Film: ATTI
Director: Vijaya Bhaskar
Cast: MaKaPa Anand, Ashmita, Ramki, Aruldoss, Mahanadi Shankar, Muthukumar, Rams, Rajendran.
The plot centres around Bawa, a youngster from the slums who finds himself inadvertently involved in the affairs of some rowdy elements. Steadily rising in stature as a solo hero, Anand has honed his skills not just in emoting but in dancing and fighting too. And as Bawa, the unkempt, uncouth slum-dweller who with his friends loved to sing at funerals, Anand fits the bill.
The director has attempted to blend various ingredients in his script; there is romance, fights, sentiment, the friendship factor and a couple of twists and turns. But what the script lacks is uniformity and consistency, both in the etching of its screenplay and its storytelling method. The early part introduces us to Bawa and his three friends. Whiling away their time in idle pursuits, boozing binges and singing at funerals, the quartet is a cheerful, happy lot. Having frequent altercation with both rowdies and the police, Bawa has the patronage of Radha (Aruldoss fits in suitably), the kingpin of the rowdy elements.
Romance seems to be on the anvil when Bawa gets his hands on the missing cellphone of Bharathi. But the interaction between the duo remains formal till almost the end. And then one wishes it had been so at the end too. For the love which is revealed towards the end seems almost sudden and forced, sans conviction or any smooth lead into it. Even as Bawa makes quite a few futile attempts to return the phone, he loses it. Realising that there were others too on his track to get the phone, and that his life was in jeopardy, Bawa had now to find it.
Providing necessary support and helping move the story forward are Rams as rowdy Mookuthi, Shankar as the comic-cop, and Muthumar as Munnusamy, the new cop and Bawa’s childhood friend. Rajendran’s comic antics just do not jell here. The scenes involving his fat school-going son repeatedly beating, kicking and slapping his parents, are definitely not amusing!
Mildly interesting is the episode of Yogi Babu being disturbed on his ‘first night’ by the quartet. Ramki enters late in the story as Omprakash, a realtor with a secret to hide. But with his character superficially etched, he barely makes any impact.
Human sacrifices, transgenders, deceit and back-stabbing form a part of the plot, the pace dragging towards the end. Unevenly paced and narrated, it shifts from one emotion to another, before one could savour a moment. At 147 minutes, it’s too long an affair.