He’s a director who over the years has never been bothered about changing concepts and styles, but determinedly stuck to his own proven format. Of doling out wholesome family entertainers with the masala ingredients neatly packaged. And this has worked for Ravikumar and his heroes too. Aadhavan is the director’s first venture with Suriya, and a racy, ideal family entertainer.
Playing Aadhavan with effortless ease is Suriya. Aadhavan is a contract killer who with his father (Shinde) bumps off targets ruthlessly. His life takes a turn when Dr Kulkarni (Dev) hires him to kill a judge (the late Murali played the emotional scenes with élan), who was heading an enquiry commission related to missing children. It would have exposed the eminent doctor’s illegal network, his indulgence in child-rape, murder and organ harvesting. Aadhavan enters the judge’s mansion as a relative of the domestic help (Vadivelu), blackmailing and intimidating the latter into doing his bidding. Endearing himself to the judge’s joint family, specially his niece Tara (Nayanthara), he bides his time to carry out his plan.
The key strength of the film is undoubtedly Vadivelu. A live wire, the actor assures that there is never a dull moment when he is around. And with Suriya pitching in his bit, it’s a laugh riot many a time. Kudos to the director for presenting Nayanthara in a wholesome, appealing way, far from the overt glamour of her recent films. Of noteworthy mention is the morphing where Suriya appears as a ten-year-old, in the flashback scenes of Adhavan’s childhood. The film has family bonding and sentiment, family re-union, suspense, romance and plenty of action.
There are some dull moments towards the latter part. But the director soon steers his plot to a racy action-packed finale.
'Aadhavan' may offer nothing new by way of concept or style. But like 'Ayan', it’s a neatly packaged, fast-paced wholesome entertainer that thankfully doesn’t take itself very seriously. Nor does it expect us to.
