Avan
Cast Vijay Yesudas, Bala, Muktha George
Director Nandan Kavi
Rating G
Nandan Kavil's Avan is a combo treat. It laces music with action and action with music. Often, paced but far too unhurriedly to be fitted into the action genre, the film traces the life of Krishnan (Bala), who turns to crime because of his troubled and unhappy childhood.
Years later, Krishnan meets his childhood friend Ramanujam (Vijay Yesudas), who becomes the only stabilising factor in his life. Now a debutant singer Ramanujam tries to talk his buddy out of his criminal life. Does he succeed? He succeeds by introducing a strong underlying moral tone, which reaffirms that violence begets violence, and crime really does not pay.
The movie's most refreshing point is its jugalbandhi of music and madness, oops, action.
The music by Ramesh and Rajamani takes us back to the days when lyrics ruled and songs sounded, well, like songs and not like high-pitched screeches - and were hummable.
Also, a good attempt has been made to weave at least some of the songs tightly into the story unlike the modern trend of divorcing them from the narrative such that they begin to stick out like some unwelcome pieces of artifacts that have been thrown into the script.
The brains behind this could be Yesudas, son of the celebrated singer KJ Yesudas. Much like Vijay Antony, who shifted from music composition to acting with Naan, the young Yesudas has transcended the barrier between music and acting. Interestingly, the father is crooning for his son in Avan.
Both Yesudas and Bala engage us to a fairly decent level, and for his maiden acting venture, Yesudas manages to fight off camera consciousness.
However, at the end of it all, Avan is overwrought and somewhere fails to connect.
If it is not exciting enough for us to bite our nails, then the work is low on intrigue and emotional quotient.
