Aaruthra is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language thriller film directed by Pa. Vijay, who also produced the film, wrote the songs, and played the lead role with Meghali. S. A. Chandrasekhar and Bhagyaraj portray supporting roles.
Aaruthra is a revenge flick, which has ample emotions, more than adequate preaching, over-the-top action, partly-convincing heroism and a message. A series of horrific murders happen in different parts of the country – all executed in weird and similar manner. The modus operandi behind the murders reminds us of the way assassinations were carried out in Anniyan. If the chapters in Garudapuranam were the inspiration behind Vikram’s character in Shankar’s film, here the protagonist, Shiva (PA Vijay), unapologetically executes killings as a proud devotee of Lord Shiva.
Avudaiappan (Bhagyaraj), a private detective, develops suspicion over Shiva, who lives with his family in Chennai. When the latter is almost caught red-handed, he comes up with the reason why he is into killing people. The film, which has an unimpressive first half, makes up for it to an extent in the second half when Shiva narrates his story – the flashback portion which has the story of his lovely family, including a father, mother and a sister, was interesting to watch. The emotions and relationships between the characters were engaging enough. The way his sister is brutally killed and how he chooses the revenge path was also okayish.
The messages put across in the film, highlighting the alarming child abuses, looks good on paper, but the execution falls flat. The CG scenes are terrible, and a few girls running around in itsy-bitsy attires for no reason in the first half looked artificial and were annoying enough to test one’s patience. Though it’s not convincing to see Pa Vijay bashing heroes left, right and centre, his performance as a revenge-seeking brother was decent.
