'Vamsam' (Tamil, Revenge, 2010)
Director- Pandiraj
Cast- Arulnidhi, Sunaina, Ganja Karuppu, Kishore, Jayaprakash, Anupama,
Rajkumar
Director Pandiraj's 'Pasanga' was set in a small town and it centered on a mischievous bunch of school kids. It marked the brilliant debut of the director.
The film had earned both critical acclaim and commercial success. For his second film, the director shifts to a rural milieu, with a love story set against the backdrop of village feuds, family honour and sentiments.
It’s a confident, competent debut from Arulnidhi (grandson of Kalaignar Karunanidhi) as Anbarasu, son of a notorious rowdy. It’s the actor’s home production. Anbarasu’s father was deceptively killed years back by the village bigwig Seenukannu (Jayaprakash). The boy and his mother shifts to a place away from the village fearing the backlash of his father’s innumerable enemies.
Anbarasu steers clear of trouble even when provoked. But when he falls in love with Malar from a neighbouring village, it spirals to a situation where he is forced to take sides and hit back at his tormentors.
The early part moves at a brisk pace. The growing love between Anbarasu and Malar provides many delightful moments with ‘Asin’ the cow as the go-between. The love track between Karuppu and his girl with another mediator the cat ‘Trisha’ is amusing.
This is Sunaina’s first rural-centric character, and she plays the gutsy feisty Malar with understanding. Adequate support is provided by Jayaprakash and Rajkumar who play the father-son villain duo, and Kishore as Anbarasu’s father.
The director who had taken potshots at mobile ring tones in 'Pasanga', this time takes a dig at the mobile network’s signal problems.
The lag sets in the second half, where Seenukannu plans vendetta against Anbarasu and Malar. The village festival commences, and the director’s focus shifts to depicting each day of the festival activities. The scenes become repetitive.
The changing attitude of Anbarasu’s tormentors, who shift from stealthy attacks on him, to playing it by honour, also lacks conviction. A more coherent screenplay in the second half would have worked to the film’s advantage. 'Vamsam' may not give that complete satisfaction which the director’s earlier film did. But the film has its good moments. And like his earlier one, this too is a clean wholesome family entertainer.