The film going fraternity is familiar with how heroes, heroines and villains in cinema behave. The formula has been so much dinned into. And our filmmakers in general revel in clichés. But when a character in cinema doesn’t act as you expect him to, it intrigues the viewer and naturally increases the interest element. Like the faithful servant turns truant when you least expect it. That’s what happens in ‘Ambasamudiram Ambani’ (U), a reasonably well-crafted flick that has a pertinent message or two weaved into an engrossing storyline.
Aware of both his strengths and limitations, Karunas dons a role that suits him to a T in ‘Ambasamudiram Ambani’ (‘AA’) and reiterates the fact that as a performer he can transcend comedy. Karunas’ choice of roles exemplifies his acumen. He knows that his attempts at a larger than life image could make matters ludicrous and plumps for characters that are more true-to-life -- like the protagonist in ‘AA’ who dreams of making it big as a businessman. Circumstances drive the orphaned school goer, Dandapani, to the city and beginning life as a newspaper delivery boy he continues to chase his dream.
No regular hero allows himself to be beaten up and robbed by his own Man Friday and kicked about by the villain. Again, the soft streak beneath Kotta Srinivasa Rao’s veneer of villainy is something you generally don’t come across in our films, where the anti is a complete scallywag and the hero, an embodiment of benevolence! Realism is at the core of many a twist in ‘AA. And even the expected happens when you least expect it. In the dance sequences, very intelligently, the focus is both on Karunas and the rest of the group in equal measure.
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Writer-director P. Ramnath, who wields the megaphone for the first time, shows promise. Ramnath’s dialogue in ‘Dindigul Sarathy’ was appealing enough and the same in ‘AA’ is at once humorous and thought-provoking, and hence thoroughly enjoyable.
Despite the slight digression in the story mid-way through the film, screenplay sees to it that the story sags nowhere. Certain sequences have been included only to mislead the viewer — the murder, for instance.
As a composer Karunas serves an appealing melody -- ‘Sorru Vechaen.’
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As ‘AA’ has enough pluses to its credit you could afford to ignore the unwarranted interposition, viz., the Rahasiya number. Navneet Kaur, the new heroine, is expressive and appealing in her own way. Livingston’s role is a caricature which tickles the funny bone, but T.P. Gajendran’s attempts at being comical fall flat. He did it in ‘Dindigul Sarathy’ and he achieves it again in ‘Ambasamudiram Ambani.’