Vaanam 2011

(Poster source: Wikipedia)

Watching Vaanam reminded me of the movie Crash – gripping sub-stories within the main story and the director Krish who directed the Telugu blockbuster titled Vedam have managed to pull it off well with the remake of Vedam in Tamil with an impressive set of actors namely Silambarasan, Bharath, Anushka Shetty, Prakash Raj and Saranya Ponvannan.

First the main characters:-

1. A young musician (Bharat) who wants to forms a music band and be a full time musician despite his mom wanting him to join the army. He is close to one of his band member, Laasya. He manages to get a gig for his band in Chennai.

2. A beautiful prostitute (excellently and bravely played by Anushka Shetty who reprise her role in Vedam) who is trying to get a better life, a business of her own, runs away with her best friend to Chennai to start the new business here.

3. A poor woman (Saranya Ponvannan fits in well here) with her father-in-law gets desperate to repay a local moneylender after her young brilliant son is taken by force by the moneylender who gives them 3 days to repay otherwise he will force the young son into bonded labor. Having no money in their hands, the poor woman decides to sell off one of her kidneys to a “customer” and heads to Chennai for the operation.

4. A devout Muslim (played by Prakash Raj) whose wife is pregnant again and recently learned that his long-lost brother (who runs away after a bad encounter with the police and a mob) has just been sighted in Chennai and heads for it.

5. A young man from the slums in Chennai (played by Silambarasan very well) who don’t have a proper job and cheats others to get on with life. He pretends to be a rich man and tries to marry with a real rich man’s daughter. He is joined by his good friend (played by the funny Santhanam)

By getting all the main characters coming to Chennai with the right (more importantly, more logical) reasons, Krish works up the right scenario to get them to interact with each other at the climax and that makes it a well made movie.

Silambarasan despite had to contend with sharing the movie moments with other stars, is still the gem of the story. He is funny, loveable and full of emotion and he does it without overdoing it and with far more maturity than his role in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. Silambarasan’s attempt to snatch women’s gold chain to pay for very expensive party tickets is damn funny made even better with his bungling partner in crime, Santhanam. Their last attempt was almost successful - they crash into a police jeep just when they almost get away with it and ends up arrested after Santhanam’s slip of the tongue.

And towards the climax, his character changes from the funny, romantic man from the slum and into a dangerous robber who robs without a pity from Saranya Ponvannan, now lies in hospital recovering from surgery. The money that they receive from a broker is far below their earlier expectation but they have no choice. We also see just how cruel middle men are – they not only take their cut from the money but also charge them for the petty expenses.

But somehow justice seems to be done at the end for Saranya and his aged father in law when her father in law goes and confronts the cruel money lender, throwing down money less than what was expected earlier and when the money lender demanded more, he gets his grandson to compute the interest and realised that he had paid more, take back the extra and heads back home with his grandson safely back in his arms. The money lender impressed with the grandson’s interest computation decides to accept the payment as final.

The climax where the “Muslim” terrorists attack the hospital is rather lame but perhaps it was just convenient touch for Krish to tie all the characters up. We can live with that but given that it is a remake of Telugu movie, Krish could have done something more brilliant. The story of Prakash Raj’s final confrontation with his now turned terrorist brother was not developed well and it seems rushed. But we can’t really fault the storyline for this since there are too many subplots running at the same time.

The other gem in the movie is the gifted music director, Yuvan Shankar Raja who has come with good music for this movie. Unlike compositions by the Oscar winner A R Rahman who needs time and close listening before one catches the genius of his music, YSR’s compositions are more straight forward. It does not take long for one to appreciate his music. All the 5 songs are really beautiful to hear – my pick however would be the very meaningful “Vaanam” (sung by YSR himself) and the fast paced, rock themed “Who I Am”

Pros: Good storyline, great acting by Silambarasan and “must listen” music by Yuvan Shankar Raja

Cons: Sub plots may be confusing for some people