthy Suresh which usually end in either of the characters crying. While things worked in Viswasam, even though the film was high on melodrama, the same can’t be said about Annaatthe because not a single scene stands out. If Siva’s last film was about a father-daughter relationship, it’s the brother-sister relationship that he explores in Annaatthe. Just when she feels things are going out of her hand, her brother comes to her aid. Meenakshi gets married and shifts to Kolkata where she faces some unknown threats. Unsure of the suggestion, Kaaliyan consults with his sister about the idea, and she tells him that it’s his decision that matters the most to her. During the festivities, some members of the family feel that it’s time to get Meenakshi married, and they convey the same to Kaaliyan. When she returns home after completing her education, Kaaliyan turns her arrival into a grand celebration. His world revolves around his sister Thanga Meenakshi, played by Keerthy Suresh. Rajinikanth plays Kaaliyan, a village president who only bows to goodness and moral fairness, in Annaatthe. Despite all the hype and Rajinikanth’s on-screen charisma, Annaatthe ends up as a colossal mess, and that’s putting it mildly. Siva’s latest release Annaatthe feels like it has been made by taking a leaf out of the success of Viswasam, but unfortunately, the formula doesn’t work in the film’s favour. He followed it up with a highly predictable rural entertainer, Viswasam, and it ended up as one of the biggest hits of the Tamil film industry. The only time he tried to make something out of his comfort zone was when he made Vivegam with Ajith, and it didn’t work at the box office. Siva is one of the safest filmmakers in Tamil cinema and is content making films by taking the tried-and-tested route. Ilayaraja's background score is sensitive and creates the perfect mood for the film.īala, on the whole, has shown that courage and conviction can indeed win.Even Rajinikanth cannot save the colossal mess that Annaatthe is.ĭirector Siva, who has joined hands with actor Rajinikanth for the first time in Annaatthe, is nine films old and enjoys a very high success rate. She has grabbed with two hands the opportunity that has come her way. Laila is bubbly and cuddly while Sangeetha (often seen in two-bit roles) is a revelation. The bondingīetween Surya and Vikram is elaborated in a touching manner. With almost no dialogues for him in the film, he has to bank on his histrionics, and he comes out with flying colours. Surya is first rate with his vivaciousness and aggreable chutzpah. The characters in the film are very life-like and the artistes have infused The narration is linear and almost a throwback Sivaputrudu tries to tell a tale involving four people. The film is that there is no effort to pad up the surroundings with nifty settings or galmourised It is a tale that is infested with the smell of the soil in our long-neglected villages. There is also confluence of Surya-Laila love and the longing of Sangeetha for Vikram. The film primarily revolves around the strange friendship and the innate bonding that Vikram and Then there is Lalia, the waif-like polytechnic student and the deglamourised Sangeetha as the pawn-chewing, ganja-selling woman.
Surya is boisterous, crooked, impish, gregarious, garrulous and plus some more. A lovable charlatan (a roadside quack, a fast-buck-making salesman on train, a no-nonsense bookie on the streets) he is the exact opposite of Vikram's withdrawn character. Sensationalise but merely an attempt to understand the character of Vikram who is the reclusive undertaker.Īs a counterpoint to the inward looking Vikram is the character of Surya. When he shows the graveyard in the first scene (something of a taboo in India) it is not an effort to It is a theme that does not readily lend itself to film-making in India - the superstition-riddled industry frowns upon such sensitive and serious subjects.īut Director Bala, who is seen as something of a maverick in Tamil after his brooding but weighty Sethu (Seshu in Telugu) and Nanda (Nanda in Telugu), has shown that he has the strength and nous to handle such themes. It is a morbidly disturbing film about the sequestered and secluded life of an undertaker.