'Raayan' Review: A smart commercial film, that is saved by its towering technicalities and performances, but never rises to be the epic it strives to be.

RAAYAN

OVERVIEW:

A film where its directional brilliance masks its flawed writing choices"

Raayan stems from a very emotional idea that deals with the ideas of betrayal, trust, family and so on. For a movie with such lofty ambitions, Raayan starts off well but loses it momentum in its latter half.

PERFORMANCES:

Dhanush is fantastic as Raayan, with great support from Dushara, Sundeep, Kalidas and Selvaraghavan. While Sj Suryah's character feels underwritten, his performance covers it up. Prakash Raj, with his small role, is intriguing and impactful.

TECHNICALITIES:

Technically the film is outstanding. The cinematography by Om Prakash is terrific, to say the least. The highly coloured frames with red ,blue and dark shades add a lot more depth to the film. While there were moments the colour grading felt so much that it hid the scenes, it's just flawless in other parts. The action choreography is done really well with a lot more realistic yet superb moves. AR Rahman is the hero of the film, who uplifts the film solely in its underwhelming moments and elevates the rest of the portions like anything. The background score seamlessly blends with the scenes and aptly conveys the mood.

WRITING AND TREATMENT:

Writing wise, the film builds its world nice and slow with good moments, ending with a crackling interval, but grades down in the latter half with some bad writing choices. While some characters had good arcs, some felt jaded .But director Dhanush is really good in staging and executing, such that the film feels engaging in its latter half, solely because of its good direction aided by its strong technicalities. The film feels underwhelming, because of its writing choices that are keen on leading the narrative to a Shakesperean style tragedy ending but not very organic, like its earlier parts

VERDICT:

Raayan, is certainly a well made film than a well written film. It smartly tweaks some conventional commercial choices. It is engaging with subtle heroic moments here and there. Definitely worth a watch for its treatment.

Comments

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