Aegan Review


Starring: Ajith, Nayantara, Navadeep, Suhasini Mani ratnam, Jayaram, Suman, Nasser, M.S.Bhaskar, Sriman
Direction: Raju Sundaram
Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja
Production: Ayngaran International
We don’t really know if Raju Sundaram intended his directorial debut to be funny, but it seriously is. I mean if you can’t laugh at a villain with a funny-as-hell-wig uttering claptraps with the seriousness of a chemistry professor to firangs and the chemistry professor who dresses with the élan of a stripper and sheds her clothes at the drop of a hat, you probably are born without any sense of humor. And it’s not all that. Despite the self-realization of his flourishing paunch, Ajith quashes the beefy looking bad-men and handles mean machines single handedly, matrix style - all to earn the repute of a tough-police officer who is notorious for his bad-temper.
Aegan is inspired from Main Hoon Na and the Malayalam flick Olympian Antony Aadam and doesn’t definitely derive anything from the Hollywood flick Back to School, as claimed.
Ajith is Raju Sundaram’s version of an encounter specialist, whose prowess is demonstrated with a shoot-and-deliver-a-punch-before-you-kill scene in Hong Kong. He’s called back by his superior, who is also his father, to trace a criminal’s aide (Devan) who turned into a police approver and later went into hiding fearing for his life after experiencing the cops’ inability to protect him. Now when the police intelligence discovers that Devan’s daughter studies in a college in Ooty, they come up with a clever idea of sending Ajith to the college as a student to find the whereabouts of Devan from his daughter. Clever, indeed!
With that saggy little plot and actors who try to flaunt their acting skills with whatever little they can, Aegan proves to be a mind-numbing fare with the only sigh of relief coming between the intervals – the songs, of course.
Nayanthara pouts sexily throughout, is exposed liberally albeit wrapped in a sari and an excuse for a blouse, and wears dangerously revealing tank tops and tiger print minis during songs. Well, after all, she is (over)paid for it but she seems to be in need of some serious career advice if she chooses to survive here.
What makes an actor like Jeyaram to take up a disgraceful role, as that of a college principal, who plots with his attendant to abet Ajith in his noble mission and thinks the explosive chemistry teacher is born to please the protagonist, is a mystery. Same applies to Nasser and Suhasini. Piya shows some potential, but then what is the point?
Yuvan’s background score ebbs and flows, but the songs are largely passé. Ajith has indeed tried the best of his dancing skills in the Freedom song. His charm is also irresistible, but sadly lost in the dud effort.
If the movie made you feel like you were watching Raju Sundaram’s goofed-up performance in the movie Jeans, it’s not entirely your fault. He is after all the director and has influenced the entire cast’s dialogue delivery and body language reducing them to laughing-stocks.
And if that’s not enough, the end credit states ‘Aegan’s mission continues’. Now, we only wish Raju is not planning for a sequel or some such thing.
You must thank the cinematographer Vijay Milton and the costume designer for maintaining the subtle tone of the movie without which you would come out of the movie hall with a splitting headache.

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