Raayan

It all starts with anticipation. Dhanush sets the tone, the plot, the characters, and the setting with ease; he's learnt from the best. Plus, nobody needs to tell him how to act, right? Well, yeah, right, but the film doesn't only start with anticipation, it ends with it. An eager audience shuffling in, with a tired one shuffling out. Raayan definitely starts strong, with powerful cinematography, as cinematographer Om Prakash shines with a gritty and dark take on Northern Chennai. While it is a plot point that has been done before, we don't feel as though it's a copy, simply a shade of a rehashed story.

Starting with the performances, they're beyond criticism. Dushara Vijayan stars in a rural dialect, playing a character similar to hers in Saarpatta. Sundeep Kishan, Kalidas, and Aparna Balamurali - I have no qualms, the young men never fail to amaze, and as for Balamurali, she's been the brightest of sparks in every film, regardless of how dull the script can tend to be. In the case of Dhanush, playing a tight lipped role similar to that of which we've seen in Nobody, he portrays everything flawlessly. So, if they can all act well, and of course, the script isn't torturous, then we're all good right? Wrong. The lack of villainy, and the resounding dull atmosphere, almost repeated like a broken radio, leaves the audience craving more - me especially. At times, I remember checking my watch in anticipation of dinner, as frankly, that was more exciting than watching Dhanush and crew walking down an alleyway to an unimpressive A. R. Rahman score for the umpteenth time.

Perhaps over-criticism is the bane of this film's existence, but perhaps Dhanush has released something unworthy of a second-time watch - rare for his stellar filmography. While drab, it's definitely worth a watch (if, of course, we lower our expectations to the ground). To sum up, the film holds its ground, barely, but surely. It suffers from a stellar cast and crew attempting to make the most out of a lacklustre script.

I'd recommend watching this film with an open mind, then forming your negative opinions afterwards, as I have, since you'll surely have many.

Dhanush has always been one of Tamil cinema's most consistent actors in terms of the quality of projects he accepts. So when he makes his directorial debut, one surely must be excited to see what his storytelling vision really is. It's not very surprising that he tries to model his debut along the lines of some of his most acclaimed work as an actor (think "Asuran" or "Vada Chennai"), and for the most part, he has a story that's good enough to get the conversation started.

"Raayan" is a movie about an orphaned family of siblings fending for themselves in a city infested with gang violence and one where the volatile instability of their lives are highlighted. It has all the markings of a good 'Vetri Maaran-esque' movie, and it promisingly starts off in that regard too. Right until the movie's interval block, it has its sights set on where it would want to end up, and does a great job keeping the audience interested and invested in the movie and its characters.

For as well as it started, it's the movie's second half that disappoints massively, as it just comes across as if the movie is stuck not knowing where to go from here. It has very few points of interest from thereon, and the story beats just don't seem to work. The movie drags and drags to the point where you're now just waiting for it to end. The second half has nothing to offer and that stance is insulted further by the time we get to the movie's climax, which seems to be entirely unaware of the mockery it's making of the entire movie and its premise. It's disappointing especially, considering how promising the movie looked during its first half.

Most of the mistakes in this movie comes from bad flow and writing. It had the foundation to succeed, but didn't have the experience to build off that, and that is ideally where Dhanush would have to improve should he want to continue down this particular path of storytelling. And as for whether this movie is worth checking out in cinemas, no, it's not, don't bother.

While in this year (2024) no quality films were released.

Tamil cinema had seen numerous gangster making movies or like normal person to being a gangster.

+ve : A. R. Rahaman Music, Dhanush performance, screenplay, -ve: Dhanush doesn't where is needs to go in the second half, SJ suryah is not a right person

Like the Audience are hungry searching for Briyani,Fried Rice, Full non-veg meals finally settled for chapathi..

We have seen many movies like this Bhagavathi, Thirupathichi, Thotti jaya of charters revolving around the families. Same as that on a different angle.

One time watchable.. It would be good experience on theaters not on OTT.

RATED 6/10 Language: Tamil Source: nil

The cast, production and all technical aspects are perfect. But failed to connect the character and emotion to audience with the writings. The sentiment sequences, action blocks are crafted very well, but as a WHOLE movie it failed miserably.

Looks like all characters are in confused state in second half. There are lot of decisions taken by character just to move the story towards climax, in real/cinematic life no one will do such actions/decisions.

Compared to this second half, the first half was better. Even the great interval block failed to give goosebumps, as that block is so illogical.

Failed to impress, even if you lower your expectations.

Good attempts but failed to touch.

Honestly it was getting in to the life but then slipped again.

No matter what, its always a pleasant experience to watch Dhanush's acting.

The side role guys were good enough but I think the story lacked what required to be a punch in the stomach it was kinda like a facepalm. But I didn't find anything that will make me want to whistle at any scene for the movie. But again there were no place where I felt bored too much to sleep. It was kinda same but it made me feel a bit different. Different enough to watch it thoroughly.

Its about struggle of an elder sibling to be a family man and support and love his family but fate had a different plan and they got stumbled in a clash between 2 rival gangster group. The movie is all about how a brother attempt to save his sister.