Movie Review: Azhagiya Tamizh Magan – Good concept; well spoilt !

Before getting into the theatre to watch the recent Vijay Starrer ATM, it would be better if you could get two aspirins for urself. Headache is the only feeling you would take back home once you get out of the hall. Debutante director Bharathan had some of the best technicians in the industry to work with him, a renowned producer and the rising superstar of the Tamil industry, and yet he could deliver only a below mediocre product. The concept- Extra Sensory Perception(ESP) is still not tried by many in the industry; but the flimsy screenplay tampers it big time. Its sad to realize that this concept cannot be made use of in a better way in another tamil movie atleast for a couple of years as it would lead to comparisons.

Guru(Vijay) is a MBA student with a special power to foresee the future(why is it that the power here for him is only to foresee bad incidents?) and a psychologist diagnoses it as ESP. One fine day, he meets his lady love Abhinaya aka Abhi(Shreya), and wins both her and her dads heart in the most illogical way ever. However, when Guru comes to realize through his gifted power that he is responsible for Abhis death, he leaves the city and reaches Mumbai. He meets his look alike there on the streets of Mumbai and immediately ends up in an accident. The torture begins now as the second Vijay makes his entry. The look alike; Prasad is an exact replica; the hair style and even the stuble is no different! It would have been a little convincing if those were made to look the same as the movie progressed. We reach the interval at this point and its time to take one of your aspirins. Prasad is a bank employee cum fraud cum womanizer cum man with a sad past. He impersonates as Guru, thanks to Abhi, and creates havoc in Gurus love life. The rest of the movie is how Guru proves his identity and wins everyone back. Get prepared to have your second aspirin now as you are going to experience the worst ever climax scene in the history of Indian cinema.Phew!

Vijay as Guru is at his usual, but as Prasad, he gets on our nerves with his histrionics and over the top performance; but the villain here has all the punch dialogues and the comic one-liners. His performance as the bad guy is highly unconvincing and unimpressive. He looks completely exhausted and uninterested throughout the movie; probably he knew what went wrong midway. Shreya looks as if she came right from the sets of Sivaji, especially in her intro scene and in the Valayapatti song. But she has a meaty role (underperformed) and is present throughout the movie; something rare in a Vijay movie. The rest of the entire cast is wasted in their inconsequential roles. Namitha comes as a special appearance just to pull in some perverts and it is nothing but cruelty when she is compared to Merlyn Monroe and Jennifer Lopez in a song !!!

Music by A.R.Rahman is just average and the fate of the movie is definitely going to let the music down in the charts. The graphics department (god knows who all) had no idea of what they were doing. One could see better double role graphics in the movies of 80’s and 90’s where in they use to cut and paste both the frames. It’s the direction, screenplay and dialogues that are responsible for this dismal state of the movie, all the departments single handedly taken care by Bharathan. It should have been the story alone(S.K.Jeeva) that might have made Vijay, Appachan (the poor producer) and A.R.Rahman to accept this project. The screenplay is filled with flaws and loop holes.The ESP concept is not effectively utilised and is shown only in the first half. Guess with Gurus accident in Mumbai, his power to foresee is lost; but the screenplay doesn’t show any traces of how he acquires this power too.

It is very obvious that this movie was made in haste, taking into consideration the aweful graphics, the abrupt ending and the replacement of ARR with Sabesh-Murali for the BGM’s(which btw is nothing but the instrument version of the movies’ songs). Probably, they wanted it to release it well before its actual dates to avoid competition from the Ajith starrer Billa which is scheduled to hit the screens very soon. Or it could be the craving of Vijay and Bharathan to simply have their movie released during the festival season. Bad Extra Sensory Perception Guys !!!