Anbarivu Review: An emotionally flat, uninspiring action drama

Cast: Hiphop Tamizha Aadhi, Napoleon, Vidharth, Sai Kumar, Asha Sharath
Music: Hiphop Tamizha
Direction: Ashwin Raam

Debutant Ashwin Raam’s Anbarivu starts from the antagonist’s point of view. Pasaupathy (well played by Vidharth) narrates how cunningly he separated his friend Prakasam (Sai Kumar) from his wife and one of his twin son. This is also leads to two villages getting further separated which was already separated based on caste. The separated twins, grow up in different scenarios and later come together to join the family. This is a famous plotline of 1990s Tamil cinema (with films like Poove Unakkaga, Murai Maaman).

The separated twins are Anbu and Arivu (played by Hiphop Aadhi). Anbu grows up with his mother and grandfather in Madurai. He is aggressive as his grandfather. He grows up with hate towards his father and his twin brother. Whereas Arivu grows up with his father in Canada without any knowledge about his mother or his twin. The film’s screenplay is set to a tried and tested template. But the problem is the writing is so uninspiring.

Let’s take the scene of Arivu learning about his mother and his twin. It’s a major plot point in the film. He learns about them in a Google search (am not questioning the logic). The film can’t get uninspiring after this. The action scenes too are uninspiring. At least some good imaginative action scenes could’ve made the film interesting. The Telugu film ‘Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo’ is an example for that. With some amazing action sequences, a similar plot became interesting.

The film is also emotionally flat. With many characters and equally many conflicts, the emotions are superficial. The climax smart twist is the only thing that worked for me and made this film a passable watch.

Verdict: An emotionally flat, uninspiring action drama