‘Anegan’s racy screenplay keeps you hooked

As the title suggests, ‘Anegan,’  is a story of a man with many looks, in this case three looks. Complementing Dhanush’s three looks is new face Amyra Dastur from Bollywood. Connecting the  three love tales is the concept of rebirth.
The main story is pivoted around Madhu, an IT professional, who sees visions of her past. So she consults a psychiatrist and during her sessions reveals the story of her past incarnation in the sixties. She is Samudra, a native of Burma, who falls in love with Murugappa, an Indian labourer, after he rescues her in an accident.
As is wont in all love stories, her rich father is the villain and does not approve of their love. Daddy will go to any length to make his anger clear, even if it means scalding his teenaged daughter with a hot iron.

The love birds decide to flee to India but at the nick of time, her father discovers them on the ship about to leave the shores. Left with no choice, the lovers jump into the sea, holding hands.
Come to the present and Madhu bumps into Ashwin, also working in the same company. He bears a striking resemblance to Murugappa and Samudra is bent on winning his heart. But Ashwin is not convinced of her stories of the past and wonders if she is really sane.
As for the third love story it surfaces during a session that Madhu has subsequently with her psychiatrist. She reveals how her other incarnation, Kalyani, a Brahmin girl and her lover Kali, a slum rowdy were actually done to death contrary to what was believed. .The suspense around this story keeps the rest of the script rolling.
Dhanush is brilliant in all three roles. As Murugappa, he lends a simplicity and then turns real rustic as Kali, and emerges sophisticated in the shoes of Ashwin.
Playing the perfect tango to him is Amyra. Not merely being a pretty picture, Amyra packs in a brilliant performance and shows great promise.  The surprise actor is Karthik of 'Mouna Raagam' fame, as the easy going and friendly boss of Madhu and Ashwin.
'Anegan' opens with great promise especially the scene where Murugappa rescues Samudra in a mishap on a giant wheel ride. Although the characters of Dhanush and Amyra have been well etched, after a point the story gets predictable. It's a typical commercial film with all elements in place and clearly targeted at Dhanush's fans. It's been a while since Tamil cinema saw a story around a rebirth concept and the screenplay is interesting enough to hold attention. What I still cant figure are the characters of  Jagan and Aishwarya Devan being repeated once again in the contemporary story of Ashwin and Madhu. Or the link between Commissioner Gopinath and Kiran. And, including a gay character in the story for humour seems to be the latest trend. Director Shankar received flak for a similar character in his recent film, ‘I.’ Can cheap comedy impress?

‘Anegan’s racy screenplay makes it worth a watch one time. Not to forget the brilliant cinematography that takes you to exotic locales.