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Director: Deepak
Cast: Shaam, Meera Jasmin, Karunas, Raghuvaran, Thilakan, Rajan P. Dev, Santoshi, Kalairani, Rajasekharan, Thalaivasal Vijay.
 The film's opening scene gives an inkling of the way the narration would move, and predictably the rest of the situations fall in line. It's yet again a gangster film, the scenes flowing albeit smoothly, but expectantly through clichéd situations giving one a sense of deja vu throughout. We've seen it all before, only this time the players are different.
Directing it is debutant Deepak, who has apprenticed with Lenin and Gandhikrishna. And with every hero worth his salt having tried his hand at playing a rowdy, it’s now the turn of Shaam to flex his muscles. Taking a break from his soft-hero image, the '12B', 'Aiy Nee Romba Azhagairuke...' here he plays Bala, the favourite hit-man of gangster Pasupathi (Dev). There's the usual flashback of why the hero took to
rowdyism, a raped sister, etc.
 If Bala is not zooming around in jeeps with a wild looking gang in it, parading down lanes with the same gang faithfully following a step behind him, or knocking down somebody or the other, he's successfully wooing Arthi, the girl he falls for at first sight. Not surprisingly, Arthi is the daughter of Jeyamani, a rival gangster. Ailing don Paranthaman (Thilakan), mentor of the two rivals, seeing his protégés at each other's throats, brings a compromise by suggesting that Arthi be married to Pasupathi's wayward son. Bala naturally becomes a pariah in both the camps, till of course it's alls well that ends well.
 Shaam has put in an effort in the fight scenes, but probably it's not really his fault if he couldn't make a convincing rowdy. For he just doesn't have the body language to carry off the role. There's more of confidence in Meera Jasmin's performance here. But if she's not careful, she'll soon find herself playing a gangster's relative in her subsequent films. For in her first film 'Run' she was the gangster's sister, here in her second film, she's the gangster's daughter. Noticeable are Santoshi as the hero's sister, Kalairani as his blind mother, Karunas as the sidekick, and Thilakan as the ailing don.
Malini Mannath
published on 19th Dec 2002
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