Movie review ' Yennai Arindhaal': Ajith Kumar and Arun Vijay's performances keeps the film afloat

With 'Yennai Arindhaal', director Gautam Menon has attempted to provide a closure to his streak of cop films 'Kaakha Kaakha' and 'Vettayaadu Vilayaadu' in which he variously explores the good guy-bad guy grey areas, and the decisions that are required to be made in such dilemmas. Sathya Dev (Ajith) is in his adolescence when his dad is murdered by a gang. Feelings of revenge and vindictiveness are naturally floating about, and these feelings don’t easy go away, especially if it involves such a close family member. The bloke could hire a few hit-men to do the job, or become a hit-man himself: but in which sense? Sathya decides to go about it the lawful way and becomes a cop. So assertive are his feelings of justice that he performs this job par excellence, and nabs the head of the gang, Mathew (Stunt Silva) with the help of one of his henchmen Victor (Arun Vijay) whom he befriends.

Fast forward a couple of years, and Sathya Dev goes through the stages of life, meets a single mother, Hemanika (Trisha), and is heavily attracted to her. Wedding day approaches, but there’s a sense of deja vu: just like the murder of his father, Hemanika is brutally murdered as well. One is naturally a loss for words at this point: feelings of revenge just don’t cut it anymore. Sathya is in for a bit of soul searching and traveling. He goes cross-country with her daughter Isha (Baby Anika), and just when the disbelief dies down, the understandable bitterness from the murder of his wife-to-be returns to haunt him.

Additionally, there’s another racket in town: organ trading by a well coordinated group of thugs. In order to sell the internal parts of a human being (say, a kidney,) one, well, needs to find them! A young woman, Thenmozhi (Anushka) is on the hit list of this gang-next-door, and Sathya by now in cop uniform, is alerted of this possibility. He vows to protect her at any cost, but the antagonist, he finds out, is his old pal, Victor! With such a string-pulling tension in place, the director manages to weave out the themes of good and evil, which in turns makes some friendships, and many more enemies for the decisions one makes.

The movie is largely carried by the hero and villain: Ajith and Arun. Their performance does an admirable job in keeping you glued when parts of the film were getting rather thin. The thinness can be accounted for the lackluster execution of the thrilling segments. They just don’t grab hold of the audience as they would in previous Gautham films. Arun Vijay is a revelation and the movie which was moving rather slow picks up momentum when he re-enters post interval. The romantic segments on the other hand, do have some bit to it and the ladies here deserve some applause. Trisha looks million bucks and gives a commendable performance with subtle yet strong expressions. Harris Jayaraj’s songs do have a sense of déjà vu of his earlier hits, nevertheless, Gautham has utilized them to take forward the narrative.

Overall, Ajith takes the cake and biscuit for this film. He fits into the cop sleeves with verve and enthusiasm. He’s provided with the romance, he has anger to take out on others, and there’s the much needed solipsism to showcase his attitude of coolness and outrage. In this regard, the director and the cinematographer Dan Macarthur have done a splendid job in supporting the anchoring role played by Ajith.