Ayogya Review - A neat and focused remake that does the job!

Bharath Vijayakumar

Debutant Venkat Mohan's Ayogya gets a lot of things right. Most important being the focus to tell a straightforward tale and keeping the essence of Temper intact. The bane of most potboilers is the presence of a lot of flab in an attempt to fit in something for everyone. Venkat Mohan too does ensure that he packs in all the ingredients but the pleasant surprise is that very few of these stick out from the narrative that remains focused right from the start.

The casting is mostly spot on. Those who have seen the original Telugu version would know that for the film to click we should buy into the histrionics of the hero. Comparisons aside, this is a noteworthy performance from Vishal as the corrupt and selfish inspector Karnan. Parthiban and K.S. Ravikumar are very good. The former revels in buffoonery while the latter delivers a subtle performance in a role that could have easily turned melodramatic.The dialogues work big time, particularly the nonchalant exchanges between Vishal and Parthiban.

The stunts are over the top as expected but are superbly choreographed. The cinematography is superb. Though the film is quite light-hearted in the initial half, the colour tone is always a little on the darker side helping us to be in sync with the hero's character and the theme of the film. The BGM is good but the songs don't really work.

The emotions in Ayogya work and for what is basically a masala film, these emotional portions are actually relatively subtle and never jarring. The intent to justify the nasty nature of the hero is minimal. Masala movies giving simplistic solutions to societal problems don't work for me anymore. But in Ayogya most of what happens is personal and despite the climax that has been tweaked a bit, the film for the most part stays within limits and never lectures us too much. A little more care in handling the heroine portions and the songs and there should have been no major complaints about Ayogya.

Bottomline

Ayogya is a job well done by Venkat Mohan. He sticks to the basics and delivers an engaging outing.

Rating: 3/5