Monday

Sarvam – Tamil Movie Review: இழப்பின் வலி . .

28 Comments May 18, 2009 – 11:55 pm | Share and Save | Permalink | |

Loss. Bereavement. Vengeance. This is what ‘Sarvam’ is, in a nutshell. Went to see Sarvam at Satyam Cinemas Saturday morning. It was a different experience, as we woke up at 7:15 and were rushing to the Theatre. Chennai was cool as a result of the Friday night’s heavy rain. The theatre was filled with a good crowd. The movie started exactly on time, at 8:30.

Before the movie began, we see the disclaimer which reads:  ‘All the incidents in this film are fictitious……. Until they happen to you’. We see an upanishad quote about death. The film begins with Chakravarthi shouting in anguish inside a dark forest.

The film cuts to Arya, and the introduction song. We learn that Karthick (Arya) is an architect. He meets Sandhya (Trisha) in a go-carting race, and falls in love as soon as he sees her. Sandhya is a doctor, and so Karthick goes to her hospital and tries to woo her. Sandhya hates Karthick as she thinks he is not serious about life. Gradually, she falls for him, and the two happily enjoy life.

We also see Eashwar, a man who has lost his wife  and son in a road accident. Eashwar thinks that it was Naushad – the man who accidentally hit Eashwar’s wife (Anu Hassan in a cameo) and son with his car – who is  solely  responsible for their death, and he repeatedly stalks Naushad and threatens him that he doesn’t understand the loss Eashwar has undergone and he will only understand it if his own son dies. Naushad has a little boy Iman, and Naushad finally hides in Munnar, fearing Eashwar.

It is at this point that the story takes a serious turn. Sandhya dies in a brutal accident, and Karthick is devastated. Sandhya’s father tells Karthick that Sandhya’s heart has been transplanted and it’s Naushad’s son who  is living with her heart. Karthick becomes emotional and goes on a trip to find out Naushad. By following Karthick, Eashwar too arrives at Munnar. What happens at Munnar forms the rest of the story. Was Eashwar successful in his mission to kill Naushad’s son? Was Karthick able to overcome his grief? See the movie.

Sarvam is directed by Vishnu Vardhan. Now, all his previous movies were stylishly made (Arindum Ariyamalum, Pattiyal, Billa) and this one too, is brimming with youthfulness right from the beginning till the intermission. The first half is romantic and is fun to watch, especially Arya’s repeated attempts to woo Trisha.

The second half is entirely different from the first half and the story takes us through the beautiful locations in Munnar. The climax is dragging, and I found it uninteresting. Except the final 30 minutes, this film is worthy to watch.

The story has been woven around the central theme of loss. The pain of loss. We see Eashwar gradually getting afflicted with the psychotic obsession of killing Naushad’s son, as he thinks he lost his wife and son because of Naushad. Naushad too, talks in a don’t-care manner when Eashwar comes to Naushad’s house for the first time. All this adds up and Eashwar decides to kill Naushad’s son to make him understand the pain of losing the dearest ones. On the other hand, Karthick too suffers the pain of loss when he loses Sandhya in the accident. But, Karthick’s mindset is to prevent others from experiencing such a kind of pain, and that’s what he exactly says to Eashwar when they both meet up in Munnar. This difference in mindsets is what makes the film worthwhile to watch.

The camera is good, especially in the scenes filmed in Munnar. Nirav Shah has done a neat work. The music too is okay. While seeing the beautifully filmed songs, I was not able to stop thinking about Vishnu Vardhan using Rahman in this film. It would have been absolutely brilliant if Rahman had scored the music, as that would have been a perfect match with the camera work. Yuvan was also good with the songs but somehow I felt Rahman would have been the better choice.

Arya has done a cool job. Although he is very predictable in some scenes, he is okay. Trisha is cute. After a long time, she has been shown in a beautiful way, and is attractive. Chakravarthi is the antagonist, and he looks like a younger Kamal Hassan in some scenes. He has done a neat job of the psychotic villain. The little boy who has acted as Iman, Naushad’s son is a good actor, it seems. All his scenes with Arya are thoroughly enjoyable.

And, I dunno why throughout the movie, the characters keep praising Ilayaraja. That too, in comparison with Rahman. I can understand that this movie was made during Rahman’s Oscar glory and may be that’s the reason the film makers decided to justify Ilayaraja against Rahman and through Arya’s character, they say that although Rahman is great, Ilayaraja is the greatest! I didn’t like this comparison game which went on almost throughout the movie.

Overall, the film is worthy to watch, but beware about the final thirty minutes, which makes us to question about the logical gaps (holes!!) in the script.

Sarvam – இழப்பின் வலி .

Written by Scorp.

Scorp alias Rajesh Giriraajan is a blogger with a flair for movies, music and comics from different parts of the world. He has reviewed several movies in his world movie series. You can read more of Scorp’s writing in his blog.