Anekudu Review

KV Anand and his writer SuBa have been smitten by the Past Life Regression bug.  Whenever a PLR story has been told, the story has been told in a more than intense style.  It's more so when the story is that of a love couple who were torn apart by enemies and/or circumstances.  Actually, when the length of a love story spans more than one life, one expects the narrator to make it as intensely emotional as possible (Magadheera was matchless in this regard).  Slaying the villain has to be on an equal footing with the emotional intensity.

Surprisingly enough, slaying takes the lion's share in 'Anekudu' ('Anegan' in Tamil), whereas the lover boy (of present day story) is hardly involved with the love story for too long.  He doesn't give two hoots for the girl who has been in love with him for more than 2 lives.  That's an offence, to say the least.  More so because the guy conveys the impression that he has been irritated by her flashbacks.  "Are you going to say that the skeletons are going to dance, as in Vittalacharya's films?" he says at one point.

In the climax scene, Dhanush even says to the main villain, "I thought only she is cracked. It appears that you too are cracked."  Then, believe it or not, Dhanush imitates Karthik as if it were some ordinary love story of a sarcastic, light-veined village lad.

Bullabbai (Dhanush) is a labourer from the Indian immigrant community in Burma.  The story is set in 1962.  The pretty daughter of a general (Amyra Dastur) falls in love with him, but conspiracies and circumstances come in their way of escaping to India.  In this life, Madhu (Amyra, again) is getting vivid memories of her past life.  The order in which she remembers her past lives is chronological, relieving us of some avoidable confusion.

Ashwin (Dhanush, again) is her colleague at the games development company where she works.  When she meets the man of her pictorially clear PLR, she immediately woos him.  The way she woos him is not different from the way a naughty belle would in a mass masala entertainer.  Only that she is a billionaire working in a corporate set-up.

Besides some cheap humour (like Ashwin being gifted underwear), double entendre (visual or verbal), gay comedy, and the fashioned English spoken by Karthik, there is this element of corporate depredation, too.

The film belongs to Dhanush, from word go.  From playing a teen labourer who is jolly in love with an upper class girl to a systems administrator whose body language could be that of a guy-next-door, he is very convincing.  The best character of his is Kali's, whose story is set in 1987.

Amyra is paired with Dhanush in all those eras, but the performance of hers that stands out the most is as Madhumitha.  Karthik is seen in a suave-looking role but not in a sophisticated characterization.  His role would have been a good strength had he got good dialogues.

This one is technically good, especially the scenes in the 1962 flashback are authentic and stand out for the brilliant cinematography.  Harris Jayaraj gets it right with one or two songs and the BGM is good.

The art work is, again, of high quality, but the editing should have been better.

Verdict: A love story that goes for a toss because of its predictability and light-touch emotionalism.