Aviyal (2016)

March 11, 2016 (IN) • Comedy, Crime, Thriller • 116m

Overview

Aviyal is a collection of four short films : A young man attracted to his aunt, a filmmaker chasing robbers who have stolen his short film, two friends going on a trip to deposit the ashes of their friend and a gangster narrating a story.

Directors

Lokesh Kanagaraj, Alphonse Puthren, Mohit Mehra, Shameer Sultan, Guru Smaran

Writers

Alphonse Puthren, Mohit Mehra, Lokesh Kanagaraj, Guru Smaran, Shameer Sultan, Roju

Top Billed

Nivin Pauly

Keywords

anthology short compilation

Where to watch

Check streaming options on TMDB

Top Billed Cast

Nivin Pauly

Eli

Bobby Simha

Gangster

Rajeev Pillai

Garudan

Arjunan Nandakumar

Amrutha Srinivasan

Deepak Paramesh

Roju

Jinu Joseph

Ramachandran Durairaj

Ranga

Sanjay

Crew

Selvakumar SK

Director of Photography

Lokesh Kanagaraj

Director

Karthik Subbaraj

Producer

Alphonse Puthren

Director

Mohit Mehra

Director

Shameer Sultan

Director

Guru Smaran

Director

Alphonse Puthren

Writer

Mohit Mehra

Writer

Lokesh Kanagaraj

Writer

Guru Smaran

Writer

Alphonse Puthren

Editor

Shameer Sultan

Writer

Boopathi Raj

Editor

Rajesh Murugesan

Original Music Composer

Anil Krishnan

Editor

Javed Riaz

Original Music Composer

Aju Vignesh

Sound Designer

Suriya Rajarajan

Director of Photography

Kugan Palani

Director of Photography

Philomin Raj

Editor

Shammeer Sultan

Original Music Composer

Vishal Chandrasekhar

Original Music Composer

Prasanna GK

Editor

Nikhil Murugan

Public Relations

Anend C Chandran

Director of Photography

Mathan Gunadeva

Director of Photography

Roju

Writer

Reviews

timesofindia

⭐ 7/10

March 18, 2016

How do you introduce an incestuous romantic comedy, an action thriller with a twist, a ghost comedy, and a tale within a tale? Aviyal answers it with Shameer Sultan's wacky prelude that has an actor talking. It is only when it ends that we realise that he has been preparing us for what is to follow.

Sruthi Bedam has a storyline that if attempted in a mainstream film today will have one organisation or the other protesting. A young man is attracted to the guest who has come to his home. She is a looker and is only a year older to him, though there is a hitch — she is his chithi (aunt)! Director Mohit Mehra treats this Balachander-ish plot as a comedy. There is a friend character, who advices the hero how wooing the woman is wrong even as he subtly eggs on the smitten guy with voyeuristic delight. The way Mehra keeps us guessing about the motives of woman adds to the suspense.

In Lokesh Kanakaraj's Kalam, a filmmaker and his friends go after a pickpocket and his cronies, who have stolen from them a CD and pen drive containing their short film. What starts off as a low-key thriller turns into an action film (with the action being choreographed against an Aiyappa song!). There is a twist as well, and it is pulled off commendably.

Two friends go on a trip to Rameswaram with the ashes of their dead friend. That is the premise of Kanneer Anjali, which is somewhat a rambling film, with hot-or-miss humour. The tale takes a turn when the duo (or, should we say trio?) gets acquainted with a drug smuggler en route, but Guru Smaran's film lacks the tautness of the other films. The acting, too, feels amateurish.

But the anthology ends on a high with Alphonse Putharen's Eli, which seems to have been made prior to his Neram days. Bobby Simhaa and Nivin Pauly play the leads here as well, and even their appearances are similar to what was in that film. A gangster narrates a story and we get the actions that happen in both these stories, interrupted often by the noise from a (unseen) couple's lovemaking. It is visually splendid and shows why Putharen has come to be one of the most exciting filmmakers today.

Plot-wise, the shorts in Aviyal are streets ahead of those that formed the first edition, Bench Talkies. They are daring, wacky and fresh. A couple of these films even manage to transcend the made-for-TV visual style of shorts. It will be interesting to see what Karthik Subbaraj (who is one the project's backers) and co serve us next.

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Aviyal (2016)

Lokesh Kanagaraj, Alphonse Puthren, Mohit Mehra, Shameer Sultan, Guru Smaran

Alphonse Puthren, Mohit Mehra, Lokesh Kanagaraj, Guru Smaran, Shameer Sultan, Roju

Where to watch

Top Billed Cast

Crew

Reviews

timesofindia

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Status

Original Language

Budget

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