Arrambam Visitor Review -  Stylish Revenge

By Bharath Vijayakumar

Amidst huge expectations the Ajith - Vishnu Vardhan combo  has finally arrived with Arrambam. After creating magic at the box office with their previous outing, the duo strikes again, this time in a festive season.

Plot:

The protagonist takes on a corrupt system that played havoc in his life. A simple one liner that is evergreen and one that will possibly be made many more times in the future. There have been huge hits as well as misses with this plot. It all depends on how much the audience are rooting for the protagonist in his battle. With Ajith in the lead the battle is half won as his fans would anyway be rooting for him!!! 

Star power:

Arrambam is packed with a horde of stars. But the obvious attention is going to be on you know who. You just cannot manufacture star power and Ajith is obviously blessed with that charisma. Arrambam works to a great extent due to this man. Though Arrambam rides on his star power by taking a few logical liberties it is to be noted that there is absolutely no glorification of the film's leading man. Not even a casual mention of the word 'Thala'. But the slomo gimmicks with Ajith donning the coolers is in abundance and has the fans go crazy. The star's magnanimity also comes to the forefront as he shares screenspace with Arya for the most part and with Rana Daguppati in the flashback. And there is absolutely no room for romance for him (not even a duet!!). 

Arya, Nayanthara,Tapsee,Rana Daguppati and an entire horde of actors are on board. The Arya - Tapsee pairing works well and as unwilling partners in Ajith's revenge plans they spice up the first half. Nayanthara is not the typical heroine but more an accomplice to Ajith. The entire cast is adequate. You however feel Kishore's role or at least his scenes could have been given more emphasis considering his acting prowess. The villains, though shown as ruthless do not create the desired impact. After being shown as a serious persona for the most part when Mahesh Manjerakar utters silly dialogues in the climax to make you laugh it falls flat.

Technical Crew:

Like any other Vishu Vardhan flick Arrambam too is slick. Yuvan's music delivers the goods both in the songs and in the BGM. Cinematography is neat. The action sequences have been well shot, be it the bomb disposing scenes in the flashback or the chase involving water-boats towards the climax.

Hits and Misses:

The definite high point of Arrambam is the eventful first half. The cat and mouse game that involves Ajith and Arya does the trick here. The film races to the interval point having you engaged. It is the second half that loses a bit of steam with predictability being the dampener. There is particularly nothing that goes amiss but from the time the flashback starts you know where it is heading. Though it might have not turned the tables upside down the makers could have probably been more prudent while releasing the trailers and stills from the film. When Ajith takes Nayanthara as hostage in the initial sequences you guess that she is an accomplice as you have already seen clips from the 'melala adikuthu' song that has them both dancing gleefully. The climax scenes tend to be in a hurry as the scene of action shifts swiftly from Mumbai to Dubai and then to the Indian border in no time. Logic definitely goes for a toss here.

Bottomline:

Ajith fans will lap up Arrambam with open arms. For the regular cinema going audience it is a decent one time watch. Mass heroes from Tamil Cinema and Mumbai being the scene of action has spelt success at the box office more often than not. Arrambam should follow suit.

Rating : 3.25/5