Ayan is Saint meets James Bond. In the style of grand capers, the hero is a crook with a heart. Surya combines Clooney’s charm (in the Ocean series) with Craig’s body and frenetic action. Like these contemporary adventure films, the laptop is an essential ingredient for the modern crook, although an endearing smile and quick thinking always helps.
Deva (Surya) is a well-educated—which in today’s cinematic lingo implies computer-savvy with a bit of accented English—crook. In Tamil films, nice crooks have nice mothers, who eventually are the redemption for these misdirected boys. Along with his laptop, Deva also smuggles diamonds and pirated movies. Pirating movies, while it leads to abuse by producers, is dull (both visually and in action) compared to smuggling diamonds from Africa.
Surya is Bond with a powerful mother figure. (By the way, does Bond have a mom?) He’s Saint but one who is not so mysterious. He’s a respectable criminal, for in today’s world, smuggling is merely a pastime and terrorism is the big crime. He is a criminal with a heart as against the villain who has lost his in his immaculately groomed long hair. (Why, oh why, do bad guys in Tamil films continue to have long hair?)
This is a SMS-generation film. Nothing is to be taken seriously, not even crime. It has all the desires of modern youth nicely packaged—a bit of underhand dealing is OK especially if it gets you to travel to exotic locales and allows you to romance the ravishing sister of your friend. And Tamannaah—boy, oh boy, is she ravishingly good-looking and charming in this film. I wouldn’t mind doing a bit of smuggling myself if I can get to spend a few frames with her.
The film succeeds at a disturbing level. It works as an adventure caper, has well-filmed action sequences. The story tries to be consistent and the narrative is somewhat honest. It also lays out what is fast defining our society—crime is not that big a deal today. You might get caught eventually (especially if your mother betrays you) but if you’re smart, you can wiggle your way out. But a ‘reformed’ Surya is not convincing. You almost feel betrayed that Saint must become an agent of the State.
Bollywood
1. 8x10 Tasveer
2. Aa Dekhe Zara
3. Ek: The Power of One
4. Raftar ka Junoon (dubbed)
5. Aloo Chaat
Hollywood
1. 17 Again
2. State of Play
3. Hannah Montana: The Movie
4. Monsters vs Aliens
5. Fast & Furious
Pop Singles
1. Halo (Beyonce)
2. She Loves Everybody (Chester French)
3. Bigcity Dreams (Never Shout Never)
4. Stanky Legg (GS Boyz)
5. Stanky Legg (GS Boyz)
Courtesy: Film Information
