Evano Oruvan - Review

Evano Oruvan is the fine remake of Marathi blockbuster Dombivili Fast and fortunately it is the first film for Madhavan as a producer. Surely, he can be proud for producing this film on his own banner. But the story is nothing new to Tamil Cinema. Shankar has made many films on the same knot that is, corruption in politics, inefficient police, poor health services, misappropriation of powers and malfunctioning of Govt mechanism… But in this film, the director convey a thing very strongly. It is the middle class mentality of blaming others but lacking guts to take on an issue. This is the base and tone for the entire 2 hours movie.

Sridhar Vasudevan, a typical middle class Brahmin Bank employee, who runs his life according to the rule book. He is a man of principles, who lives with his wife and two kids in Nanganallur, a Brahmin pocket on the outskirts of Chennai and travels by train to his workplace. Vasudevan's life is a mundane, cycle of routine events for years and he has to struggle each minute of his day to survive.

Just because of his honesty and hard work, he earns new enemies in his workplace. His wife (Sangeetha) always criticizes him for his so called principles, which does not help to provide any positive changes in their life style.

Sridharan is constantly disturbed by the corruptive and insensitive local administrative system. He disagrees with the long waiting in the line for getting his quota of drinking water from tanker lorry and refuses to pay a huge amount as capitation fee for the admission of his daughter in a kinder garden school.

Finally, he bursts out and shows his anger towards the society. He erupts as he decides to solve all the problems on his own terms, which leads to a riveting climax.

Nishikanth Kamath has successfully depicted the pressure undergone by an ordinary middle class citizen, who wants to live according to the laws and rules. The director makes his hero as a common man, who suffers with all kind of inabilities.

But at the same time, the film raises many questions in the mind of a common viewer. Though Sridharan's violent outburst against the shop owner, who takes Rs 2 extra per bottle for serving the cool drink as cool, is a stupid act, it can still be accepted as an emotional outburst of a terribly disturbed man. But the stupidity continues and the film moves on the same beaten path. The film struggles to move ahead after a point. Madhavan and Seeman keep on churning out thought provoking messages.

Seeman and Madhavan get full marks for their powerful dialogues, which are simple but more meaningful. The wonderful economy of expression and deliberate silence imbue the film with a poetic resonance.

Particularly, Seeman as a police officer with heart and self criticism is outstanding. He has never gone overboard and his dialogue delivery is very impressive and impactful. His successful rendition could well make him a full time actor.

As a hero of the movie, Madhavan has done his job commendably. He has amazingly handled varied emotions of agony, despair, and anger. He has successfully underplayed the emotions in many places. His outburst in the midnight scene too is effective. Sangeetha has once again proved her caliber. She has handled her role as a middle class housewife with ease.

Cinematographer Sanjay's camera work is excellent and Amit Pawar, the editor of the film has made the movie as a crispy. Overall, Nishikanth, Madhavan and Seeman have made their sincere and heart full efforts to give a good movie to the viewers and their sincerity must be rewarded.

Verdict: Good