‘Raayan’ movie review: Dhanush’s fiery bloodfest offers only dwindling returns

‘Raayan’ movie review: In his sophomore directorial, Dhanush attempts to turn an ordinary story into something more with a well-written setting and measured storytelling but falls disappointingly short

Droplets of water fall on the cheek of a newborn girl, lying on a priest’s lap, as her lanky elder brother, dripping water from head to toe, names her ‘Durga.’ In mere days, she would witness him spill blood, forced to shed the boy in him, be smeared of a sin he would never cleanse himself of, and lead a life amongst fire and death.

Raayan, actor-director Dhanush’s second directorial, begins with this well-conceived sequence that sets the tone right. Composer AR Rahman tugs at your heart as you see Kathavarayan a.k.a Raayan, his two young brothers, and an infant sister, flee their town and arrive in Madras. With the help of Sekar (Selvaraghavan), they find refuge and means of survival. Is Sekar just a gentle-hearted stranger, or did he see something in Raayan’s eyes and wish he better be on his side? We are never told, but our guesses might align with the latter.

In the present day, shouldering fatherly responsibilities, Raayan (Dhanush) owns a fast-food shop to help Maanickavel Raayan (Kalidas Jayaram) with his college studies and get Durga (Dushara Vijayan) married soon. Muthuvel Raayan (Sundeep Kishan), however, is a bratty, impulsive, alcoholic who gets into petty fights and has to wait for his brother to bail him out. Even his paramour, Meghala (Aparna Balamurali) has to muster energy, or drown a drink, to put up with his aggravating behaviour.

In any other neighbourhood, Muthu would have faded into the setting as a common deadbeat. A charming song sequence in which he drinks, dances and jollies around with Meghala shows the life he would have led had he not lived on a turf where a war is brewing between two rival gangs; one headed by Dorai (Saravanan) and the other, by Sethuraman (SJ Suryah). At the centre of this world is a whirlpool of murder, debauchery, feud, politics and power, a quagmire that Raayan has repeatedly warned them not to get pulled into. Making matters thicker is a cop (Prakash Raj) who throws a wedge in between these gangs, for personal vengeance.

Establishing a measured setting with effective treatment, the filmmaker in Dhanush promises to turn an ordinary storyline into something more. For instance, his own introduction shot is not the ‘mass cinema’ entry you would expect, but a wide shot of him cooking Chinese food. Dhanush cloaks his character with a lot of mystery, with his ominous, brooding persona painting an opaque image of who he is behind those still eyes.

But to much dismay, this is all we get to know about him in the film, and the writing of his character contributes to Raayan falling short of all its promises, opting for a worn-out route, and ending up on a disappointing note. To understand how this happens, take for instance his cult classic, Pudhupettai, directed by Selvaraghavan; Kokki Kumar’s terrific character arc showed him as a powerless man taking on a Goliath who gives him a day’s notice to survive. Meanwhile, one small mistake leads Anbu, in Vetri Maaran’s Vada Chennai, to get entangled amidst a gang war. Raayan is also pulled into the gutter against his wishes, but here he is constantly on the offence, bringing death to the feet of his enemies, with no deadlines or deals to stop him. This is a character that faces no overpowering obstacle, and centring an indestructible character such as this leaves fewer options for the screenplay to do anything remotely noteworthy.

In writing the lead characters, Dhanush goes the Ramayana route to introduce some metaphors; Raayan is designed after Raavana, Muthuvel after Kumbhakarna, and Maanickavel after Vibhishana. Durga is Shurpanakha, who the film seems to say, has all the right to be a ‘Durga.’ Such attributes seem interesting on paper, but Raayan aside, the other characters become mere puppets to the plot, their voices muffled. SJ Suryah gets criminally underutilised, and his character becomes a stock antagonist with no aptitude to back his villainy.