Vaaranam Aayiram is Immensely Likeable Despite Being a ‘1000’ steps Short.

Some movies are meant to be just seen and experienced and not to be analyzed or debated in blogospheres, chattering rooms and TV channels. Gowtham Vasudev Menon’s Vaaranam Aayiram is one of those movies, despite its running length (3 hours!!!), and somewhat hackneyed script and screenplay manages to remain fresh in your memory, brings a smile to your face, tugs at your heart strings and shows us that a movie made straight from the heart can be a compelling watch. And of course, there’s one more reason—.Suriya.

Picture this: Suriya (Suriya) finishes his final year engineering exams and is about to leave the town where he spent some memorable years and made his closest friends. The friends hug for one final time , and reminisce and joke about their days together, even as the train is about to leave the platform. Our hero finally boards the train and as he gets on the footboard he shouts to his friends that he would definitely be back next semester to write one of the exams he thinks he is definitely going to tank in. The trials and tribulations of engineering college anyone? Flunked a semester exam? Didn’t feel like leaving college? All of those memories of college life come flooding back. It’s that thread of relatibility that runs through the movie and long after you’ve left the hall, you’ll still be thinking of moments such as these.

Suriya of course after boarding the train, experiences a destiny like no other, but most college- goers who’ve traveled second class in the Indian Railways (mostly from colleges back to their hometowns) , will relate to the fact that they’ve always looked for ‘interesting’ company (or some will even go as far as saying life partners) during those journeys. And what a companion she is, Meghana (Sameera Reddy), looking jaw droppingly gorgeous creates that pang in your heart that Suriya experiences. Even though the premise of meeting the love of your life on a train journey is fantastical, the way the scene is expertly filmed by Menon and his team makes it utterly believable. Suriya even sings a song and plays his guitar for Meghana near the door of the compartment and by that time, most of us would have been wishing we had been on that train.

Suriya is one of the pillars of the family of four nourished and built by his father-- Krishnan (played by Suriya again). Krishnan is like the perfect dad that’s only possible in fiction but then again like I said earlier, Messrs Menon pulls it off like only he can. Krishnan calls his son ‘kiddo’ , encourages him to follow his heart, does not beat him up or get intensely stereotypically emotional when he discovers that he is doing drugs, and most importantly showers unconditional love on him, inspite of everything. Krishnan is introduced as the merry, cigarette smoking, and handsome young man of the 70s, who sweeps a debonair Malini (Simran) off her feet and in the course of one memorable song ‘Mundiram Parthene’ eventually, gets married to her. This song is an absolute riot, recreates nostalgic memories of the Chennai of the 70s (including the painstakingly digitally recreated Spencer Plaza building back then) while it takes us through the life and times of the Krishnans. What is never explained is, what exactly does Krishnan do for a living? He is mostly just puffing his cigarettes, or drinking his glass of rum while giving advice to his dear son during his formative years. The Krishnans are shown to have financial problems like any other middle class family, but it’s almost peripheral, while they continue to lead normal lives. It’s almost as if they have financial issues, but heck who cares, we will continue to be the way we are. Also Krishnan and Malini have a younger daughter Shreya (the perfect sister again!), whose next door best friend, Priya (Divya Spandana) has a secret crush on Suriya ever since they were teenagers.

Sadly enough, Menon’s original premise of the movie being a tribute to the relationship between a father and son never quite comes off convincingly enough. It’s just too ideal and the depth of the relationship is never explored. It’s also quite why, you don’t empathize as much as you are supposed to, when Major Suriya on a mission to rescue a journalist kidnapped by militants is informed about his father’s death and recollects the monumental influence his father has had on his life. Those crucial moments that the screenplay spends on this relationship is not raw enough to create a lump in the throat, or bring that tear to the eye. One or two moments do tug at your heartstrings like the one where, Krishnan sees his son for the last time while he wishes him all the best for his mission or the scene where he discovers Suriya is doing drugs and he tries to wean him away from it, without getting utterly emotional, but by just being firm. These moments are just too few and far between and Menon in an attempt at mastering the art of under statement blows a very promising premise.


