Aravaan(அரவான் )

Hats off to director Vasanthabalan and producer T.Siva.A wonderful effort to showcase our ancestors life.This movie is based on the novel Kaaval Kottam(காவல் கோட்டம் ) by S.Venkatesan.This novel has more than 1000 pages - a story which portrays Madurai's history.I have bought the book 3 months back but have not finished reading it yet.Now i think i have to finishing reading it as soon as possible.

I did not had any expectations before watching this movie just watched.Definitely this is not the best of Vasanthabalan but it should be one of the best of this year.The story was about Kallar coommunity, set in 18th century Kotayur,Tamil Nadu.Kombodhi was the leader of a group of thieves.Their occupation was robbery.They rob rich and share with the whole village.They were challenged when the necklace of the queen was lost and they knew they did not steal it.The queen's men offered them 100 barrels of rice if they return the ornament and the robber ,Kombodhi agreed.Kombodhi and his gang were in pursuit of the robber who robbed queen's ornament, eventually Kombodhi found him.He was Varipuli .Attracted by his talent Kombodhi made him to stay in his village and joined him in his group of robbers.Kombodhi's sister fell in love with Varipuli and he was not interested to marry her.The reason was the flashback which leads to the climax.

Art director -Vijay Murugan

The highlight of this movie are undoubtedly cinematography by Siddarth and art direction by Vijay Murugan.Both made the film enjoyable and realistic.I really believe that both have great future.All the best guys.Pasupathy as Kombodhi was awesome, he is one actor who can perform any character with ease, hopefully the directors will use him to the fullest in future.This movie is another milestone in his career, well done sir. Aadhi as Varipuli too had done his job to perfection,his body language was too good.Dhansika as Vanapachi was not bad but definitely better than Peraanmai.Bharat,Anjali and Swatha Menon did their cameo roles well.

Cinematographer-Siddarth

Music by Karthik is not upto historical movies standards,some songs are good but background scores are bad.As im typing this im listening to Ilaiyaraja's "How to name it?" , wondering how Ilaiyaraja would have composed background scores for this movie.Hmm wasted opportunity for Karthik.Hope he will learn from this.

Kudos to Vasanthabalan for not using any unnecessary characters.The second half story narration is not upto his own standards nevertheless not a bad one.His efforts in gathering details of the life style of those people was visible throughout the movie,well done.There are flaws in this movie but still we can watch this movie.The movies "Paalai" and "Aravaan" should be given due credit for showcasing  the many unknowns of Tamil history.

Go with open mind and you will enjoy this movie.