Plot Summary – A farmer goes on the run with his family as he is compelled to protect his son, who has murdered a wealthy upper-caste landlord in a fit of vengeance.

Language – Tamil

★★★★ 

Watched on 15 Apr, 2021

I had really high expectations for Asuran. Vetri Maaran’s work had never failed to disappoint so far. Visaranai’s first half is among the best that Indian cinema has to offer and Vadachennai is one of my favourite movies of all time. Keeping this in mind, I went into Asuran expecting a certain tone and realism. And throughout the first half of this film, I was certainly not let down. It had the same visceral realism and hardcore themes that I expected. It seemed extremely grounded but right before the interval there is a gripping fight scene which is one of the best mass fight scenes I’ve watched but it took me out of the experience because I had to suspend so much disbelief to comprehend the plausibility of a scene like that happening in something which had rooted itself so much in reality up to that point. From the second half onwards, the film was a mixed bag for me. The flashback was so compelling and it gave a lot of depth to Dhanush’s Sivasami. Everything after the flashback felt too massy and it felt like they were pandering to Dhanush fans. He became sort of like a god and seemed to not be fallible to any weapons or blows, which was unlike his character throughout the film. It also underscored the central theme of the film and in the end, the message ended up feeling forced and not organically conveyed. Dhanush gives one of the best acting performances I’ve ever seen in this film and I feel like not many stars in India would play a role that’s so vulnerable and susceptible to flaws as Dhanush’s Sivasami. The surrounding cast are also all spectacular and each actor has portrayed their characters with nuance. I felt the villains were not fleshed out and their only character trait was being greedy and rich without exploring the reasons and motivations behind why they would be like that. Overall, I expected much more from Asuran and I was disappointed by the end product but I can still appreciate the first 70% of the movie for what it was and I was still entertained for the entire runtime.