However, the screenplay and Menon score brilliantly depicting Suriya’s coming of age. Menon brings a mint-fresh approach to depicting romance—by being utterly realistic and believable and using the camera deftly to let silence do a lot of talking. Take the scene where Suriya sees Meghana for the first time in the train; the camera lingers on their faces for just about the perfect time to capture the essence of the scene. Like every love struck guy, Suriya tells Meghana after an idyllic guitar song sequence that he’s in love with her and she very coolly (despite being impressed) says she doesn’t believe in love at first sight. Menon then very gradually builds the chemistry between the two until it culminates in Meghana falling head over heels in love with Suriya. It’s such a genuine feeling that any girl will relate to. The intimate family scenes, feel like the audience is a part of the whole thing. Watch how Krishnan is shown breathing his last and the reactions of Malini and Shreya and you know that Menon is an absolute master of understatement. Also notable is the way Priya (Divya Spandana) is introduced in the story, the scenes of her as a 14 year old kid and girl next door, having a thing for her best friend’s brother and the eventual romance between her and Suriya. The scenes are so subtle yet so powerful that you wonder what the hell Menon was doing while writing the rest of the screenplay?


A R Rehman once famously declared that only Mani Ratnam seems to bring out the best in him and it won’t be long before Harris Jeyraj says that too of Menon. It’s almost as if H J reserves his soulful best for Menon. ‘Mundhinam Partene’ has the trappings of a cult number and it’s filming gives it enough fillip to become an all time chartbuster. The song picturized on Suriya’s and Meghana’s moments in the train—‘Nenjukkul Peididhum’ is another one that takes you along with it, as it flows along. The number with the guitar riffs ‘Adiyae Kolluthae’ is as foot tapping as it gets though not a rock song like Suriya tells his dad. “Annul Maelae Pani” is another soulful melody picturized on Suriya and Priya’s relationship and also deserves plaudits for it’s subdued yet intense vocals.

Simran takes an important step in her career with her role as Malini the mother and the wife. Watch her outburst at Krishnan’s smoking habits when the doctors tell her Krishnan does not have more than a year to live or watch her when she is clueless as to why Suriya raises his hand to strike his dad, and you see her growth as an actress over the years. Before the movie, people would have doubted her ability to pull it off, but they will agree after watching her that very few actors other than Simran would have been as convincing. Whether it comes to displaying vulnerability or intensity, Simran is at her outstanding best.

Divya Spandana as Priya the sober, practical girl next door and Suriya’s second love is the perfect choice for the role. There’s that growth in her character and she makes those subtle adjustments very well. Watch her while she professes her love for Suriya on a rainy evening under the roof of a bus stop while at the sametime declaring that she doesn’t expect any reaction from him –it’s so natural that you’re blown off.

Sameera Reddy takes the necessary strides forward in her acting career with this performance. She looks like a billion bucks, and plays her part perfectly at the sametime making most single men in the audience fall head over heels in love. Her smile, flashed in the perfect quantities at the right times also adds to the ‘oh I will die for her’ factor.

But if there’s any doubt as to whom this movie belongs to, then banish it. It’s Suriya all the way. He has undergone physical hardship like no other for this movie, and it shows. It’s very easy to say, that he gets under the skin of the character, but its one thing to get under the skin of the character and it’s another to look the character and play it like a natural. I (and many people) will surely wonder how in the world, he at 30 years, pull off looking and acting liked a 17 year old. Watch him when he fights with the local bully or as the drug addict—there’s just one word—Marvelous. As the older guy, (I hate to say it), he is not that convincing, but still puts in a lot of effort in preparing for the role and manages to give that respectability to Krishnan that any lesser actor would have failed to. As the six-packed Major however, Suriya draws the most wolf whistles and rightly so (I say it with a comfortable degree of heterosexuality). It’s truly his coming of age as an actor.

Last but not the least, Thank you Gowtham Vasudev Menon for making a movie that will be one of the most missed once it leaves the theaters. Thank you for paying attention to every little detail and thank you for baring your heart out, this may not be your best but it will still be one of the most important movies you have made.