Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada (Tamil, 2016)

There is so much of Gautham Menon’s systematic telling & familiar tropes in the story. A decent family; the ‘nice’ protagonist born with girl siblings; a girl who is well-dressed; the tributes and odes to the heavyweights of film-making as always.

STR who starts as a fearful lad, has delivered a brilliant performance as he transforms to become the fearsome. He has displayed an array of his wonderful acting talent which makes you wonder on why he does so few films. Sathish Krishnan, in a comic avatar and Manjima Mohan, with one of the most natural performances from a Tamil cinema heroine, follow a close second with Daniel Balaji and Baba Sehgal’s menacing villainy rounding off a perfect supporting cast

Gautham is a director who has always hit the sweet spot in getting good songs for his movies and with A. R. Rahman along, it adds to the beauty of the movie. All songs were chartbusters even when the audio released and look even better on screen. The background score also adds value to the storyline

Dan McArthur is exceptional with his cinematography. His fine abilities are in full show when he takes us through the movie’s various settings and hit the high points with the songs through his lens

The director in Gautham Menon, though sticking to his usual guns, has tried to deviate and ventured into exploratory film-making. We are able to witness his fanboy moments of “The Godfather” through the movie’s runtime

The fact that the protagonist’s travel does not evolve organically as desired might compensated by something non-linear. But the linear screenplay might play spoilsport for the audience looking for a right mix of the right emotions. The high-points seem overwhelmingly served without a smooth growth. In saving the best for the last, the suspense in the movie seems to have been taken too far towards the end of the film