Asuravadham review: Revenge thriller begins very slowly but ends with a flourish

Asuravadham, or Slaying Of The Demon, is an intense revenge thriller that starts off on a slow note but ends on a high with a strong social message.

The initial portions of the film are, in fact, so slow that by the time the first half ends, one is ready to give up hope of the film turning into anything meaningful or entertaining.

But full marks to director Maruthupandian, who makes the second half so riveting that one almost forgets the drabness of the first.

The film revolves primarily around two characters — one who is being hunted and the other who is hunting him down.

Samayan (Vasumitra), a grocery storekeeper in a remote part of Tamil Nadu, has been trying to convince his father-in-law that he has not been unfaithful to his wife.

The wife has left Samayan to go and live with her father. In these circumstances, Samayan one day gets a blank call. The blank calls start increasing in frequency, causing him some uneasiness. He tries to call the number back on a few occasions but gets no reply.

Samayan is worried about who is making the blank calls and why. Eventually, the man making the calls speaks. He warns Samayan that he will make him tremble in fear for a week and then kill him. 

Panic-stricken, Samayan begins to try and find out if he is being watched. Initially, he can spot nothing. The next morning he finds that he is being watched by a bearded man (M Sasikumar). It is difficult for Samayan to escape the bearded man's eyes. He tries every trick up his sleeve to give him the slip, but in vain.

The manner in which he is being constantly monitored gives Samayan the creeps. He looks to break free and run. However, the bearded man catches up with him and almost kills him.

Thanks to the intervention of a close relative, Samayan escapes. He then calls up all his relatives and community members to ensure his safety. But no matter what he does, the man is around Samayan, constantly following him from a distance and giving him the chills.

The grocery storekeeper is now in a heightened state of fear. He is so scared he does not even want to venture out alone after dark. At the same time he is scared to stay alone in his house. It is at this time that his father-in-law calls up one night and tells him that he is sending his daughter back to live with him.

Samayan tells his father-in-law to tell his wife to call him from the bus stand when she reaches there so that he can go and pick her up. The father-in-law agrees. The next day, Samayan looks to give the bearded man the slip and make his way to the bus stand to pick up his wife. He reaches the bus stand only to see the man already there. What's more, he says something to Samayan's wife and takes her along with him in his jeep.

A distraught Samayan tries to alert his wife but to no avail. He has no option but to follow the bearded man to save his wife. This exposes him to danger. The bearded man captures him and knocks him out. When he wakes up, he finds himself tied to a chair, with his wife lying unconscious in front of the bearded man. The man takes Samayan's wife to another room and returns a while later, even as Samayan screams his lungs out trying to save her. When Samayan asks who he is, The Beard simply says "ask your wife" and leaves.

Infuriated, Samayan frantically searches for the man but without any success. The thought that he has been unable to protect his wife makes him furious. He starts suspecting her and even goes to the extent of kicking her. His anger knows no bounds and he decides to hunt the bearded man down.

He approaches a corrupt cop, a relative, who takes a huge sum of money to help him. The cop tells Samayan that to hunt a hunter, the prey has to disappear from sight. They come up with a plan by which Samayan would disappear from the eyes of everybody else and anybody who wants to keep a watch on him would have to come within a confined space that would be closely monitored by the cop's team. For a while, the hunter becomes the hunted.

But the story doesn't end there. In fact, it has just begun. The movie has a fantastic point to make and the manner in which it is said only makes the point that much more emphatic.

Sasikumar puts in an intense performance as a doting father, caring husband and vengeful man. He speaks little, but his actions say a lot. His performance lifts the film to a different level.

Nandita Swetha as the wife of Sasikumar's character appears on screen for only a short while, but within that span endears herself to the audience.

Vasumitra as Samayan plays his role to such perfection that one almost feels no remorse for the gruesome end that awaits his character.

The film has fantastic visuals by Kathir, one of the finest cinematographers in Tamil cinema today. Be it the chase sequence, when a frantic Samayan flees for his life, or the outpouring of righteous anger by The Beard, the manner in which these emotions have been captured on camera is just fantastic.

The film has one major drawback, however. And that is the excruciatingly slow pace with which it begins. Until the first half ends, no one has a clue why one man is stalking another. That is frustrating for the audience and almost makes it lose interest.

The first half does assume significance once you have watched the second half, but it is extreme to try and keep an audience guessing for an entire half without much happening on screen apart from a man being stalked.

Despite this, however, Asuravadham is a story that needs to win, for the point it tries to make.