It’s fortunate for the filmmakers of Aarathu Sinam, the Tamil remake of Memories, that few in the audience have seen the original. If they had, Aarathu Sinam would be getting a lot of backlash. For its mishandling of the subject and the complacent miscasting.
A psychotic serial killer is running loose. He commits gruesome murders, and hangs the corpses in remote locations across Tamil Nadu. The cops are left scratching their heads. Meanwhile, Aravind (Arunlnidhi), an alcoholic cop with a glorious past, is asked to conduct a parallel investigation. What caused his current state, and whether he is able to solve the murder mystery, forms the plot of the film.
*****
Aravind is an out-of-work cop with an alcohol problem. He became an alcoholic after his wife and daughter were killed in front of him. We learn about his alcohol problem through a cliché scene. He is at a shady bar, demanding ‘one more large’. When refused service, he makes a scene and is thrown out. Arulnidhi stays so drunk that his face is devoid of any pain. He hallucinates about his past, and wakes up with the same drunken eyes.
*****
A major problem with the film is that the dialogues consistently pull down the screenplay. The conviction with which the actors mouth these meaningless lines makes the audience chuckle. Last year, we saw Charlie in a great role in Kirumi. Now, he’s back to doing what he’s best known for – trying to be funny. He plays a constable whose main job is to say ‘Yes, Sir!’ and then add some mundane attempted humour. In one scene, he looks at a corpse which has been repeatedly stabbed, and says, “Enna birthday cake vetra madhiri vetti vechurkan” (He has made cuts like he was cutting a birthday cake).”
The plot of the remake is the same as the original. But the mood, atmosphere, and the essence of the performances are lost in this interpretation. This despite some good actors on the cast. For instance, there’s Thulasi. She plays a mother who is worried for her sons. One of them is turning into an alcoholic, while the other has distanced himself from the family. Thulasi, though, is engrossed in self-explanatory dialogues. In one scene, she asks Arulnidhi to take her to the church. “You know the reason why?” she asks. Then she explains why. And it is tedious, because the film could have shown us why in the next scene.
Characters come and go arbitrarily. The usually funny Robo Shankar extends the ‘Charlie’ brand of comedy. There’s Aishwarya Dutta, an unintelligent journalist, in a dolled up and artificial role. Her character contributes nothing to the story, and her off-key lip sync is jarring. In one flashback, she asks Arulnidhi to apologise to his mother for criticising her cooking. Both Arulnidhi and his mother know that it was a joke. Still Aishwarya insists, and Arulnidhi obliges. This was the director’s imaginative way of conveying her ‘niceness’ to the audience.
*****
Recommended
Director Gaurav was last seen as an actor in his own film, Sigaram Thodu. Here, he plays the psychotic villain. Supposedly an intelligent villain, he leaves clues in ancient Aramaic and Biblical verses. He stealthily evades the police and kills four people assault-ah. He is also engrossed in pages of explanatory dialogues about his motivations and actions. By the end, we’re wondering if he’s actually psychotic, or just a guilty kid who hasn’t done his homework.
Just like the rest of the film movie: a cross between a thriller and a ‘Show & Tell’ session.
*****
The Aarathu Sinam review is a Silverscreen original article. It was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the movie. Silverscreen.in and its writers do not have any commercial relationship with movies that are reviewed on the site.