"Aayirathil Oruvan is very good Adventure movie i never ever seen before in Tamil movie. Hats off to Selvaraghavan" by prakash. B W some :With Aayirathil Oruvan, Selvaraghavan has inadvertently opened the Pandora box of a new genre as yet unknown to Tamil movies – Zombies. It is the case of Pirates of the Caribbean meets Dawn of the Death where the ancient Cholas, albeit with whatsoever no connection to the real Cholas as the disclaimer maintains, are reduced to dark-as-charcoal skinned tribesmen living in an unknown island in Vietnam, who are ready to gorge at raw flesh at the mere sight of it since they are starved.
So the dark-skinned subjects largely set the tone of the movie and the darkness remains dominant throughout. There is blood and gore, but of a different kind: not the one that makes you squirm, but something that makes you gawk at.
Thousands of years ago, when the Cholas were ousted from their homeland by the Pandias, their throne Prince was sent into exile to a secret location by the last Chola King. The Prince also carried with him a priceless statue of the Pandias. No efforts were fruitful at tracing the location and archeologists attempting the same simply disappear without a trace.
Aayirathil Oruvan
Andrea's dad and archaeologist Prathap Pothen vanishes into thin air in his attempt to unravel the mystery. In comes the archaeologist-cum-gun-wielding-designer-sunglasses-sporting ultra modern chick Reema, employed by the Indian government to trace Pothen. Andrea, his daughter, obviously joins in and they employ Karthi and a gang of burly men as helps. Karthi looks as if he's stepped out of his Paruthiveeran sets to join Reema and Andrea in their quest.
Their expedition unfurls nasty surprises after surprises - body-painted weirdos with strange weapons, quicksand, snakes. Lest we forget, there is also a cat fight between Reema and Andrea on the topic 'Karthi'. They finally reach the zombie land where Parthiban is the ruler whose raw-flesh-eating subjects take them into custody. Reema reveals her real self and exposes the self-centric purpose of her quest.
Karthi has very little to spare for Aayirathil Oruvan. He plays the rustic help, who instantly falls for Reema and Andrea, who cracks witty one-liners much to our delight in the otherwise serious state of affairs. Being his forte, it comes much easier for him without even having to try.
Despite having to mouth profound verses in ancient Tamil, Reema manages to only mime them with improper synchronization and it makes her appear as if she's in a Chinese movie. Andrea is multi-talented, but acting, sadly, is not one of those. But her meager dialogues in Madras Tamil are bang on otherwise.
G V Prakash's music stands out in the 'Ommele Aasathaan' song and a word about the background score: it's a battle between the background score and the blood thirsty human screeches. We would've loved to write about Eerum Ali's costume designing if only Reema and Andrea were not strutting around in just one pair of satin-shirt-shorts-overalls and sleeveless top and baggies respectively. Karthi leaves no scope for Eerum squarely.
Selva's frenziedly unleashed creativity makes you hallucinate towards the end of the movie and delirium sets in soon. It's not enough that a solid disclaimer is in place, a little bit of research about the subject would've helped things in the process. The underdeveloped script lacks everything - starting from strong plot twists to captive locations to graphics to credibility, above all.
Aayirathil Oruvan also ends on a very scary end note: about the journey of the Chola prince continuing as Karthi takes up the mantle
