‘Naane Varuvean’ film overview: Dhanush, Selvaraghavan are in high-quality type, however the movie stops in need of being nice

The flip of a coin would decide the interconnected lives of dual brothers. One is an animal and the opposite is a skilled animal, as Kamal Haasan famously mentioned about taking part in twin brothers Nandhu and Vijay in his influential Aalavandhan (2001), based mostly on the story Dhayam written by Haasan. Let’s tackle the elephant within the room; Naane Varuvean and Aalavandhan are two totally different movies. Nevertheless it actually is tough to not consider the similarities these two share: the dual brothers trope and interconnected destinies, the uncared for older brother being the villain and having daddy points, amongst different issues. 

I do get it, although. It’s not proper to attract comparisons between the 2 movies, even when they’re reduce from the identical material. As a psychological thriller, Aalavandhan was, actually, revolutionary for its occasions in the best way it understood the psychological trauma of Nandhu’s compulsive psychological sickness. Haasan’s script was extra dense and curious to maybe see the place Nandhu would go based mostly on his situation. The character was off to a spot the place there was no coming again. That was Aalavandhan. The script had a masterful trigger and impact: Nandhu was mentally ailing as a result of of the abuse he needed to face from his father and stepmother. He kills them as a result of of the delusions he sees of his useless mom. He desires to ‘save’ his brother Vijay from his spouse as a result of he sees a mirrored image of their stepmom in her. He desires to kill Vijay’s unborn child as a result of he thinks the latter’s spouse is mendacity, like his stepmom.

However in Naane Varuvean, there’s a massive hole proper on the centre of the screenplay (written by Dhanush) that fails to deal with the query of why. Relatively, what’s the character’s motive? As a result of it doesn’t have solutions, we’re left to attract our personal conclusions. In Aalavandhan, as an example, one may argue that Nandhu was made a circumstantial villain. However in Selvaraghavan’s movie, the older brother Kathir (Dhanush will get a king’s reception from followers when he seems as the dual) is imagined as only a pure pressure of evil. Maybe that manner, you would name Naane Varuvean because the second instalment in Selvaraghavan’s Good vs Evil trilogy that started with the largely fascinatingNenjam Marapathillai. Now the draw back to having two Dhanushs in a movie about good and evil, is that we care little in regards to the good man and await the precise “hero” to reach. And he does, solely on the interval level.

Naane Varuvean continues to be a most attention-grabbing addition to Selvaraghavan’s long-list of fascinatingly imperfect movies. However you do get a way of the story being incomplete right here, for it wanted higher writing and extra fleshed-out scenes from Dhanush.

I had nearly no issues with the primary half. Handled like a folklore, the movie dives proper into the story of the dual brothers, Kathir and Prabhu. Their very nature is established within the opening scene the place Kathir will get an earful for setting somebody’s petticoat on fireplace. His father beats him to pulp and ties him round a tree as punishment. Kathir escapes. There’s a gorgeous second that is still simply gorgeous as a stand-alone scene. When Kathir runs into the forest, he will get hunted by somebody like an historical spirit (performed by Selvaraghavan). The boy’s eyes cease him from being killed. He lets Kathir unfastened and asks him to run for his life. Kathir, nonetheless, kills him. The hunter subsequently turns into the hunted.

There’s, in fact, no logical clarification to why Kathir lives a twin life; a human within the daytime and a werewolf at night time. However this scene jogged my memory of the gorgeous Australian horror You Gained’t Be Alone (I caught this at Sundance Movie Competition earlier this yr), the place a witch kidnaps a younger lady and turns her right into a shapeshifter main the lifetime of a human and a witch on the identical time.

Discover the title, which itself is a throwback to the track from Yaar Nee? (1966). That movie was about reincarnation however right here, Kathir re-enters Prabhu’s life. Within the current, Prabhu leads a contented life with spouse Bhuvana (Indhuja) and daughter Sathya. He’s a caring father. A lot in order that when Bhuvana desires a second baby, he says, “I don’t need to share my love for Sathya.” We all know he’s terrified of his older brother, however what makes him say this? What does this say about Kathir and him as twins? Did he have an issue with Kathir due to the shared love? Or is it as a result of he’s evil? The movie lacks readability in defining the boundaries of its characters, and its two-hour length isn’t serving to both. No less than a piece of pages from the screenplay appears to be lacking.

There’s urgency to dive straight into the battle: two montage songs are pictured to ‘present’ Kathir and Prabhu’s loving households. We all know nothing in regards to the equation Kathir shares along with his household, and Prabhu along with his, besides that they’re loving and caring. And these are necessary for us to really feel the chills and thrills. When Dhanush is launched as Kathir with a hair-raising ‘Veera Soora’ from Yuvan Shankar Raja, you anticipate the movie to be thrilling from there on. Come on, let’s admit…we love to look at heroes preventing themselves on display screen. However you get the sensation that the makers simply wished to complete the film and be accomplished. The difficulty can be with Dhanush’s script… it’s as if he was so impressed by how convincingly he may pull off Kathir and sleepwalk Prabhu that he maybe didn’t care a lot to jot down an emotionally-convincing plot with these characters. That’s the reason when Prabhu will get a second baby in the long run, you simply marvel on the concept. It makes you’re feeling nothing.