Under The Spot Light: Acham Yenbadu Madamayada

October 2013, Gautham Menon announced that his next film will be with Simbu.. Being a huge Gautham Menon fan, I have been eagerly anticipating for this movie ever since. Finally after a 3 year wait, it was finally released and I had the chance to watch my magician at work again. Here it is now, my review of Acham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada (AYM).

Story Review

It a movie of two halves to be honest. The first half is an AR Rahman Musical filled with the classy execution of Gautham Menon in portraying love sequence. The setting of the house seemed very familiar with VTV in some ways for me and there was a number of VTV reference used in the dialogues which worked well for the scenes.

Watch the opening tittle carefully and listen well the monologues at the beginning of the film because Gautham actually tells you what kind of ride you are going to get in this movie. The first half of the movie shows the hero who loves his bike more than anything else and meets his sister's friend who that happen to stay with them during their internship period. He clearly likes her but only makes small talks with her but the scenes were portrayed so beautifully, you just can't help to start falling in love.

Soon after he decides to do a backpacking trip travelling South India on his bike with his buddy but later changes plan when the heroine says she wants to join in on the trip. From this point on wards you are treated with some brilliant visuals and credit to cinematographer to show us how beautiful India is.


He realizes he starts falling in love with her and suddenly tragedy strikes. From here on, the film takes a dark and dangerous twist and we move to an heart racing, nervy action second half. Nobody knows what is happening as the movie goes on. Neither the character or the audience understand why things are turning out such way but all they know is that the hero needs to what ever it takes to stay alive, to find out why this dark chapter is happening.

The film ends with the hero finding out what caused all this dark events and how he stops it despite being just a normal boy from a neighborhood.

For me the first half reminded me the class of VTV and the AR Rahman Musical was a real treat to watch. It was beautiful it was classy and Simbu oozing in brilliance under Gautham's mentor-ship.

Meanwhile the second half was dark and thrilling and has the potential to cause the audience to feel disconnected with the film as nobody seems to understand what is happening. For me I felt it was the right way to do it for the film because when sometimes something happens to us we don't really know why until we find it out. Meanwhile some audience might disagree as they would prefer to have some lead to understand what is happening. I leave it up to you to judge

Rating: 3.7/5.0

Director Review

Gautham Menon

Without a doubt he is my favorite director. The guy is a Mozart, a magician and an artist. To me he has never failed to produce something magical in every film of his and he continues it with this film. One thing you can count on having a Gautham Menon movie is the beauty of his dialogues. Each monologues, each dialogues uttered are just so ear pleasing to hear. He is indeed a craftsman.

Next thing which he always amazes me is the name of his Hero and Heroine, although this time his heroine's name never light it up for me but his hero's name was definitely and well justified why it was such name. You got to watch it to know.

Another part he always gets it right is the minor details. If you noticed in the film when Simbu and the heroine check in the hotel and walks up the stairs, a character seemed a little shocked to see them. During that frame it is very easy to let it slip but the character later plays a major role in the film and Gautham was brilliant to place the character there to make it seem so casual just like another extra in the film.

My final praise for him will be the timing of "Thali Pogathey". Everyone was in love with the song ever since it was released January this year. Many people would have came to the film just for the song. I have seen many nice songs gets so poorly used in film because the placement of the song was not the right fit. But Gautham Menon timing, placement and the dialogues used just before the song was as quoted by a friend of mine "It is out of the world". I was stunned and in awe with it. Top class and goes to show why he is the best in the business in terms of song placing in the film. Also a shoutout for casting Daniel Balaji in the film. He was just so damn perfect for his role

Meanwhile my flaw for him will be the amount of time it took to release the film. Everyone knows that Gautham loves to do an intense and long post production work.. But for a film that was releases in November 2016, they should never have released the teaser back in August 2015, trailer in December 2015, the first single in January 2016 and the album in June 2016.

This four releases should be much closer to the film release date to build the right up to the film release. Due to this failure many people were getting frustrated and some weren't bothered about the film release. The hype of the film had died by the time the film was released. I hope he works it out better in his next venture

Rating: 4.7/5.0  

The Cast

Simbu

I have never enjoyed watching any Simbu films to date except VTV. In VTV he was an absolute class and brilliant in every scene. Today in AYM he has once again delivered what he is truly capable of as actor. It was not an easy role to play considering the fact people are going to keep comparing his performance here to VTV and with both film having lengthy classy love portion he needed to come up with something different and yes he did

He played the role looking and sounding very mature. If in VTV we saw a boyish Simbu, here you will see a mature Simbu. I don't know why they decided to shoot with him having such additional weight, whether is that how he was that time or was it insisted by the director to spot the weight but it didn't affect his performance one bit. Simbu has the caliber and the talent to be on of the top actors in the industry if he can get his head in the game and pick quality scripts like this. I wouldn't want to see a top talent like him go down the drain due to poor choice of films

 Rating: 4.5/5.0

Manjima Mohan

Making her debut in the Tamil Industry with this film, it is clear she is her to stay. Looks stunning
with a smile, mature in her performance but still able to pull a bubbly cute aspect in her performance as well. To make your debut in a Gautham Menon film shows that you must have impressed him very much for him to cast you and I am sure he has seen tons of quality in her

Although this heroine character of a Gautham Menon film will not go down as memorable as his other heroine but she did an amazing job in all her scenes. Her only flaw seems to be she has a little struggle when it comes to crying scenes.

She can only get better after her debut and will be eagerly waiting for her next

 Rating: 3.5/5.0

The Music

AR Rahman

If God could play music, it must have been taught by AR Rahman. The man is a genius and each of his songs in this film creates some sort of magic in your heart. The combination of AR Rahman - Gautham Menon- Thamarai has worked wonders with Raasali and Thali Pogathey, which is my two favourites in this film.

One doesn't need to mentioned the brilliance of AR Rahman in terms of his background score. It was on point and brilliant. It was so good that it syncs with the film so well you don't realise his music are creating the magic on screen. A true genius

 Rating: 5.0/5.0

Final Verdict: Acham Yenbadu Madamayada, A Beautifully Thrilling Lovely Film

Final Rating: 4.3/5.0