Ayngaran Movie Review: A noble message doesn’t absolve this film’s many flaws

Filmmakers have long been trying to figure out a method through which to weave an engaging commercial story whilst also pushing forward a message. GV Prakash Kumar's Ayngaran is another such attempt that relies heavily on its message. Its release may have been delayed, but the issue at the core of Ayngaran continues to be relevant, and this works in the film's favour.

The film is about the life of Mathi (GV Prakash), a talented mechanical engineer who creates inventions to help the common man. Although he is put down time and again by the authorities at the patent office, Mathi's strong will pushes him to try and try again. Even the initial writing seems to show a reluctance to move away from common tropes. The heroine, played by Mahima Nambiar, adds little value to the story, and any attempt to make her relevant comes too late into the film.

Director: Ravi Arasu

Cast: GV Prakash Kumar, Mahima Nambiar, Aadukalam Naren, Haresh Peradi

Even if Mathi's pursuit to do good through his inventions is the central narrative, Ayngaran brings in three other subplots to tell the story. Firstly, there is one involving Magudi, a poultry farmer who illegally uses growth hormones to produce meat. Mathi successfully outs Magudi to the media and the latter seeks revenge. Parallelly, we are introduced to a gang of robbers from North India, headed by Moorthy (Siddhartha Shankar), who pull off a huge diamond theft in the city. Thirdly, a narrative follows Mathi's father (Aadukalam Naren), a sub-inspector of the local police station, and his tiff with the incompetent and corrupt police inspector (Haresh Peradi). Eventually, as with these stories, all the angles meet. I liked that the characters are all fairly well-etched.

While these subplots are all brought together well, it does so with convenient turns and at some cost to the logic. In a bizarre turn of events, the multiple narratives culminate in a four-year-old girl falling down an abandoned borewell and it is suddenly up to Mathi and his inventions to rescue the child. From out of nowhere, the film turns into a rescue thriller. Despite showing us an elaborately shot sequence of the child falling down the borewell, the film repeats this sequence in ultra slow-motion and repeated close-ups, with all the desperation of someone who is not sure the audience cares yet. Perhaps if the film had better writing and making, we might have.