Chekka Chivandha Vaanam

2018, Tamil, Disney Hotstar, 7.8/10 IMDB, Directed by Mani Rathnam

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Classy Global Mass Commercial, that succumb to lack of depth in characterisation.

The movie opens with an attack on a gangster and his wife, Prakashraj and Jayasudha, just after a Temple visit for their anniversary (does it suppose to scare you or pity them both, it does neither with the ameturish stunt sequence). When in later half it’s disclosed who is behind the attack, you wonder why it wasn’t planned and executed flawlessly with so much power and resource in hand.

The first half ends with an extended version of the trailers and teasers that by now we are too familiar with. You feel good with the character intros and it even lures to believe they are one happy family with mere sibling differences.

Aravind swamy mirrors a posh version of Inba from ‘Ayudha Ezhuthu’, with a classy jothika, his cousin whom he is married to with three kids. Jo’s so called responsible daughter in law role lags as her character is diluted and is disappointing as to a missed opportunity to bring in strong hold in the story. Many instances you expect Jo to turn the table and power up the screenplay, but the character falls flat except for the scope to showcase her skills while grieving her father’s murder briefly.

Aravind’s affair with journalist Aditi, fails to express the need for such a sidelined story in the first place. Missed impact yet again.

When the camera zooms on Dubai backdrop with Arun Vijay making deals with the Arabs, in mid-ocean, Vijay Mallya style and his srilankan slanged wife Aishwarya Rajesh calls on him in a private boat to inform about the attack on his parents, you are truly left in awe with high expectations, but again its all short lived as the episode of the duo never repeats except for the brief emotions when he meets her in the Dubai prison.

Simbu, plays his true gutsy informal self, with a girl on his arms and in knee deep trouble with Siberia police over some illegal business.

Vijay Sethupathi, a childhood friend of Aravind, a cop, suspended on a note of a poorly explained staged violation (makes sense in the last scene) keeps trailing the three brothers and makes it look circumstantial till the climax. He plays the role way too much in his usual effortless style that the twists of events in the last scene becomes very ineffective as the underplay has gone too far and by then you had already given up on the story.

There are leads for power hungerness in all three sons and Jothika’s subtle crave for the same but the lack of details fails to transport us in to their greedy world.

Second half of the story starts to murk down the sibling bond, turning it in to rivalry for inheritance. But here is where the story telling is troubled to translate what the director wished for.

You are thronged with too many loose ends and plenty of unsubstantiated sequence. One is frequently pushed in a void in spite of the ensemble casting and top names on the credits, A. R. Rahman, Santhosh Sivan, Sreekar Prasad..

Every time a character is chiseled on-screen, you keep expecting if that is the link to sync and engage with the storyline and we are repeatedly shunned. Jo’s father played by the movie’s co-writer Mr. Shiva Ananth, you want his shade to turn black from grey to give more edge to the screenplay but never happens. Jayasudha’s sequence with Simbu, that reminds of srividhya and Rajnikanth from ‘Thalapathi’, but fails to deliver. The grim faced Aishwarya Rajesh was left stranded half way.

The background score overlaps with the dialogues that you are often left deafened. The songs are all montage versions and we are denied the relish.

The camera is uniquely mesmerising in all the bird eyed shots.

Clearly chaotic falling short to the hype that’s gone overboard. Could have been gratifyingly better if it was a bit more racy and less superficial.