When you have an ensemble cast and beautiful actors, you know they are going to live the role rather than acting. The same happens here with Vaanam Kottatum. The power couple Radikaa and Sarath Kumar as Chandra and Bose Kaalai lived up to the expectations and their chemistry is beautiful on screens similar to their real lives.
Their acting breaks the ice between the audience and the characters and it is like we are actually watching our neighbours, people we know. This movie is a ‘Namma Veetu Pillai’ or ‘Kadaikutty Singam’ treated Mani Ratnam’s way.
The movie starts with a rage where Bose Kaalai commits murder and is sent off to jail for 16 years. Chandra who doesn’t want her children, Mangai(Aishwarya Rajesh) and Selvam (Vikram Prabhu), to expose to violence, moves to Chennai and leads a normal life.
Selvam is a grown man now who runs a small-time business whereas, Mangai is studying law and she also helps her brother in his business. The beautiful moments between Selvam and Mangai brings smiles to our face and is not forceful, moves along with the plot. Things were going well in the family until Bose Kaalai returns from jail after 16 years.
Now, here is where Sid Sriram’s work comes to play. He elevates the emotions with the right essence and is fresh as well. The scene where Chandra gets to know about Bose Kaalai’s release. ‘Kannu Thangom’ plays in the background and it complements well with the acting.
Also, the other tracks, especially the romantic tracks where one of them involves Madonna Sebastian works well. Madonna plays Preetha, a rich girl who also suffers from the absence of her father.
Let’s not take anything from Dhana who was a former associate of the legendary director. He made sure to extract the best out of all the actors and the character treatment is beautiful. However, with the writing, the movie could have gone elsewhere but Dhana takes an easy route, making it pretty predictable at the end. Dhana could have explored the conflicts inside the family rather than looking outside, making it a simple plot. The movie as mentioned earlier is like watching a known family, neighbour, from a distance where you would love to know about what is going on inside and how they bond. While the movie is just over two hours, the characters keep us all engaging.
While all the characters are written well, the role of the villain (Nandaa plays a dual role) is a bit let down and it could have been better considering how great the other characters are.
On the whole, the movie is a beautiful entertainer and must watch for the way the characters are treated in the movie and their endearing performances.
