Suspense Thriller - Chekka Chivantha Vanam(2018)

Mani Ratnam is one of the finest directors of our times, I, personally grew up watching his films, even though some of his films were before I was born, His films has always given me hope that there is still some soul left in Tamil cinema, He made some films which were far into the future breaking many barriers at the time when they were released. I could list many films which, each needs a separate explanation which is not the intent of this write up.

I didn't really have any big expectations from CCV, I had my own doubts how this could be Mani Ratnam film. A multi-starrer film of this proportions which starts at least 4-5 starts should be an out and out action flick, giving no room for characterisation of each role. After seeing the film, I could say I was left with mixed feelings, this is definitely not a typical Mani Ratnam film at the same time its not a typical commercial movie, quite difficult to put it into a genre

Short Gist: 

Senapathy( Played by Prakash Raj) is a dying Don who has three sons, Varathan( Played by Aravind Swami), Thyagu ( Played by Arun Vijay) and Ethi (Play by STR). The film follows the power struggel between the three sons and who becomes the next don is the rest of the film

The film starts with Senapathy, as you expect from the short gist. We could clearly see what the film is going to be about in the first 20 mins of the film when some one tries to assassinate Senapathy and there is some tension between the three brothers on who is going to take control. The three brothers are three contrasting characters played well by Aravind Swami, Arun Vijay and STR. All three characters get equal screen time and all three have done perfect justice to their roles. What I found missing was that since there were so many big-names in the film, it was difficult for the director/screen-play to focus on one character, this is a very typical Mani-Ratnam approach. Further I have not seen a really racy Mani-Ratnam flick which really worked. All of his films which went on to be huge successes not only in the box office but also as classics where based on a singular character. This was a first for me to see a Mani Ratnam film which was completly off of the above said formula.

Rasool( played by Vijay Sethupathi) was one of the characters which I found to be most interesting  and  unpredictable, I think that he was one of the main character which made the film stand out and carried the film until the end. Even thought, he doesn't seem to be such an important character in the beginning. Slowly the director revels his different shades until the end of the film.

To describe the film at the end, I could say that the star cast, the story and screenplay pulls the film through. I am not sure yet even if I watched a Mani-Ratnam film in the end. It is like I  have watched a good suspense thriller movie from some newbie. Kudos to Mani Ratnam for adapting his film making to recent times and giving a film with a genre he has not done till now. It takes some really effort and talent to change the way you take films you have produced for the last 20 years. I am very excited to see what he does in the future

Star Cast:

Prakash Raj, Aravind Swami, Arun Vijay, STR, Jyothika, Aishwarya Rajesh