Review : Malayalam Movie Avan

Director Nandakumar Kavil's Avan is the story of a criminal and perhaps quite in the mould of stories in such a pattern. Well, evidently in an effort to make the presentation contemporary, the man in question makes his confessions on a “live” TV reality show!
Krishnan (Bala) had a wretched childhood and though he showed great talent as a singer, certain unexpected turnarounds made him join a criminal gang. He grew up into a ruthless goon, along with Dharman (Riyas Khan).

The soft spoken ideologue Balu (Vijayaraghavan) is their leader, whom all respects and he devises plans for the gang. Mallika (Mukta) is the girl from the colony who is in love with Krishnan. Sometime later, Krishnan and Dharman agrees to attack singer Ramanujam (Vijay Yesudas), at the behest of the honcho of a recording company. The two injures the singer fatally. But soon Krishnan realizes that Ramanujam was his childhood friend Appu and he turns over a new leaf all on a sudden.

With every melodramatic situation in the book played in plenty, Avan is predictable and clichéd to the core. Still, considering the kind of films that have hit the theatres during recent times, chances are that you may find the film pretty watchable, at least in parts.

Even with a storyline like this, the action sequences don't look exciting enough and that could be one of the weakest links here. The director has at his hands a story which has been told quite a lot of times before in various forms but he couldn't add much style or have a signature of his own for the plot. The visuals look fine and the music, okay.

The usually wooden Bala looks fine in his role, especially during the action sequences. Vijay Yesudas has a limited role to play, but he is evidently uncomfortable to face the camera. Mukta has nothing much to do other than look pretty during the initial scenes and look distraught towards the end. Thalaivasal Vijay's character reminds of some characters from the Hindi films in the 1970s and 1980s.

Avan is a rehash of quite a few films from the past, shown in a conventional pattern. No wonder, it doesn't make much of an impact in the viewer's minds. Now it's all about what you want from a movie. Decide on your own!