Aaranyam

A tale of lovers who brave the darkness of the forest, and fight to keep their love alive.

From the time the opening credits roll, the film tries very hard to keep the audience hooked and fails miserably. The story revolves around a petty thief with a heart of gold, Aravinth (Ram). His modus operandi is to steal from people, spend as much as he wants, and give the remaining money back to whoever he stole it from in the first place. Confused? This is just the beginning. What sets apart this 'thief' and his gang is that no one has ever witnessed his crime - until one day, someone captures his act red-handed on a mobile phone and puts it up on Facebook. Naturally, the heroine, Divya (Neeraja) is the mystery photographer. Nursing a bruised ego, the hero decides to steal her mobile phone, which he believes is the source of all things evil and manages to (somewhat) successfully do so. However, a series of confusing, and more importantly, unnecessary circumstances later, Divya and Aravinth, but of course, fall in love. The villain in this seemingly twisted love story is Divya's overbearing father, police inspector Duraipandi (Shaji), who is against the very idea of romance, so much so, that he kills men who fall in love and send the women back to their homes. A practical Divya, therefore decides to call off their relationship, but the love that she has for Aravinth is beyond everything important - her life even - and, so, jumps to her death from a waterfall, which stands in the middle of the forest. Unable to bear her loss, the hero too jumps after her, and it is precisely at this point that one will question the existence of a plot in this film. Thankfully, there is an interval at this point for the audience to recover, if they haven't walked out already. What is even worse is the second half. Somehow the two survive the fall, (surprise, surprise), and spend some quality time together, free from the prying eyes of the overbearing inspector in the depths of the forest. This goes on for the second half of the movie, punctuated with inappropriate songs, insensible comedy tracks, and the beginnings of an action sequence - all of it, tying together in a confusing climax. The film was apparently shot in 60 days, and we can see why. With no script whatsoever, lack-luster performances from the cast, juvenile jokes​, music with absolutely no recall value, ​and really bad dialogues, you'd think this film had at least one saving grace to boast of. Sadly, there is none.