Raayan Movie Review: Dhanush underplays heroism valiantly, lets direction shine even as writing falters

Raayan Movie Review: Dhanush, in his second directorial, brilliantly mounts a world true to the genre and even achieves emotional connect, which soon gets discarded

Raayan poster

Raayan

Raayan Movie Review

Raayan story

Kathava Raayan (Dhanush), the eldest of three brothers, Muthuvel Raayan (Sundeep Kishan), Manickavel Raayan (Kalidas Jayaram) and sister Durga (Dushara Vijayan), treasures the survival of his siblings more than anything else. After not knowing the fate of their parents, Kathava Raayan, aka Raayan, settles in the suburbs of Chennai and runs a fast-food eatery, thus becoming the breadwinner of his family. 

With a fiercely affectionate Durga running the house, layabout Muthuvel romancing Mekhala (Aparna Balamurali), and student Manickavel, Raayan’s life turns upside down after deceit, debacle, and devilry drag him into plenty of bloodshed.

Raayan review

At a very crucial juncture in the movie, Durga and Raayan share a glass of milk after having just finished off a man who played dirty and did unspeakable things to them. It is not the violence per se in how the duo finishes him off that elevates this scene, but the nonchalance the brother-sister duo shares even at the toughest of times. 

In another instance, when Manickavel rues to Raayan how his college rivals have beat him up to withdraw from college elections, Raayan is seen sowing with a needle and cloth. In fact, after seeing Kalidas and Sundeep get their due of heroic introductory shots, all we see of Dhanush’s character for the first time is when he turns around as he tosses the contents inside the wok he is cooking in. 

Dhanush, at various instances, outdoes himself as an actor with his directing abilities, which easily become one of the best to come out of Raayan. Case in point is the character played by Sundeep, who has enough and more to navigate the story. When the actor in Dhanush subdues and bows down in front of the director, the film shines, and so does Raayan. But on the other hand, this scope is limited to only a few characters.

In Raayan, Dhanush builds a world or rather, a circuit, with each character acting as a pawn that determines the fate of another. Eventually, pawns switch sides, and relationships begin to sour, but where it all begins to falter is when, in the world, you get lost while knowing what the intentions of these characters are. 

For example, Raayan, who lives and breathes for his three siblings, possesses enough strength to finish off a village, but when pulled into the world of thugs and ruthlessness, the film begins to lose the moments it survived to build the emotional connection. 

Certain characters have limited scope to be understood. We are introduced to rival gangs Durai (Saravanan) and Sethuraman (SJ Suryah), a policeman (Prakash Raj) who wants to “clean” the neighbourhood and carries a past vengeance, and Sethuraman’s first wife (Varalaxmi Sarathkumar), who is up in arms against her husband spending more time with his second wife. 

These details have a reason and subsequent pay-offs, but Raayan uses these moments as pit stops to build to the final conflict. A little more exploration could have gone a long way towards further imprinting these characters and their motives.

As much as Dhanush doubling up as director and actor saves Raayan from its faltering writing, AR Rahman’s background score, Om Prakash’s cinematography and Jacki’s production design elevate the making of the film, which almost makes sure Chennai becomes a character in Raayan. 

In fact, the film diligently becomes a canvas for Rahman, who almost gives as much as a writer and actor would give for a script.

Also read: Aparna Balamurali Interview: On Raayan, Dhanush as director, why she took up a small role in 2018, and more

The other characters too, like Aparna Balamurali playing Mekhala, who loves Muthuvel despite his flaws, and Varalaxmi get their bits, but their limited screen presence, especially of the latter’s feel, could have been tapped.

Raayan verdict

Dhanush, as a director, makes an honest attempt and makes up more, giving ample to the characters that make up the world of Raayan. There is a definite shedding of stardom and heroic stunts that Tamil cinema is more than prone to overusing. 

Yes, the writing is bogged down by certain uncertainty and convenience, which does not let many characters develop and, in fact, gets eliminated before they are known. But Raayan is also a valiant effort of Dhanush’s that lets many departments shine through and plays out a canvas for experimentation in commercial cinema.

Also Read: Raayan 2024: Release date, trailer, cast, crew, plot, censor, runtime, OTT rights and more

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