Asuran - A Draggy Revenge Tale
Director: Vetri Maaran
Cast: Dhanush, Manju Warrier, Pasupathy
Duration: 2hr 19min
Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video
I had heard great things about the filmmaker Vetri Maaran and so I watched his accessible film on Prime Video "Asuran" which signifies "the devil."
This film talks about class warfare and we're introduced to the two families of two contrasting classes. The rich and the poor to simplify it. But the way it starts was interesting.
We see Siva Swami (played by Dhanush) and his son silently walking within water and we cut to the cops entering the house of a rich man to find out that he had just been killed.
We don't know these characters (yet) and that makes us question who they are and where they the ones who had killed the rich man. Once Siva and his son rest by a large rock, Siva narrates to us how they had gotten at this point.
This form of non-linear storytelling always interests me and it works here very well as it is used to build tension and suspense which escalates the conflict.
We're introduced to Siva Swami's entire family and their status in society. The wife is played brilliantly by Manju Warrier and there's also the Uncle and two sons, and of course, the father Siva Swami.
The elder son Velmurugan is established as a no-nonsense, brutish, "angry young man" who gets headfirst into fights without giving it a second thought, and that leads to his eventual downfall.
I loved the way Vetri Maaran directed the action where the camera is somewhat shaky yet manages to maintain it's focus on the characters to show what was happening on screen, providing this raw and handheld nature to the fight.
We see the power of the rich family and how greedy they are. But that was a problem of mine. They're just portrayed as greedy, and evil, and power hungry. But that's too much of a black and white interpretation.
Parasite portrays the family of both classes as morally gray because Bong Joon Ho (director) shows the good and ugly sides of each and everyone, and leaves us to judge and experience what's being shown to us. Whereas here, the characters are shown in a sense which lets us know who to root for.
On humiliating the Vaddakuran (the rich man) as Velmurugan hit him with his sandal, he's brutally murdered as he gets stuck in a trap by being hanged and stabbed by spears at the same time.
And if that wasn't enough...
Siva and the rest of the family find their son's body lying in the fields without a head, naked, whose flesh was being eaten by dogs as flies roamed around.
It was obviously disgusting, but the main reason it made me feel extremely uncomfortable was because we see the whole of it. The body just stood there lifeless and still and we see the family crying over their boy's body, as the camera just stays there acting as a passive observer. The moment really hit me as the film tells us that it's not playing around and isn't afraid to get ugly.
It made me feel really mad and the film succeeded in that aspect as that was it's intention.
After years of grieving, the other son Chidambram assassinates Vaddakuran and the main plot of the film begins as the family is on the run from the men of the rich family hunting them down.
But this is where the film sort of loses me. I was taken aback the action scenes because the story felt real and gritty, but the action contained these slow motion shots where one man fights several men, while getting injured of course. But I enjoyed it so it wasn't a huge problem.
Where it does become a little problematic is a long flashback where we see how Siva since his younger years goes through injustice and trauma. Now I did really enjoy a lot of the scenes from the flashback as a man who Siva helped get a job grows greedy from the power he gains and becomes the antagonist. I felt extremely bad for Siva as his soon to be wife is burnt to a crisp due to all the warfare taking place and when Siva storms into the house of the "bad guys" and brutally slaughters everyone was satisfying to say the least because the violence displayed felt justified.
But it's too long for my liking and could've been cut down without losing it's overall impact.
By the end, I was somewhat exhausted as the whole film is just a series of revenge after revenge from both parties and that was a little uninventive.
As Siva went prison, he tells his son to beat the greedy landlords by getting an education. And that makes sense, but isn't as prominent over the course of the film.
My favorite line from the film was when Siva's brother-in-law says, "Yesterday he was only a boy, now he's a murderer."
To which Siva responds with, "That's the fate of every man in this family." which hits home as it refers to the cyclical nature of violence caused by class divide and how education can put a stop to it.
I really enjoyed this film and Dhanush's performance along with the rest of the cast was outstanding. But there were a few writing flaws which prevented this film from being truly great.
Thank You for Reading.
I hope you liked this blog review, please make sure to comment about your thoughts on the film, or on how I could possibly improve. Also follow my YouTube Channel "Detox with P-Talks Official" where I analyse movies and do other movie related content along with short films, etc.
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