Evano Oruvan (2007)

English translation: Someone 
Director: Nishikanth Kamat
Story: Nishikanth Kamat (remaking his own film Dombivli Fast, which was adapted from Falling Down (1993))
Cast: R. Madhavan, Seeman, Sangeetha
Music: G.V. Prakash, P. Sameer 
Bottom-line: A simple story made effective by Madhavan’s acting

Another ‘common man’ story, Evano Oruvan is a film based on a simple idea: what happens when a common man gets angry? This film appeals to the Indian public, telling that it is the public who have to be in charge of the country’s proper functioning. This film stars R. Madhavan and Seeman in the lead roles, and is based on the 1993 Hollywood film starring Michael Douglas.

Madhavan as Sridhar

Sridhar (Madhavan) is an ordinary middle class family man, with a wife, Vatsala (Sangeetha) and two children. He works in a bank. He is heavily affected by the corrupt incidents taking place in the city: cheating, thieving, intake of drugs and other atrocities. His wife does not worry about these and wants her family to be good and safe, but Sridhar takes a different approach. He goes around the city on a rampage, destroying or harming anyone or anything that causes trouble and makes the common people miserable. People regard him as a psychopath. His deeds become so violent that officer Vetri Maran (Seeman) is put in charge of capturing Sridhar. Does Sridhar control himself and prevent getting caught? Or does he continue going on a rampage? Watch this film to find out…

Sangeetha as Vatsala

Madhavan’s character is no Bruce Banner, to just turn into a monster when he gets angry. When an ordinary man gets angry, he can only do so much. This is the reason why Indians are reluctant to fight against any social crimes. If one good guy starts a fight, he can succeed only if others join him; alone he is useless and can easily be trampled upon (unless he is Hulk of course). It is this problem of the society that is highlighted in the film. The educated Indians should fight against the atrocities taking place in and around the society, and the poor and uneducated people may not have knowledge. But, as Seeman’s last dialogue says (in Tamil), “Like how we skip a question to which we don’t know the answer to in an exam, we also ignore these social crimes as long as they do not affect us. When all of us live with our heads bent against these crimes, one man raises his head to fight…But we don’t lift our heads; we instead push down the head of that man who raises it.” Hence the title, Evano Oruvan: the film just focuses on one unknown man, and what he does and how his actions affect him.

Seeman (right) as Vetri Maran, with Madhavan

The story is one of the most realistic ones I have seen so far, in Tamil. It is violent, and it is initially boring, but there are no fights where the hero injures fifty people with one blow, no duets and no unwanted punch lines. After the incident where Sridhar smashes the store for not returning the exact change, the story just shows various crimes going on in the city, and what Sridhar does to stop them. The scene where he threatens the minister and the scene where he settles the dispute over the water lorry are few memorable ones.

(The paragraph may contain spoilers) But what I liked about the film most, is the ending: it is not audience-favouring, it is not justified, but it is realistic. When you see the twist in the ending, you feel like crying. After this ‘emotional’ ending (if I can call it that) comes Vetri Maran’s speech, and this also criticizes the attitude of Indians. Vetri says, in his head, the dialogue mentioned in the third paragraph, and during this time, Nishikanth shows hundreds of insects feeding on the corpse of a rat, and this scene pretty much summarises the meaning of the entire film.

Madhavan goes around town damaging
shops and other things with a cricket bat.

Madhavan’s acting is superb. His character is also well-chosen: that of a common man. Madhavan’s fast dialogues, with lot of stammering, when he scolds the people committing crimes are often used to parody Madhavan in mimicry shows and all, but his acting is top-class. His acting in the climax is something I particularly liked, which you have to see for yourself to appreciate. Seeman has also played a good supporting role as Vetri Maran.

To conclude, Nishikanth’s Evano Oruvan has one of the best performances by Madhavan, along with Anbe Sivam. With a strong message given to the society, this film should be watched by people who wish to bring about a change. The film contains violence and is also slow in the beginning, but the end result is brilliant. This film is not aimed at the general public who just watch a film for its stars, but it is aimed at all those who want a meaningful film, and Evano Oruvan delivers.

My Rating: 4/5