pentheseleia This movie was visually breath-taking and a fascinating portrayal of a culture long-gone. The story of the movie was simple yet extremely well-handled with all the main characters fully fleshed out. Even the minor characters (e.g. Vannapechi) were well-rounded due to excellent acting and a great script. My greatest issue with this movie was the songs. I was rather irritated that the director found it necessary to dumb down an excellent movie with silly song numbers that added absolutely nothing. The songs completely detracted from the pace of the movie as I had to get re-absorbed into the actual story after every song.In summary, I loved the movie and I am even planning to re-watch it in the near future! I really hope that Vasanthabalan makes more fantastic movies like this and I am very much looking forward to his future endeavours.

sribornagain-394-460163 Painstaking research , hardworking actors, high-quality production designing , first-rate cinematography & loads and loads of hard work by everyone concerned with the making of this movie "Aravaan" seems to have gone waste due to negligence in the most important aspect of any movie , the screenplay. This is the most loosely scripted & emotionally stale of Vasanthabalan's so far. The emotional impact that he was able to create effortlessly in his previous movies is extinct in "Aravaan".That the screenplay is hasty without allowing the emotions to sink in or for the viewers to get to experience the impact of the scenes has led to the undoing of the movie. First half is very floppy with the writer unable to create a secure base for the second half to follow. As a result though the second half gets interesting with lots of twists & turns , it appears totally disjointed from the first. And just when anticipation is built up in the second half , it fizzles out in the end without any impact.As a result of such a poor script , the movie turns out to be very artificial with tacky & out-dated CG further adding onto the misery. It pains for the viewer that so much of hard work seems to have invested in the production as well as in the casting and acting department that in the end it fails to generate any admiration due to the reason already stated.Vasanthabalan's adaptation of Su.Venkateshan's novel "Kaval Kottam" is not up-to the mark makes one wonder what has happened to such a promising creator.He has extracted so much work from others but has failed to put in at least fraction of what others done in his writing.Aadhi has got in to the skin of the lead protagonist literally. His hard-work in portraying the body language of the 18th century security / robber is praiseworthy. He has time and again shown that he is one of those few actors who would do anything to portray the character he plays. Lot of expectation was there about Pasupathy's character from the promos but he has a average character to play which he does with his usual flair & gumption. Dhansika is good in her character while Archana kavi has very little to do. Bharath & Anjali's special appearances are more of a publicity stunt than anything else.Siddarth's cinematography is very good. The chase sequences , landscapes of the 18th century , "Unna Kolla poren" & "Nila nila" songs are some of the examples of his superlative work. The GC department however spoils the visuals in many sequences.Praveen/Shrikanth should have been more vigilant in their editing with lots of scenes having abrupt termination in the first half & lot of lax cutting in the second half.Karthik's music is a plus point for the movie with "Unna kola poraen" & "Nila nila" ringing in one's years even after the movie.On the whole, considering the works he has done previously , "Aravaan " is not the kind of movie one would expect from "Vasanthabalan".Bottomline : Death sentence

rahul srinivasan First things first,kudos to G.Vasanthabalan and team for their admirable attempt to recreate s.venkatesan's sahitya academy award winning novel kaaval kottam.The casting is near perfect with Aadhi ,Barath,Dhanshikha and Pasupathy.I am not going to give away the story,watch it for yourself.The art director and the cinematographer(Siddharth) deserve special mention.This movie is not for the average moviegoer who is accustomed to gravity-defying stunts, over the top heroism ,gaana\kuthu songs, so its not surprising that this movie did not fare well in the box office.The movie also conveys a valid and relevant message at the end.On the flip side the director (and the editor) could have made the movie shorter as the movie spans over 2.5 hours .Kathik's re-recording has nothing to write home about.Songs also act as speed breakers at times.Singampuli's characterization could have been handled betterLets hope that the box office failure of this movie does not thwart the director to stop from making good movies like this...