Cast: Simbu, Anushka Shetty, Bharath, Prakash Raj, Sonia Aggarwal, Vega
“Vaanam” is a simple tale of five different people told in an extraordinary way. The movie is based on how these five completely unrelated people converge towards the end of the film. The film follows a multi-narrative concept, which is new to Tamil cinema.
Plot
The movie revolves around Cable Raja (STR a.k.a. Silambarasan) who is in love with a rich girl, a rock star (Bharath) who wants to make it big in his field, a poor widow (Saranya) who tries to save her abducted son, Rahim (Prakash Raj) who tries to find his lost brother and Saro (Anushka) who is a commercial sex worker. All these characters come to Chennai for various reasons and meet at a common place in the climax. The climax is brilliant and will surely leave a lump in your throat. The major plus factor is its shocking and realistic climax.
Performances
This is easily STR's best performance so far. He sparkles in the scenes that lead to the climax and commands applause spontaneously. One wonders why he is not taking up such roles often. Bharath has given a stylish and commendable performance. Saranya as the helpless mother is brilliant. Prakash Raj is at his usual best and Anushka does justice to her role. Santhanam and VTV Ganesh as STR's friends bring the roof down with their witty one-liners. Vega as Bharath's girlfriend and Jasmine as STR's girlfriend have done a neat job.
Director Krish steals the show with his impeccable command over his narration. There is a smooth transition between parallel tracks and not even one scene confuses the viewers. His characters are realistic which is an added advantage to the movie. I've not seen any other movie in the recent past which has dealt with diverse human emotions, this deftly. The dialogue writer Giri has written powerful dialogues. For instance, in a scenec Bharath defines God in a poetic way. Nirav Shah's cinematography is admirable and Yuvan's music is quite apt to the movie, but the song No money, no honey could have been avoided.
Bottomline: “Vaanam” is a trend-setter and is almost flawless.
