Nayanthara, Music, CinematographyNayanthara, Music, CinematographyScreenplay, Direction, Editing, Poor writing, Second half, Characterizations
After being seen as a powerful woman in Viswasam and scoring back to back solo heroine hits in Imaikkaa Nodigal and kolamavu Kokila last year, Nayanthara is back on screens as solo heroine in dual roles in Airaa. Here's team AP Herald's exclusive first on net Airaa review.
Yamuna (Nayanthara) comes to a village to make a Sensational show with a fake ghost in house theme concept, along with Yogi Babu and Kolapulli Leela. However eerie incidents begin happening in the house and leads to the revelation of another character which exists as a spirit, Bhavani (Nayan again). How are Yamuna and Bhavani connected, who's Amudhan (Kalaiyarasan) and whether Yamuna helped Bhavani achieve her mission is what Airaa is all about.
Nayanthara plays dual roles with aplomb and as Yamuna, she's very cool and does a cakewalk while she surprises with her dark look and body language and emotional performance as Bhavani. Kalaiyarasan gives a subtle act, and the rest of the cast including Yogi Babu and Kolapulli Leela are adequate. The actors who play a younger version of Nayan and Kalaiyarasan could have been better as they indulge in overacting.
Background score by Sundaramurthy KS is haunting while of his songs, Meghadhootham is hum-worthy. Sudarshan Srinivasan's cinematography is top notch as he captures the spooky visuals perfectly and editing by Karthik Jogesh must have been better. The characterization is too weak. If you take a look around the characters around Yamuna, all the characters are so dull. Bhavani is an empathetic character and her demands will definitely rob away the goodwill. The movie is technically solid. There's a sequence where things in a room seem to be floating in Zero gravity and it was well shot.
Second-time maker KM Sarjun has got the huge opportunity of directing lady superstar in his very second movie itself despite scoring a disastrous debut movie and this time around he has chosen to deliver several messages but the screenplay falters. His usage of the butterfly effect is noteworthy but the screenplay doesn't have enough engaging moments to entertain the audience as he indulges in routine, cheap scares that are actually funny rather than fear evoking. The first half of the movie doesn't have anything literally to entertain while the second half brightens for a while with the entry of Bhavani. However, the predictable and boring sequences kill the impact. All said, despite having a top heroine, an impressive technical team, Airaa falls only in the average category due to its uninspiring screenplay.
Nayanthara, Kalaiyarasan, Nishaanth Ramakrishnan, Sarjun KM, Kotapadi J RajeshAiraa is a big let down!
