[3-2015] Anegan | Variables

A romantic psychological thriller presented in the most transparent way to satisfy both the class and mass audience. Everything was crystal clear and simple just the way KVA kept saying in few of his recent interviews “direct-ar point-ku vanga”. The story revolves around the four avatars of the lead characters through various timeline and how they interconnect between each other. Definitely not a flawless film, but personally, I felt it was one of the films in the recent time that had met the expectations of the audience. Yes

1. KVA’s script. Complex story in the simplest form. Numerous climaxes which are all equally engaging and important.
2. Kiran (art director), Om Prakash (cinematographer), Anthony (editor). Can’t even tell the difference between the sets and real places. Visuals were like a dream and the tones were very relatable. Slick editing.
3. Harris Jayaraj. Despite having several similarities to Ko, the background score of Anegan was excellent. It did not overshadow the scenes.
4. Amyra Dastur. Brilliant, knock-out performance. Innocent Samudra, eccentric Madhu, soft-spoken Kalyani, Amyra fitted amazingly into each character. She looks experienced, expresses well and shared equal screen space with Dhanush. A dream debut in Tamizh for Amyra. I would loveee to watch her in more films this coming year!
5. Dhanush. He was top-notch as Kaali, thou he resemble Prabhu Deva heavyly. Natural performer as Murugappa/Munaruna and Ashwin (the IT professional) subtly reminds me of Ko’s Ashwin (Jeeva).
6. The few minutes of mimicry by Dhanush. Worked big time.
7. The crux of the plot; whether it is indeed a love story that transcends beyond reincarnations or merely creative imaginations induced by the drug influence was left entirely to the audience.
8. Having a girl named Aung San Suu Kyi in Samudra’s class registry was a well-played move.
9. The final fight. Fight takes place in banyan trees area and the couple got buried under some branches for sometime (reference to Kaali-Kalyani), Ashwin made a jump towards the sea (reference to Munaruna) and he fought like a warrior too. Coincidence much?
10. Songs placement.

Personally, I would like to believe that it was a combination of rebirth (Munaruna-Samudra), creative imagination (Warrior-Princess), narration of  real-life incident (Kaali-Kalyani) and today’s reality (Ashwin-Madhu). Munaruna-Samudra : Story of Ashwin-Madhu’s past life. A fantasy twist by including the tree carving at the final scene and guruji insisting that Madhu is indeed having memories from her past lives. Warrior-Princess : A complete imagination of Madhu due to the medicine prescribed by the psychiatrist. The whole regression hypnosis session was recorded; and the information/details from Madhu’s story are used to create new online games. Also to be noted, Meera’s desktop was filled with ghost wallpaper to give the impression that Meera was indeed working on a game concept based on the ghosts. However, she suffered from paranoid delusion MAY BE due to the excessive work load/stress/usage of drug. This was also the only episode where the hero escaped from death, similar to the current situation of Ashwin-Madhu. Kaali-Kalyani : The whole incident was narrated to Madhu by Kalyani’s father through specific sketches on the wall of his room. Madhu identified the final resting place of Kaali-Kalyani through the sketches which has been strongly imprinted in her mind. And it was also through the sketches that she recognized Inspector Gopinath. Hence, the resemblance of Ashwin-Madhu to Kaali-Kalyani was only a coincident. Despite having huge scope of being a full-fledged physiological thriller, personally I am glad that it wasn’t or else the film might have lost its charm due to some ambiguities. And yeah, thank you KVA sir for saving the ladies from another round of woman-bashing songs. The characters of Amyra in Anegan were strong and sincere to their man and love. Even Dangamaari was excused from such comments about women. Also, for not giving us a clichéd ending of Ashwin remembering his past life and believing in Madhu’s stories. Thank you. Highly entertaining and engaging film. Love, JST