Easan - Believing in Sasikumar

There was enough curiosity over ‘Easan’ as it is the second film of Sasikumar after the cult ‘Subramaniapuram’ in 2008.

In his second film after two years, Sasikumar has set his focus on Chennai, its urban posh life, its merits and demerits. In the process he has touched upon the life styles of different social classes and their behaviors.

Before the release of this film Sasikumar had said, you can’t slot ‘Easan’ as a thriller or a love story. He was right and very right.

The story begins as a love story, then turns a thriller and then turns a revenge transgression and ends as a social crime novel. Sasikumar has handled the mix of genus rather well except for the length of the movie. A good three hours seems a bit dreary.

Story wise ‘Easan’ is not very innovative. It is a revenge for the killing of a girl after rape by a politician’s son and an honest police officer investigates the case braving pressures from the politico family.

Suspense is maintained till the interval as to who the killer could be. As a clever director, Sasikumar makes you change your guess every time with a lot of characters and sub scenes.  In fact, the game of guessing with a collage of incidents keeps the first half intact.

The story of ‘Easan’ is built by the characters and there is no hero or heroine or a villain or a comedian. Samuthirakani is not the hero, Abhinaya is not the heroine and AL Azhagappan is not the villain, There are around 20 characters and all characters play up to the story.

Casting is also a reason for the sincerity of the film. Samuthirakani as the police officer is subtle and focused. AL Azhagappan as the politician doesn’t look like a first timer. Vaibhav as a spoiled brat son of the politician and Abhinaya as the village girl turning a fashionable city girls are as good as always. Even the other characters those of new comer Aparna, Blessy, Niranjan and Nammo Narayana are good.

James Vasanthan has brought in a good dose of western flavor mixed with local music, which is new and interesting. But placing of most songs look they are item numbers and doesn’t blend with the story telling. But then James Vasanthan always played music to the story without looking for showcasing individual brilliance.

Technically the best done is the cinematography by SR Kathiir. His camera has captured the city night life and the village innocence in two distinctive styles, particularly the discotheque scenes and the opening village sequences. If at all there is one thing you would want to change is the editing. Many scenes could have been crisper and clichéd shots removed. The tedious lengths of scenes in many places actually destabilize the intentions of the director.

‘Easan’ is good by its scenes but knitting them could have been a little more compelling and pragmatic. You may be a little disillusioned if you go to ‘Easan’ expecting the magic of ‘Subramaniapuram’. But then ‘Easan’ is a paradigm shift.

We still believe Sasikumar is a great director capable of repeating the magic of ‘Subramaniapuram’.