Raayan (Dhanush) is the elder amongst the siblings; Muthuveerayan (Sundeep Kishan), Manickvelarayan (Kalidas Jayaram), Durga (Dushara Vijayan). Raayan and his siblings were orphaned as their parents doesn’t come back for reasons unknown to us. Therefore, Raayan becomes the head of the house.
The story of trio-Raayans set in is written not as a family drama, but developed as a family drama woven around the themes of loyalty and betrayal. It is not possible to write analytically about the film without spitting spoilers. So, I will avoid writing about it for now. Because, the Baasha-like mass formatted story makes it predictable for the mass moments, except the spoiler which is less convincing as I think of it retrospectively. However, it surely has a surprise value in the story that keeps the movie more interesting as it divulges into another track that gives more heft to Raayan and Durga.
Dhanush seems to have paid a tribute to Baasha format of story telling. There are a few plot-similarities and mass-style-similarities to Rajinijanth’s trendsetting movie Baasha (1995). The siblings’ similarity is one thing. The classic warning scene in Baasha is also played out in Raayan too. Of course, the stylistic trend that Ranijikanth’s Baasha has created is still reverberating across the film industries. For example, both in Baasha and Raayan, the hero plays a stereotypical hardworking earner of household and also an all-powerful yet reluctant to violence, keeping the fans waiting for the right moment to come. And, you know that this moment will come. Yet, you wait. The success of this format is in the hyped up buildup that the story naturally ought to develop. You have seen this format worked out in Neel-ified Salaar too.
Dhanush, despite playing the title role, gave valuable moments to other characters as well, especially Durga. After all, it is the story of Raayans, not just Raayan. Dhanush should have given more space to Prakash Raj as well. Prakash Raj as ACP also has a motive against Durai (Saravanan) and Sethu (SJ Suriyah), after igniting the fire to wipe the rival gangs of Durai and Sethu, he is gone and appears back just to aid Raayan to take back his revenge. For such an interesting character who does extrajudicial killings to keep his professional profile untainted, it is unjust to invite him for the sake of the hero’s convenience. Dhanush should have taken a bit more leeway beyond writing a story around just Raayan. The same feeling is applicable for Sethu and Sekar (played by Dhanush’s own brother Selvaraghavan) as well. SJ Suryah did a very good job playing an aspirational inexperienced hasty goon. Sekar is an elder brother to Raayan who gave him life who sticks up with Raayan all the time. But, we don’t see much depth in either of them.
AR Rahman’s music in Raayan is not something you might humm after a decade, nor is it an irritant in your ears as you watch the movie. So, Rahman is excused for not making your ears bleed with heavy bass drum beats if not great music. Om Prakash cinematography done in dark and dim lit streets created by art director Jacki gives the cinematic feel.
The big question with which I entered the theatre is: will there be a Raayan Universe? The trend of creating an universe is already tiring. However, the scope of the sequel is obviously there. Talking of scope, the sequel-scope will be there for every film, which story will have an absolute end? None. There is a scope, but I don’t think Raayan needs a sequel. There are two loose ends in the movie that can be pulled to make a sequel. One, Durai mentions that Raayan bought someone 10 years back and you hear a heroic sinister score and this point is not touched upon ever in the story. For the most part, we don’t know much about what Raayan was doing while growing up. The Baasha style flashback cliche is a non-existing element in the movie. The second one is, Raayan doesn’t let Prakash Raj clean his non-judicial traces of evidence, escaping into another world as the end credits rolls up.
Raayan is now playing in theatres.
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