Perhaps not. Raju Sundaram, the man who has earned his spurs as a choreographer, has directed a movie with comedy one-liners, sans a gripping story, convincing screenplay and more importantly, logic.
The Ajith starrer, which is kind of okay till interval becomes a damp squib in the second half and totally fizzles out with an incomplete climax, making one wonder whether the film has really reached its end.
Ajith, who looks fresh after the success of Billa, mocks himself in many scenes (as he has to play a student despite looking over the hill).
Though it works initially, it becomes an overdose at one point, as either Ajith or those surrounding him make fun of his looks as a ’student’ all the time.
Coming to the story, Shiva (Ajith), a police officer hailed as ‘one man army’ by his superior is entrusted with a task of protecting Priya (Piyaa), a student at a college in Ooty, in order to trace her father Ram Prasad (Devan), a former sidekick of an international don John Chinnappa (Suman).
Shiva joins the college as a student. Though the students are not ready to mingle with him at first, they later accept him as their leader.
They call him Thala the unmistakable monicker to please Ajith fans) and it is in the college where Shiva finds his foster brother Narein (Navdeep).
And now, he has two jobs to complete- one is to zero in on John Chinnappa through Ram Prasad, and the other is to unite his family.
How he emerges triumphant with the moral support of Mallika (Nayantara), a chemistry professor is what Aegan is all about.
These days, most actors don’t have the courage to go against what their core audience is generally deemed to expect. The fans are suspected to expect the usual package of fun and frolic.
Ajith panders to this constituency, and the film for most part moves on a formulaic pattern. It is high time he took care in selecting scripts.
Nayantara’s introduction is quite fascinating. But the hype created about her doesn’t sustain for long. The character hasn’t been developed well.
Suman, Nasser, Suhashini- all seasoned actors understand their roles well and present a neat performance. Navdeep and Piyaa- the young pair — is promising while Jayaram, as the college principal evokes laughter.
Yuvanshankar Raja’s songs are average while his background score hears well. Arjun Jena’s camerawork is dull even as Anuvardhan’s costumes for Ajith remind you of Billa in many places.
The film is a remake of Mein Hoon Na, a Hindi movie which itself was hardly sufferable. Raju Sundaram’s adaptation confirms that different language and cast can’t change its core.
