Yesterday, I saw the FDFS of the Movie Vaaranam Aayiram, with my college buddies at Kamala Theatre. Its all about the journey of life and learning of one man. I had expected the story to be something like this even before watching the movie, so i cant say the Movie was not upto my expectations unlike many others who watched the Movie. Infatc, I liked the Movie.

The Trailer was very cool:
This is Not an Action Film…
It’s a Celebration of Life…
It’s Emotional…
It’s about a youngster..
…and the Moments in his Life…
…his Love…
…his Passion…!

The movie opens with an older version of Surya, suffering from throat cancer, succumbing to his disease. With the bare minimum background score and subdued acting, the scene helps to mound the expectations for a few minutes. The news then is conveyed to the son, played by Surya again, who is on a defense operation somewhere in Kashmir. The rest of the movie is the son’s reminiscences of his father – the son’s role overriding the father’s in the process, however. I feel that, ‘Varanam Aayiram’ giving more emphasis to incidents rather than connecting them well.

But, the Movie was, at least in bits and pieces, the stories of our lives, with characters all of us have met or lived with at some point in our lives.

Life’s tragedies that can wreak havoc as suddenly as a crack of lightning.
Immense pain that is a human being’s true test of strength – give in to the pain and perish or beget even more pain, only to emerge from it stronger?

Cycle of life that calls for the loss of the physical self but shows one how immortal the self, thoughts and memories are.

Gautam has derived inspiration for Vaaranam Ayiram from his own life and hence the movie is by and large close to real life with only very few scenes seeming out of place. Like the middle-class Surya, whose dad struggles to keep up with his family’s expenses, flies down to the USA in search of his love-at-first-sight Sameera – now that is far fetched. However, as clichéd as his love might seem, his sufferings sound more genuine – a feeling that the ‘Anjale’ song only upsurges.

The Movie is intended to be a biography of an ordinary man. I think there was too much of daddy-glorification, Daddy you are my Hero and emotional I-love-you-and-I-see-you-in-everything-dialogues. However, this memoirs-of-my-dad would have been a wonderful watch if it did not adopt a schmaltzy narrative.

I liked the Music and Songs very much. From the background score to the situational numbers and of course, golden oldies sung in Gautham and Suriya’s own voices, this music forms the structure of the entire movie and the attention to detail even while painting blending melodies is superb. The Songs are wonderful not only for the Harris Jeyraj music but also excellent Lyrics!

Surya – Sameera’s first meet in the train is well conceived and executed. The lip sync has been quite good for sameera reddy considering this is her first movie in Tamil.
When Sameera Reddy tells Surya she’s in love with him, the dialog and scene had as much emotional intensity and feeling as a routine pass the ketchup request at the dinner table. I’m in love, its a beautiful feeling. Blah Blah. lol. Also, the younger Surya’s descent into alcohol and drugs were crudely handled by Menon. And that the loving daddy is concerned only when the son is at a point of no return from drugs, is a bit too much and unnecessary!

The Dialogs were Nice in  most of the scenes…
Hey avan nenjula kaiya vechutaan avana thadukatha…

I’ll Come into your life Meghna and Sweep You Off your feet…!

Machan, avana oru adiyavathu adikanum da…

Gumthalakkadi Gumma va Mechanical na Summa va…

Heat and Mass Transfer innum iruku, adutha september thaan paarkanum… I barely passed that Subject!

Whatever happens, Life has to go on…

I need some… OXYGEN!

There are touching and heart-warming moments in the movie; however, they are few and far between. Like the scene in which the cancer patient dad expresses his helplessness in telling stories to his grandson since his vocal chords no longer support him…

The Movie has the potential to become a Classic!