Story: Veerayya(Vikram) is the leader of the down trodden forest tribes. He kidnaps Raagini(Aishwarya Rai), the wife of Dev(Prithviraj) who is the SP of Ananthapur district. Raagini feels insulted to his act and tries to commit suicide by jumping from the top of the hill into waterfalls. However, she is saved by Veerayya. Afterwards, her husband starts searching for Veerayya, by taking the help of his battalion as well as sniffer dogs etc. The process of hide and seek goes on. Meanwhile, in a small flash back, Raagini comes to know that Veerayya's sister Vennala(Priyamani) is brutally exploited and raped by the police. Unable to bear the insult, she commits suicide. Having known this matter, Raagini develops sympathy on Veerayya. Meanwhile, Veerayya's younger brother Chakri(Munna) is also killed by Dev. After a couple of scenes the story reaches to its climax. Again there are many twists in climax episode. Can Dev meet his wife again? What happens to Veerayya? Watch all these on big screen.

Artists Performance:

Vikram: With this movie Vikram gets the credit of having acted under two top technical Directors of South India. They are Shankar(Aparichithudu) and Maniratnam(Villain). His acting skills are really outstanding. All the scenes in the combination of Aishwarya and acting at god's statue are marvelous. He reminds us Kamal Hasan in many scenes.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan: She is the major asset of the movie. Starting from the first scene, where she tries to commit suicide for her husband, to the climax scene where she tries to kill herself to protect Veerayya due to hidden love which is generated on him was pretty well performed by Aishwarya. The scenes which witnessed her close association of Prithviraj, left a big surprise to the audience, as they thought that a married lady could not act in those kind of scenes. Her internal love on Veerayya, which is shown through her blue eyes, is amazing.

Prithviraj: Another versatile hero of Kollywood, Prithviraj has shown clean and decent performance in his role. His job is adequate.

Others: Karthik and Prabhu were given good roles. Of course, both of them acted in Maniratnam's old movies.

Technical Department;

Cinematography: Cinematography by Santhosh Sivan is fantastic. He definitely receives awards for his excellent creative work. The waterfalls, mountains, forest area and nice covering of mist and water vapors were well shot by him. Most of the work was done when showers of rain are drizzling. Sometimes, one can remember the movie "Avatar" in some of the visual effects and scenes as Avatar was also shot in a different forest backdrop.

Music: A.R. Rehman as usually made good score in producing background music. The main reason for the success of his background music for any movie is that of he mixes the music nodes of different countries appropriately wherever necessary. As far as the songs are concerned, only few songs are good. "Kulla bodichey" song's picturization is extremely well. Priyamani's and Aish-Prithviraj's songs are good. Others are not worth mentioned.

Story, Screenplay and Direction: Though Maniratnam not officially declared that this movie's story line was similar to that of "Ramayana", wide range of publicity has been spread on this matter. When audience watched the portrayal of the role of Aish, they felt shocked that she developed sympathy as well as internal love on Raavan character. In the climax scenes she gives her consent to stay with him. What does it sense? Doesn't it send wrong signals to the people who believe in religion rituals? Though he might be a genius and intelligent director he should possess minimum moral values. Meanwhile, screen play and direction are okay. Climax twists are good. First half of the movie is okay, while the second half is a letdown. Again climax is appealing.

Pros:

1. Cinematography
2. Background music
3. Aishwarya Rai's glamour and performance.
4. Vikram's action

Cons:

1. No proper story.
2. Some scenes are too boring.
3. Songs are not up to the mark.
4. No comedy.

Bottom-Line: May be owned by a few multiplexes audience.

Rating: 2.5/5