Director: Ramesh Subramaniam
Cast: Sri, Harish Kalyan, Chandini, Samskruthi, Harish Utthaman
Vil Ambu, set in Coimbatore and based on real life characters travels in the premises that people around us directly or indirectly influence every incident that occurs to us. Here, two characters living in the same locality have no connection to each other, but their deeds affect each other.
Karthi (Sri) is a petty thief from the slums and loiters around without any aim and his irresponsible parents being the main reason for his present state. Arul (Harish Kalyan) hailing from a middle class boy aspires to become a photographer but his strict dad (Kalyan) wants him to pursue computer science and become an IT professional. While Harish is in love with his college mate Nithya (Srushti Dange) belonging to an affluent family, schoolgirl Pongkodi (Samskruthi), daughter of a local politician (Nandakumar) falls for Karthi’s fearless behavior and the latter also reciprocates. Meanwhile, there’s this Kanakavalli (Chandini) who runs a roadside idly shop who romances Arul one-sidedly. Each time Karthi and Arul cross each other’s path, they land up in some trouble or other and it reaches a point when both their lives are in danger. How they come out of it forms the crux.
The big pluses to the film are its apt casting combined with good performances and characters that are fleshed out well. Sri fits perfectly in the role of an uncouth ruffian and has given an effortless feat. Harish is adorable and does his part with utmost confidence. He is equally impressive in action sequences especially the climax fight which is shot in a reliable manner. There’s hardly anything for Srushti Dange, while Samskruthi is pretty adequate. It is Chandini in a de-glam role scores in few scenes. Yogi Babu as Sri’s friend literally rocks. His one-liners bring the roof down. Harish’s real life father who has also acted as his dad in the film is promising. Though, the movie moves at brisk pace, the slight hitch is that the suspense elements are very less as the story is straight without much twist. Also, there are too many subplots, which deviates the attention from the core plot. Martin Joe’s camera brilliantly captures the uncharted territories of Coimbatore. Though Ruban’s editing is faultless, a trimming in the first half would have helped in its tautness. Naveen’s music goes well with the mood of the film. Ramesh Subramaniam should be lauded for his fresh attempt of narration. Despite few glitches here and there, the movie is certainly watchable!
