Anbarivu Movie Rating: 3.5/5
Hiphop Tamizha Adhi tries his best in this middling entertainer
The story of Anbarivu is as old as the hills. Two twin brothers get separated soon after their birth due to a certain reason. While the elder son stays with his mother and grandfather in their village in Madurai the younger son goes with his father and lives in Canada. There have been numerous films released in several Indian languages with the above mentioned plot as its story.
Director Aswin Raam has brought a few twists and turns to the seemingly predictable story which are partially effective. The conflict begins when the younger sibling Arivu (Hiphop Tamizha Adhi) who lives with his father Prakasam (Saikumar) goes to his hometown after 25 years to meet his elder brother Anbu (Adhi in dual roles) mother Lakshmi (Asha Sharath) and grandfather Muniyandi (Napolean) who is a big shot in the village.But Arivu soon realizes that he has various hurdles to face to lead a happy life with his estranged family members. Little did he know that his relatives in the village do not give a hoot about him and his father. Upon recognizing this he disguises himself as Anbu and starts behaving like his brother to spend quality time with them. Anbu on the other hand is kidnapped by his father and is brought to Canada when the former was unconscious.
https://youtu.be/4IBzVr8jCDI
Don’t bother to ask how the latter managed to do it. He is a multi-millionaire and quite an influential person and hence we are supposed to turn a blind eye to those unconvincing portions. Meanwhile Pasupathy (Vidaarth) a local politician keeps spoiling the brothers’ plan by creating rifts between their family and another prominent family in the village. By now you will have guessed how the brothers unite their family members.We get the feeling of deja vu while watching Anbarivu as it is a hotchpotch of several “family dramas” we have seen over the years. Billed as a family entertainer it looks like the makers were desperate on ticking all the boxes which one expects from a so-called Tamil family drama estranged family caste pride family honour sickle-wielding men mandatory female romantic interests and so on.
However the lack of novelty is evident in most of the sequences. A few scenes entertain even though we have seen similar moments earlier. The performance of Adhi in dual roles is convincing to a certain extent. Some of the scenes involving his intro sequence and a few others seem to have executed so as to make him the next star material. However the film has everything required for an engaging commercial pot boiler except for a new story.
Saikumar and Asha Sharath do justice to their roles while Napolean’s role of a grandfather who relies on outdated ideologies is a cakewalk for the veteran actor. Vidaarth in the role of a shrewd and opportunistic politician too scores in his scenes. But with a better screenplay his character could have made even more meatier.
The female leads do not have much to do except playing as the romantic interests for the dual roles essayed by Adhi. Dheena Sharath Ravi Marimuthu and Arjai make their presence felt in the scenes they appear. Madhesh Manickam’s cinematography is adequate but the makers could have worked on its long duration. A twist in the climax is partly engaging but the scenes that follow are predictable and preachy.
Verdict: The movie will be an entertaining fare for those who don’t mind watching the run-of-the-mill family dramas that are set against a village backdrop.
