Vaaranam Aayiram

I lost a bet about this movie! About a month before the release of this movie, I had a bet with my friend as to what the title of this movie meant…I had interpreted the title to mean “A thousand colours” and my friend (who incidentally has the advantage of being a tam-bram) had bet that it was actually “strength of 1000 elephants or something like that”!!. It turned out later that I lost the bet…but when I watched the movie, I realized that I didn’t lose the bet in all aspects…because the movie literally comes across as a thousand colours!
Surya, I believe, has given the best performance of his career (matching his pithamaghan performance) in a role which spans 4 decades. It can now safely be said that there are actors of the calibre of Kamal Hassan in the current generation of Tamil heroes. Surya’s performance reminds you of a young Kamal Hassan and he essays each stage of the character with utmost ease. When he plays a school kid, he looks that part and when he plays the old man, he looks that part too, which says a lot about his performance!
The story line is simple and is a tribute to a father figure in the hero’s life. Sameera Reddy passes muster, Divya gives a no-nonsense performance and Simran gives an excellent supporting performance to Surya’s father-role. The songs are beautiful and the visuals beautifully done. Surya seems to be maintaining a balance in his choice of movies alternating between the rustic village roles and the yankee metro crowd roles playing both with equal ease. Having watched the movie twice, I can vouch that this one doesn’t make a boring watch although you need to be a sensitive and/or romantic person to enjoy this one!

I wish: Aamir would remake the movie in Hindi (mama on his blog was hoping that SRK would not remake this one – I agree!!)