Movie: Raja Rani
Director: Atlee
Cast: Arya, Jai, Nayantara, Nazriya Nazim, Sathyaraj, Santhanam
Rating: ***1/2
Raja Rani’s underlining as an emotional saga is only indicative of it’s maker Atlee’s smartness to put his viewers into an immensely alluring trap. A protege of the Robot director Shankar, he flaunts with style, urbanity, crisp entertainment doses consistently and hires a quality cinematographer to mask a usual plot amidst an urban backdrop.
He has this undying trust on his chosen milieu and laces it with timely reminders of its actual purpose. Its greatest accomplishment is to make you almost buy its content in spite of all its shortcomings. It guarantees you just that feel-good moment you desire as a viewer after watching a just married couple uniting beyond differences in a story and go back with a grin, even though you understand it could have been a wider one. Largely enjoyable when it tries to sustain its lighter veins, Raja Rani’s poignant doings are generally cover-up’s to make the age-old interior work.
Atlee’s strength here is in crafting one female character with all the subtlety he possesses and with Nayantara doing no less to understand this very recognizable fact in her near flawless act, you get to love her brash arrogance underneath which lies a sensitive dimension like any normal girl. The film primarily celebrates these two facets of hers.
Of course, there’s a side to Arya too. Turbulent situations bring them together and given that, the commencement focuses on their friction, you are easily attached to a cocktail of reality and run-of-the mill humor. There’s a spontaneous freshness in store that keeps you hooked although the male counterpart getting drunk and abusing his better half is gradually turning out to be a convenient cinematic obligation to jump into a song on the lines of a Kolaveri.
However, all the fights and misunderstandings only arise as both aren’t about aware of their heavy bygone turmoils prior to their alliance. It’s nevertheless a modern version of how a Mohan comes to terms about Revathi and her past in Maniratnam’s Mounaragam. In this case, the strokes of maturity aren’t sprinkled to make the seriousness of the theme more direct. The better of the pasts is that of Regina (Nayantara) and the liveliness, after all the cliches is totally fitting. Her equation with the scarecrow Surya (Jai) too helps. The relationship she also shares with her father is effective on the other front and it’s a happy trend that pal-like parents on-screen are getting frequent. Besides, Jai makes it easier for the director to substitute the absence of a certain Santhanam with his comic timing turning out to be equally smile-worthy too. The interval shows the depths that the maker can reach in making one empathize effortlessly with Regina’s life.
When it comes to Arya, the pain-struck lover tag as John simply isn’t the one that suits him. He is amply better while fiddling with his catchy one liners than an expression of pain or fulfillment. His flashback sequence isn’t to be taken seriously. Just as you start giving brownie points to the newbie writer-director for his grip over the tale, he makes this compromise in reaching out. Nazriya has this charming screen-presence but he only uses her as a prop in his balancing act. A moment before you write him off again, he builds a simple climax with oodles of soul and puts the happy ever-after tag in the end rather convincingly.
Nayanthara approaches her part with a never before freedom. She gives it all as an unstable Regina and amongst all the memorable situations that the film provides, her path-breaking transformation shows you that she can travel beyond homely trappings that makers reduce her to, provided she’s given an act of strength and value.
Sathyaraj’s fatherly act scores well with Santhanam’s typical supporting buffoonery being an attempt to ease out the tension in the on-going drama. G.V Prakash’s background score provides the necessary backing that the crucial yet namesake tear-jerkers deserved.
Quite neatly dubbed,Raja Rani flounders often in its comedy-emotion transition but the value entrusted on the staging and the need for it to connect with the contemporary audiences do the trick in addition to the memorable performances. With the integration of Goutham Menon-like adrenaline rush to a Mani Ratnam imprinted script, Raja Rani is an almost delicious offering.
Review by Srivathsan N, who had originally written it for Cinegoer.net