Ayalaan movie review: It’s finally time for Chennai to mark its first cinematic alien visit, but this is no ET

Ayalaan movie review: It’s finally time for Chennai to mark its first cinematic alien visit, but this is no ET

Director: R. Ravi Kumar

Cast: Sivkarthikeyan, Yogi Babu, Rakul Preet

Yes, that is exactly what I said. If you think Ayalaan is going to give you fond memories like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, directed by Steven Spielberg, then you going to be sorely disappointed. Yes, there are references to the iconic Hollywood film in this Sivakarthikeyan starrer directed by R. Ravi Kumar, but it just doesn’t hit the right spot for me as an adult. From the very beginning, it became clear that the visual effects were not too bad, especially the portrayal of Tattoo, the alien. However, the plotline and humor track in the film were juvenile to be enjoyed.

Sure, there is a high chance that kids would love this film. They could also go one to add this to their pop culture references — especially some of the banter between Sivakarthikeyan and Yogi Babu’s characters in Ayalaan. However, would it incite a nostalgia similar to what the 90s kids feel when it comes to films such as E.T.? I doubt it.

Ayalaan explores the theme of environmental conservation, among other things on a surface level. The more minutes pass by, the more it feels like the director was working his way through a list, with check boxes to mark done. It definitely did not come together as cohesively as I had hoped for. What I did expect was an all-out comedy, with little to no melodrama in the film. This kind of comedy is nothing new for the film’s lead actor Sivakarthikeyan, who has a brilliant sense of humor. However, very little of this angle was present in the film.

If I were to be honest, the only scene where I truly had a good laugh is when Tattoo, the alien, ends up forgetting key events. Or whatever is considered amnesia among his people. The back and forth, the edge in their laughter as if they are close to losing their sense of reasoning, is nothing but comical. This stretch is how I expected the humor to be throughout the film.

There are bits and pieces that I chuckled at as well. For instance, Siva’s character Tamizh, asks Tattoo why aliens suddenly took interest in India this time instead of the US. However, such lighthearted comments were made off-handedly and the film did not decide to not take itself too seriously. The trailer promised a self-aware Tamizh alien movie. What I watched instead was a hodge-podge of popular extra terrestrial movie with less violence.

One of the biggest things that I had a problem with is Isha Koppikar’s role. At best, it is least memorable. At worst, I would like to know what the team was thinking when they developed her role. There is no arc here to explain her fierce companionship of the villain. She has robot friends who can fight for her, and growls with frustration when she doesn’t get her way in a fight. Unfortunately, none of this looks attractive on screen. Even the stunt sequences with the alien and Tamizh ended up looking comical instead of fierce. Was this intentional?

You see, the more I watched the film, the more I believed that this was just the perfect film for children to obsess on. There is a baby elephant in the very first scene, followed by which there is an alien. However, that is as far as I can go with Ayalaan. On a side note, Rakul Preet’s character is just present in the film to motivate the lead male character. This character has no personality or depth, and the same is the case for Tamizh’s mother played by Bhanupriya. So Ayalaan is definitely failing the Bechdel Test!

Rating: 1.5 (out of 5 stars)

Ayalaan is playing in cinemas

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with a special focus on identity and gender politics.

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