Ajith, who looks fresh after the success of Billa, mocks himself in many scenes (as he has to play a student despite looking over the hill).
Some innovative dance steps can certainly make a five-minute song interesting. However, its fate equally lies in the tune, lyrics, voice and those who shake their legs. If this is the case for a song, can a handful of one-liners save a full fledged film?
Perhaps not. Raju Sundaram, the man who has earned his spurs as a choreographer, has directed a movie with comedy one-liners, sans a gripping story, convincing screenplay and more importantly, logic.
Aegan is inspired from Main Hoon Na and the Malayalam flick Olympian Antony Aadam and doesn’t definitely derive anything from the Hollywood flick Back to School, as claimed.Ajith is Raju Sundaram’s version of an encounter specialist, whose prowess is demonstrated with a shoot-and-deliver-a-punch-before-you-kill scene in Hong Kong. He’s called back by his superior, who is also his father, to trace a criminal’s aide (Devan) who turned into a police approver and later went into hiding fearing for his life after experiencing the cops’ inability to protect him. Now when the police intelligence discovers that Devan’s daughter studies in a college in Ooty, they come up with a clever idea of sending Ajith to the college as a student to find the whereabouts of Devan from his daughter. Clever, indeed!With that saggy little plot and actors who try to flaunt their acting skills with whatever little they can, Aegan proves to be a mind-numbing fare with the only sigh of relief coming between the intervals – the songs, of course.
Nayanthara pouts sexily throughout, is exposed liberally albeit wrapped in a sari and an excuse for a blouse, and wears dangerously revealing tank tops and tiger print minis during songs. Well, after all, she is (over)paid for it but she seems to be in need of some serious career advice if she chooses to survive here.What makes an actor like Jeyaram to take up a disgraceful role, as that of a college principal, who plots with his attendant to abet Ajith in his noble mission and thinks the explosive chemistry teacher is born to please the protagonist, is a mystery. Same applies to Nasser and Suhasini. Piya shows some potential, but then what is the point?
Though it works initially, it becomes an overdose at one point, as either Ajith or those surrounding him make fun of his looks as a ’student’ all the time.
Coming to the story, Shiva (Ajith), a police officer hailed as ‘one man army’ by his superior is entrusted with a task of protecting Priya (Piyaa), a student at a college in Ooty, in order to trace her father Ram Prasad (Devan), a former sidekick of an international don John Chinnappa (Suman).
Shiva joins the college as a student. Though the students are not ready to mingle with him at first, they later accept him as their leader.
They call him Thala the unmistakable monicker to please Ajith fans) and it is in the college where Shiva finds his foster brother Narein (Navdeep).
And now, he has two jobs to complete- one is to zero in on John Chinnappa through Ram Prasad, and the other is to unite his family.
How he emerges triumphant with the moral support of Mallika (Nayantara), a chemistry professor is what Aegan is all about.
These days, most actors don’t have the courage to go against what their core audience is generally deemed to expect. The fans are suspected to expect the usual package of fun and frolic.
Ajith panders to this constituency, and the film for most part moves on a formulaic pattern. It is high time he took care in selecting scripts.
Nayantara’s introduction is quite fascinating. But the hype created about her doesn’t sustain for long. The character hasn’t been developed well.
Suman, Nasser, Suhashini- all seasoned actors understand their roles well and present a neat performance. Navdeep and Piyaa- the young pair — is promising while Jayaram, as the college principal evokes laughter.
Yuvanshankar Raja’s songs are average while his background score hears well. Arjun Jena’s camerawork is dull even as Anuvardhan’s costumes for Ajith remind you of Billa in many places.
You must thank the cinematographer Vijay Milton and the costume designer for maintaining the subtle tone of the movie without which you would come out of the movie hall with a splitting headache.
