Silanerangalil

Cast: Vincent Asokan, Navya Nair, Vineeth, Sriman, Raghuvaran, Ramesh Khanna
Language: Tamil
Banner: New Light Productions
Director: Jayaraj
Producer: New Light Productions
Camera: Rajvel
Lyrics: Vairamuthu
Music: SrikanthDeva
Year: 2008

Silanerangalil, the award winning Malayalam director Jayaraj’s first foray into Tamil promises much, but ends up as a mumbo-jumbo reincarnation film etched out from Subhash Ghai’s Karz and Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om!

There are far too many loop holes in the plot, like the heroine suffering from amnesia suddenly pops out from nowhere, she reveals her last birth the moment she is hypnotized, the motive of the villain to kill the heroine who is reincarnated is not convincing. Still the film is slightly different and provides some entertainment in these hard days.

Jayaraj has made it like a murder mystery against the backdrop of a reincarnation theme. A girl (Navya Nair) suffering from amnesia is rescued and brought to a Christian missionary home Arogyaniketan in Udayagiri, a beautiful hill station. She is being treated by Jo (Vincent Asokhan), an alternative healer, who names her Anjali and tries his best to discover her past and advertises in a newspaper. Soon Gopalakrishnan (Raghuvaran) a noted clinical psychiatrist and hypnotic specialist arrive to find out the truth lurking inside Anjali.

Once Anjali is hypnotized, she spills out the beans. She was Thamarai (Navya Nair) a beautiful girl married to a very rich man Chidambaram (Vincent Asokan), who was madly in love with her till he suspected her of having an affair with his best friend Madhavan (Vineeth), the noted playback singer of the 60’s, and murders her. The hypnotist also discovers that Chidambaram who was hanged for a crime he had not committed has also taken rebirth as Jo, and is now trying to find out the real killer of Thamarai! All this leads to further twists and a stunning climax where the protector turns hunter.

The technique Jayaraj has used is the Manoj Night Shyamalan technique of going back and forth from the 60’s to present day. The story is simple a murder takes place in the 60’s in one birth, but is solved only in the second birth, inspired from OSO and other films on reincarnation. What holds the film together is the retro feel of the music of Srikanth Deva, and realistic lyrics of Vairamuthu with yester year singer P.Susheela’s Pottu Vaitha…, being the pick of the lot and picturised beautifully by the director to give that all important 60’s feel to it.

Vincent Asokan graduates with flying colours from villain to hero and Tamil cinema has a handsome hunk who can also emote. Navya Nair is a good actress but lacks oomph to carry off the show. Raghuvaran is getting stereotyped, all the same holds the climax together. The big plus point is the camera work of Rajavel which is eye catching, while Sreekar Prasad could have made it crisper, as the first half lags.

On the whole Silanerangalil is nothing to scream about. At the same time if you have some time to kill, it's worth a look.

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