Vaaranam Aayiram

Though he has given very few films only, the name is prominent in the south Indian cine field. His career is a mixture of hits and flops, but one can’t question his caliber as the ace director. His debutant project is ‘Minnale’ (Madhavan-Reema Sen), he is popular through ‘Kaakka Kaakka (Surya-Jyothika), then came the mega venture ‘Vettayadu Vilayadu’ with Kamalhassan-Jyothika followed by a family thriller ‘Pachakkili Muthucharam (Sarathkumar-Jyothika). His name is Gautham Menon. All those projects has got another name in common to project, Harris Jayaraj who gave immense contribution in the music area for all the films.


This time it is Surya’s turn to work with Gautham Menon again through ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’. Simran is acting in tamil after a certain gap. Sameera Reddy, who is popular in hindi-telugu films, has got her first tamil project here. Another artist to do a special character is Divya Spandana (she is none other than kannada actress Ramya, who acted in ‘Kuthu’ and ‘Pollathavan’).


The pre-release news and stills of ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ has created some expectation among the viewers. It has shown Surya in different make-ups never as before. Moreover Harris Jayaraj has given songs in his usual style. Also the shooting of the project happened throughout the last 2 years in different schedules in different locations right from Chennai to Los Angels.


The first scene of the film itself will make us stunned. The way in which the hero’s character is portrayed will attract you. As it goes on we can see the different life stages of the hero. It includes from student’s life to the old age. The first half is simply superb. Later the writer-director has got some missing in the story line and it provoked him to deviate from the real subject by including some action scenes and songs. Thus the second half became lengthy and in some area it is lagging.


An experienced filmmaker like Gautham Menon should have been conscious while scripting the subject. He should be aware of the audience’ pulse. These days they won’t tolerate any lag in a good story; their non-cooperative mentality can affect the film badly. ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’, in such a way has got the story necessary to made 2-3 films from it.


Surya has given his life best performance as the youth and the old man. Simran has got a matured role to perform and has done well. Cinematographer Rathnavelu, who is popular through films like 'Aravindhan', Sethu', 'Nandha', 'Thirumalai', 'Arya', Cyanide’, ‘Enthiran-The Robot’ etc has given colorful and attractuve frames. Anthony has not shown many gimmicks in editing. Harris Jayaraj might be frustrated to give bg score for such a lengthy subject.

(Recently, I heard that Gautham Menon has re-edited the second half and made it a good product…I have not seen, better you watch & decide)


‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ means “thousands elephants”, no need to have so much numbers, even one elephant is good enough to caught attention. A die hard fan of Surya / tamil films can watch the film once for an excellent first half.

Rating : 3 / 5