Raayan is Dhanush’s second directorial venture, and that fact is made very very obvious throughout the film. It is a very average movie in Tamil cinema, that has a few entertaining scenes and music. That is all.
As an overview, nice premise. The first half was enjoyable and subtle. But then the second half wanders and drags. There are characters that seem promising in the first half that just fall flat on the second. A few things especially were very noteworthy and I want to mention them here.
Firstly, how much the movie borrows from other movies, especially other Dhanush movies. ‘Dhanush in the middle of a gang-war’ should be a sub-genre in Tamil cinema by this point, and I mean it in a good way. But this movie is a very very average instalment in that genre (This was the absolute worst, in case you are curious). The character of Dhanush, the titular ‘Raayan’ is exactly Dhanush from Asuran. He has the same personality, same look in his eyes and the same way of talking, even. A calm, depressed but dangerous man with a history.
Slight spoilers from here on
The scene where Dhanush gets stabbed has to remind you of the Raajan murder scene from Vadachennai (The best in the ‘Dhanush in the middle of a gang-war’ genre, do I have to even say) - “I’m sorry anna, if I don’t kill you, you will kill me”. And the three brothers and the sister were very reminiscent of the siblings from the godfather - right down to the hot headed guy having an affair.
But all of this falls short in front of the biggest blunder this movie makes. I do not understand how a veteran like Dhanush, who regularly works with scriptwriting giants like Vetrimaaran, can make such a blunder. The two gang leaders Raayan is stuck between are Durai and Sethu. In the first half, it is made clear that Durai is a more powerful and much more dangerous gangster than Sethu. There is a deliberate scene where Durai insults and treats Sethu like a child. And then, we see Danush take out the entirety of Durai’s gang and Durai himself in almost 3 minutes of screen time like it’s child’s play. Then Dhanush spends the rest of the movie getting his life beat out of him and his family by Sethu - who is supposed to be a much lesser threat than Durai. This is like the Avengers, but they defeat Thanos in the first part and in the next three, they are fighting Doctor Octopus. It doesn’t make sense.
And the characters who we think would be interesting turn out very vague and diluted, for example Prakash Raj as the cop. We hear a hint of his backstory which is then thrown to the air.
Overall, a very movie that is neither good enough to be appreciated, nor horrible enough to rant about.
Raayan - Unremarkable.
Mozhi, July 2024
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