Debutant director Veludoss Gnanasampantham's 'Aakkam' is another slice of life from North Chennai which has started getting considerable representation in recent years of Tamil cinema. The criticism that almost all North Chennai based Tamil films depict the locality as the breeding ground of crime and criminals, holds good to this film too. But 'Akkam' does not just depict rowdies and criminals. It is the story of humans within those "anti-social elements".
'Aakkam' is the story of a a gang of petty criminals led by Sokku (Shathish Raavan) whose ambition is to become the city's most dreaded rowdy/don. Even the hero's drug pedlar motherwants her son to do something "big" in that sense. Sokku has someone to blindly love him in Jaya (Delna Davis) a self righteous teenage girl. Sokku "uses" Jaya to mint money and impregnates her. Jaya decides to give birth to Sokku's child and fend it on her own.
Meanwhile Sokku achieves his ambition by committing many murders at the behest of a local smuggler . The police hatch an encounter plan to kill Sokku. Ranga (Ranjith) an influential big shot in that locality tries to reform Sokku who iss in no mood to meet Ranga.
What happens to Sokku and his friends forms the rest of the film.
As said earlier, 'Aakkam' is the story of rowdies and it has no pretensions about that. The director does not seek the sympathy of audience by showing a sorrowful past to justify the present unacceptable behaviour of the hero. There is a flashback in the climax but that does not look contrived and it makes quite an impact, stressing the importance of education. This is the rowdy who would rob even his friend's mom, use girls as sex toys and kill anyone for money. But he is also the one who would never give up his friends. In short, he is a rowdy but he is a human too.
The portrayal of its people is something to admire about this film. They are the ones who would steal goods from shops during a riot situation. These are people that most of us (who consider ourselves to be more civilised) look low but the writer-director shows something we have to learn from them. They will do anything for a friend,. they can love someone unconditionally, they don't boycott a friend after he changed his gender, they don't hesitate to accommodate an outsider who has been rendered homeless, their fathers care for the love of their daughters rather than what the society would think and there are much more.,
Sadly these positives that warrant this much of detailing would have made the right impact with a better story and a crisper narration. The film's story has nothing new to offer and the screenplay is dragging and lengthy. Many scenes lack purpose or they are abruptly cut short before we could decipher its purpose. There are logical flaws, lip sync issues and all other symptoms of amateurish film making. These make 'Aakkam' a half-baked product with good intentions.
Shathish Raavan perfectly fits into the role with apt looks, body language and and expressions. Delna Davis looks pretty and gives a convincing portrayal. The actors who have played the supporting characters have done justice to their casting.
Srikanth Deva's songs are just passable while BGM is apt and notable in certain places. G.A.Siva Sundar's cinematography takes us to the real locations filled with the stench of Cooum river and pile up of garbage. LVK Doss's Editing fails to give seamless cuts and make the film crisper. Art director deserves a pat on the back for realistic locations and set designs.
Verdict: 'Aakkam' deserves to be noticed for its realistic portrayal of its landscape, lifestyle and characters but it is letdown by usual story, dragging screenplay and poor making.
