Farhana Review: Quite a Satisfying Dramatic Thriller!

Ashwin Ram

Farhana is a dramatic thriller starring Aishwarya Rajesh in the lead role. Produced by Dream Warrior Pictures, the film is directed by Nelson Venkatesan of Monster fame.

Premise:

Aishwarya Rajesh is from a conservative family, their earnings are not enough for their expenses. She joins in a call center job of the banking department, for extra incentives she moves to the companion call department. How her job changes her life forms the crux of the story.

Writing/ Direction:

Nelson Venkatesan maintains his decent range of writing consistency here too. It’s never great and it is never dull too, and like the rat factor in his previous outing Monster, the story tends to have something unique to offer. The core idea and the approach style is quite new for Tamil cinema. Even though we have already seen the base in Katrin Mozhi, the backdrop brings the change. And because the villain is through calls, his face is not revealed till the pre-climax. The setup in the first hour is tight and makes us empathize with the female lead, and becomes a downer post that, mainly because of the dryness in the conversations. Then the film heats up after an interesting glimpse which was revealed at the beginning connects with the main story in the interval block. The enmity is formed very humanly which makes it relatable and gripping. But however the thrill factor is middling due to some average villainic scenes. Thankfully it gets better when Aishwarya Rajesh decides to strike back. The pre-climax and the finale episode are solid. Both the halves have ups and downs, yet the film manages to engage and the theme conveyed is strong. Good direction, the finishing point of many scenes were deep and sensible. Dialogues are a mixed bag, the women's interactions are so meaningful but the one between the heroine and the caller is overly cringe.

Performances:

Commendable performance from Aishwarya Rajesh, she expresses tension in its best form. Jithan Ramesh is unexpectedly good here, his makeover looked very apt for the role he played. There is a surprise actor who has played the villain character, absolutely perfect casting for the psychotic role, he makes the behaviour so believable.

Technicalities:

Might not be appealing, decent songs by Justin Prabhakaran and quality background score. Good variety of locations and lighting by cinematographer Gokul Benoy, neatest of works. The film could have been a little crisper, anyhow tidy cuts by Sabu Joseph.

Bottomline

The film has its hits and misses, but didn’t fail at any point. The different backdrop, call center path to reach the conflict, unique way of approaching the villain character and a decent screenplay makes it a neat watch.

Rating - 3/ 5