Viswasam

Cast: Ajith, Nayanthara, Jagabathi Babu, Robo Shankar, Thambi Ramaiah, Vivekh
Director: Siva

Film lovers whose fatigue level hit rock-bottom when they got to know about Ajith and Siva’s fourth collaboration, after the rather underwhelming Vivegam, can now heave a sigh of relief. Viswasam is exactly what the promotional material lead you into believing and boy, it would be an understatement to call the film one of the director’s best. For his fans, an Ajith film releasing is nothing short of a festival, but Viswasam is actually made to feel like a festival. Be it the backdrop, songs or even Ajith’s clothes, there’s no dearth of colours and the film shifting from village to the city is more of a move from a festival to a carnival.

Viswasam has everything you’d expect in a Siva film — a happy family, some beautiful moments, decent humour, raw action and a nonessential villain. But what makes the film stand apart is the fact that Siva seems to have concentrated more on what he’s good at. For example, Veeram and Vedhalam had a love track for the sake of it and no matter what criticism Vivegam might face, it was appreciated for the way the life of a couple was documented. Viswasam takes this a step ahead and this family drama predominantly deals with the lives of the couple, Thookudurai (Ajith) and Niranjana (Nayanthara).

Set in backdrop similar to that of Veeram — in a village — Viswasam uses the setting more of a prop. Apart from the lush fields, we get to see village festivals, joint families and close-knit relatives. This paves the way to emotional scenes having enough dramatics as well as the comic relief. The backdrop is also a reflection on what Thookudurai is — an innocent light-hearted man who can turn violent in a split second in the name of serving justice. If you had loved the innocence of a drunk Vinayagam in Veeram who blames the flooring for him slipping or the fake innocence of Ganesh in Vedhalam who mistakes a man’s kurta pyjama to a chudithar, you’re in for a treat with Viswasam. Thookudurai is full of life and extremely charismatic and this is where Siva brings out the actor Ajith. He mimics his old granny, he spills the beans about his love when he’s drugged, takes his daughter to fights and even kisses his wife in front of his entire family. These moments are the film’s best ones and the effort he has put in when it comes to dancing despite the album being quite a disappointing one needs a special mention.

Niranjana, on the other hand, can be called the best written female character by Siva. She’s an independent woman whose daring attitude is Thookudurai’s priary reason to notice her. The manner in which their romance blossoms is well written and after Billa and Aarambam in which the two actors aren’t shown as a pair (and let’s ignore the Aegan fiasco), it was nice to see two established actors play a couple with equal weightage. Baby Anaika too shines as the couple’s daughter and the scenes with her and Ajith are cute. But obviously it can’t be a happy story forever and for a mass hero to have action sequences, there has to be a conflict and a baddie. The general perception that such an angle is mandatory gives us the quintessential commercial flick villain and here, we have Gautham Veer (Jagapathi Babu). As expected, he’s a weak adversary whose reasons for being the antagonist isn’t convincing enough.

Post a couple of action sequences that aren’t complete with the slow-mo scenes, the story treads in a predictable path leaving you to wonder why the family issue part wasn’t the only topic the film concentrated on. Nevertheless, the film has enough to satiate the hunger of an Ajith fan as well as satisfy the regular audience. Ajith and Siva taking the family drama route is quite a surprise — after all, what’s a festival without the family?

My rating: 3/5