Udhayan Movie Review

Platitudes spilled everywhere into the film that nowhere stands different from the commercial potboilers. Finding opportunity to make his debut directorial with ‘Udhayan’, director Chaplin has failed terribly by crafting a time-worn script that has a not-so good performance by the artists.

The film opens with ‘Thimiru’ shade as we find a bunch of goons lead by a ferocious Thalaivar (Aashish Vidyarthi) in search of someone to bump him off. Cut to Chennai - Vasanth (Arulnidhi) is a handsome, smart lad employed as an assistant manager in ICICI Bank. Not to miss his colleague (Santhanam), who goes through ludicrous moments over his job. Vasanth feels straight from his heart and openly admits his interest to marry Priya (Pranitha) on the first sight. When everything seemingly proceeds well through their way, a flashback reveals unsettled disputes among few characters in the film including Vasanth.

When an actor supposedly makes his debut in a film based on rural backdrop, his next immediate option would be display a different avatar as a smart city boy. So does Arulnidhi - he crunches down the baddies, sings limitless duets with heroine appearing in skimpy costumes and finally take up ‘Vishal’ act (Thimiru, Sandakozhi) during climax. Arulnidhi definitely needs a crash course to make things happen. Pranitha on the other end might keep the guys engaged with her looks. But again, she has to pay more attention towards her costumes. Her cute cherubic looks impress us and she might have some luck in Kollywood. Aashish Vidyarthi renders an effortless performance as a dangerous goon. Krishna Moorthy of ‘Naan Kadavul’ fame as a Brahmin is a ridiculous factor and it’s unacceptable. Santhanam in his fixed paradigm tries evoking laughter and indeed succeeds.

Manikanth Kadri from Kannada film industry forays into Kollywood with this film and has delivered some tunes that are appreciable. Cinematography Vijay Milton has some colorful visuals and a good illustration can be witnessed with the songs.

‘Udhayan’ doesn’t manage to keep the interest levels of audiences the same throughout and it stumbles down halfway, turning them restless.