'Yatchan' review: The film is a dark comedy of errors

Cast: Arya, Krishna, Deepa Sannidhi, Swati Reddy, Adil Hussain, Thambi Ramaiah, Ponvannan, RJ Balaji, S. J. Surya.

Director: Vishnu Vardhan

When Vishnu Vardhan and Arya team up for a film, it’s usually a cause for cheer. Here too, the two have made sure to drive a story of murder and foul play in a humorous manner. The narration is pushed forward by a large number of supporting cast because everybody has an axe to grind.

Krishna and Arya escape from their backyards to move to Chennai. They are as unconnected to each other as Deepa Sannidhi is to her performance. One incident brings all of them together which includes Swati Reddy. The film is never confusing but in order to maintain an unchaotic structure, it falters and fumbles, nevertheless it manages to walk.

Deepa Sannidhi has this magnificent power of knowing what’s going to happen in the near future. Yet she doesn’t fit into the scheme of things employed in the film. Krishna seems to have been inspired by the jumping jack energy of SJ Surya. In scenes where the two are present, it’s like one person acts and the other reacts, whereas in portions where Krishna is given the centerstage to run the show, I’m reminded of how much the actor is a shadow of the ‘Vaali’ director. Unlike ‘Pattiyal’, ‘Yatchan’ doesn’t allow bromance. Arya and Krishna are mostly at loggerheads. That doesn’t stop them from shaking a leg for a party song.

By the way, Kay Kay Menon plays a villain… err, it’s Adil Hussain. Hussain strangely has a Menon flavor. There’s an arresting resemblance too, which cannot be easily brushed away. Adil Hussian also fails to show the gusto that Ponvannan shows in his brief appearance.

After a long time, Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music adds punch. His background score is in sync with the film’s mood. That’s perhaps the most important aspect of its purpose.

Arya is a master of disguise in the film. For a master such as Arya, his eyes are a dead giveaway. Those hazel eyes cannot be hidden under a wig or a thick beard. Then there are characters who don’t show up after a scene. There’s a certain sense with which the filmmaker has made this comedy with toppings of action and mystery. That sense, though, a hallmark of his understanding of the characters and the situations presented in the film, is quite a mark off from realism. Continuity errors and weak plot points in the name of suspense pull the movie down. And by the time ‘Yatchan’s’ runtime runs out, you know that the film has flipped its genre twice over.

The primary actors – Arya and Krishna – do not meet and greet each other like we have in other buddy films. Still, the world of ‘Yatchan’ centers around these emotions deliriously.

Rating: 3/ 5