'Easan' (Tamil, Thriller, 2010)
Director: M Sasikumar
Cast: Vaibhav, Samudrakani, Abhinaya, Aparna, Niranjan, Mahanadi Tulasi
With his very first venture ‘Subramaniapuram’, where he donned multiple hats of producer, scenarist, director and actor, Sasikumar had made a strong impact. And now, he picks up the megaphone for ‘Easan’, which he has also scripted and produced. But the clarity of vision and the definite focus of his earlier film are missing here.
The characters are stereotypical and predictable, and the happenings — nothing new or exciting to sustain interest.
There is an effort to introduce a stylish presentation in the earlier scenes, but that doesn’t sustain for long. Further, the director hypes up his characters only to sideline them later. So whatever impact a character makes in the earlier part is negated in the later scenes, and hardly any performance stays in the mind.
To add to that, the happenings in the earlier part create an impression of the story moving in a particular direction. So you view it with some interest, hoping it will evolve as the narration unfolds. But in the second half, it goes off on a totally different tangent, making many of the happenings of the first part seem irrelevant and purposeless. If the idea was to maintain the suspense and throw in some red herrings, it backfired badly.
A more coherent script and a tighter rein on his narration would have helped. And its nearly three hours viewing time doesn’t make it any better. There is the unscrupulous politician (producer Alagappan does a good job in his first acting effort) and his wayward son Chezhiyan (Vaibhav). Chezhiyan falls in love with Reshma (a cute Aparna), woos and decides to marry her. The alliance is opposed by Reshma’s father Hedge, a business tycoon from Bangalore (he’s given a Vijay Mallya look).
And there is the bureaucrat, who tries to pull a fast one on the politician but is blackmailed into submission. There are the raids on Chennai’s night spots (used for setting the song-dance numbers), and the flesh racket, all in the first half. Too many issues are cramped in the script in a hotch-potch way.
Managing to leave his mark is Samuthirakani, aptly cast as Sengaiyya the upright, gutsy cop, who realises he was being used as a pawn by his senior in nexus with Deivanayagam.
With his athletic look and intense demeanour, Samuthirakani is eminently watchable. When Chezhiyan disappears and his friend too meets an unnatural death, Sengaiyya follows the trail which takes him to some happenings of the past and to the wrongs done.
Think of vendetta-driven plots like ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’, ‘Click’ and ‘Mirrors’ (minus the ghosts). Dushyant as the teen computer geek is watchable. Being the director’s second film after the brilliant ‘Subramaniapuram’, ‘Easan’ had raised high expectations. But the director seems to be out of waters in his urban foray, the confidence and the comfort level he displayed in his earlier ambience lacking here.