JOIN USComedies are always suspect. They can either go over the top. Or are blase hitting below the belt. Director Bala, having carved a niche for himself tries his hand at comedy with Avan Ivan. Treating the new genre with trademark deftness, he does succeed living up to the hype.
However, Avan Ivan does not triumph as discerning cinema. With no great shakes of a story, it falters due to sloppy screenplay, a dreary, dragging second half and cliched content.
Avan’s pull power lies in its principal protagonists Aarya playing a squint-eyed petty pilferer Kumbiduren Saamy and Vishal as transgender Walter Vannangamudi given to village vaudeville. The two step-siblings have a whale of time thieving. Their foul-mouthed mother and light-hearted landord complete the big picture. What, however, turns spoilsport, are subplots wherein the brothers help landord Jameen avenge his insult by the forest ranger and also take on the cattle rustler who murders him.
Beginning on a sing-song note, the film peters out into a predictable end. Bearing the Bala stamp who cleverly blends commerce with off-beat themes, bringing unsung characters to fore, Avan Ivan brings the simplicity of rural life to fore, and passes muster where acting honours are even, luscious landscape cinematography and pastoral dialogues pep up proceedings.