Anbarivu Review - A Typical Family Drama
The film opens with the bad guy Pasupathi (Vidaarth, relishing this negative role) narrating how he separated his friend prakasam (Saikumar, cast against type as a good guy) and his fiancee lakshmi (Asha Sharath, dignified), the daughter of Muniyandi (Napoleon, who appears to be able to lighten this problematic personality), the hot-headed Muniyandi big shot in Aras Pasupathi, Muniyandi's personal assistant, had hoped for a political ticket from the big man, but he was turned down since he is from the nearby village of Aandiyapuram, which is looked down upon by the Arasapuram people because they come from a less fortunate background.
The explanation is undoubtedly caste, although the film is unwilling to use the C-word. Instead, it uses euphemisms to skirt around the topic. A graphic at the conclusion shows coconut shells being replaced by plastic cups in the tea business. Muniyandi may be casteist and irritable, but the film tries hard to persuade us that he has a golden heart and is willing to change for his daughter's sake. In fact, it is for this reason that he accepts prakasam, an Aandiyapuram native, as his son-in-law.
Due to the success of Pasupathi's plot, prakasam has now relocated to canada with one of his twin boys, Arivu (Hiphop Tamizha Adhi, in his customary laid-back mode), who was only a baby at the time. So, under the care of Muniyandi and lakshmi, the other twin, Anbu (again, Hip-hop Tamizha Adhi, trying hard to be a noisy and colorful villager), grows up to be a ruffian-like character. However, when Arivu discovers a family in Madurai, he chooses to return and reconcile the family. Can Arivu survive with Pasupathi, who is now a successful politician, still pursuing his schemes?
Anbarivu, a bloated, formulaic picture, takes a long time to pull us into its tale. The director devotes a significant amount of time to hackneyed sequences and bland characters. There is an obligatory romantic interest for each of the brothers (Kashmira Pardeshi and Shivani Rajashekar); a minor villain character (Arjai); and a character (Sharath Ravi) who solely exists to inform us of Pasupathi's agenda. The story unfolds in a predictable manner, intercutting between Anbu's life in Arasapuram and Arivu's life in Canada. Even Arivu's discovery of his indian family is done in a childish manner. We expect the second half to be all about how he gets busted and his retaliation against pasupathi once the switch is made. As we approach this point by the interval point itself, Aswin Raam shocks us a little.
As a result, the second half is a slight step forward from the first, with the relationship turmoil between Anbu, Arivu, their parents, and their grandfather taking center stage. The sequences in which Anbu and Arivu reconcile with prakasam and lakshmi are touching, and the spouse and wife's reunion scene works even better, harkening back to an earlier scene. It also helps that the casting is spot-on, with performers who genuinely care about their roles. But, after showing Muniyandi the folly of his actions, the movie then goes on to laud him in the next scene, removing some of the warmth it had managed to instil in us for a while.