Asuran Movie Review - Two Monsters of Tamil Cinema

It's way past midnight and the sounds of insects haunt you. You see an aged Sivasamy (Dhanush) wading through the water along with his son Chidambaram (Ken Karunaas). The latter has committed a gory murder and the family members of the deceased are on the prowl. What really happened to Sivasamy and Chidambaram? Did they manage to evade them? It’s impressive that director Vetri Maaran was able to make the audience feel eerie, tensed and a sense of longing just five minutes into the story.

Director Vetri Maaran’s Asuran is a classic revenge survival drama that has its shining moments. Sivasamy and his family belong to an oppressed community and when the privileged’ attempt to discriminate against him and his family, all hell breaks loose. Asuran is Vetri Maaran and Dhanush’s most violent film yet. Also, it is the simplest, yet most effective movie of Vetri Maaran’s career. As the title implies, there’s a demon (Asuran in Tamil) inside all of us and it only comes out when your pent-up emotions need a way out.

As we know, Asuran is an adaptation of the award-winning Tamil novel Vekkai, written by Poomani. Vetri Maaran has taken the crux of Vekkai and developed his own world of interesting characters around it. He breathes life into each character and you know they represent the people from Tirunelveli.

Vetri Maaran and his team have done a splendid job in recreating the nativity of Tirunelveli through dialogues, body language and the age-old practices they follow. You get sucked into the world of Asuran and you feel a surge of emotions when Mariyamma (Ammu Abirami) is made to do a walk of shame’ just because she wore slippers to school. The conflict here is that she belongs to an oppressed community. There are a lot of strong scenes that depict the horrible practices that promoted untouchability, casteism and discrimination that were prevalent in the 80s. In other words, Asuran is a film about a bunch of strong characters that question the system and try to break it.

The revenge-survival drama has its mass moments thanks to Dhanush, Manju Warrier, Teejay (who played Dhanush’s first son Murugan) and Ken. All of them shine making you believe that their ordeal is because they were born poor.

Asuran is yet another solid film from Dhanush and Vetri Maaran combo. Manju Warrier sunk her teeth into her character Pachaiyammal and in a scene, she dares to take over a bunch of men who oppose her for the wrong reasons. By all means, she held the scene on her own and stood tall as the hero.

Dhanush is brilliant as a doting father Sivasamy. He speaks with his eyes and it is excellent to see an actor who can effortlessly play the role of a 50-year-old father when his contemporaries, who are elder to him, fail to essay older roles.

Newcomer Teejay Arunasalam (Murugan in the film) looks perfect with his expression and body language. However, his performance was a let down due to poor lip-sync, which was a major grouse throughout the first half.

Another disadvantage of Asuran is the flashback portion featuring Dhanush, Ammu Abirami, Manju Warrier and Prakash Raj, which ran tad bit longer than it should have. The technical team of Asuran has done magnificent work. Cinematographer Velraj (who has a brief role in the film, too) has captured the landscape of the Thekkoru village and one could actually feel the heat and sultry (Vekkai in Tamil) weather through his shots.

Asuran is a huge comeback for composer GV Prakash who is now busy acting in films. The Vaa Asura’ track is goosebump-inducing and elevates the scene. Also, stunts by Peter Hein look authentic and realistic to the T.

Even though violence is not the solution to any problem, you root for the characters when they slash the throats of the men who wronged them. It's the injustice that is meted to them that makes you support their behaviour. Asuran ends with a strong message, which will stay relevant for the years to come.

One Line: Two Monsters makes a monsterous effort for success.

3.70 out of 5