Yaanum Theeyavan review: Gripping story that suffers from bad execution

Yaanum Theeyavan is a romantic action movie that is reasonably entertaining.

Mike (played by Ashwin Jerome), the son of a company’s CEO, is in love with his collegemate Soumya (Varsha Bollamma), the daughter of the principal of an educational institution.

One night after Soumya accepts his proposal, Mike insists that they go out on a date and Soumya agrees. While on the date, Soumya suggests that they take a long walk along the beach. However, when they step out of the car, they encounter a bunch of drunk eve-teasers.

The eve-teasers pass lewd comments about Soumya, forcing Mike to have a confrontation with them. Although Mike has a verbal confrontation, he holds back from throwing punches at them as he's thinking of protecting the girl who is with him.

He escorts Soumya home to safety, but then returns to pick a fight with the miscreants who are actually gangsters. This time, a fuming Mike doesn’t hold back. He thrashes the entire gang black and blue, including an inebriated Pasupathy (Raju Sundaram), who is the head of the gang. 

Little does Mike know then that Pasupathy is a serial killer. He is also not aware that Pasupathy has managed to stay out of the police’s reach for a number of years despite all the murders he has committed primarily because of his political backing. Although Mike leaves after the fight, Pasupathy, is unable to forget or forgive Mike for humiliating him in front of his gang members.

Days pass and Soumya’s dad gets to know of her love for Mike and chooses to send her to the Netherlands for higher studies. Soumya, however, is not interested in going abroad. She hoodwinks her parents into thinking that she has left abroad and elopes with Mike.

The two get married much against the wishes of both their families. With no place to stay after their wedding, the couple turn to friends for help. One of them, who works as an assistant director in the film industry, says they can stay at his place as he is to go away on work for a fortnight. However, the problem, he says is that his place is in a remote area that is far away from the city.

Both Mike and Soumya have no problems with that and move into the friend’s house, which is the lone house in the vicinity, shrouded in mystery. They move into the first floor of the two-storeyed structure with the house owner occupying the ground floor.

Mike, who is desperate for a job, leaves for Bangalore the next day as he has an interview with a firm there. Soumya believes she will be fine as Mike promises to return in two days.

However, that night when Soumya is alone, she sees something that scares her out of her wits. What did Soumya see to make her shiver? How did she react? Did Mike return? Did he find Soumya safe? Yaanum Theeyavan provides the answers to these and several other questions .

The film’s story as such is interesting. However, some of the performances are amateurish and take the seriousness out of the plot. For instance, the hero Ashwin Jerome is found lacking when it comes to emoting in a few scenes. There are also some totally unnecessary sequences in the film, making it a little tedious for the viewers. That apart, one other problem with the film is that the sequence of events don’t add up and there are gaping holes in logic. The manner in which the film concludes is also anything but convincing.

On the brighter side, Varsha as Soumya is impressive. The lady, who was seen in the Samudrakani-starrer Vetrivel, does a neat job as a girl who chooses her lover over everything else. From her accent to her acting, Varsha scores on all counts. The same can be said of Raju Sundaram’s performance who plays Pasupathy in the film. Achu Rajamani’s music is scintillating and Shreyaas Krishna’s camera work is refreshing. Both fetch big brownie points for the film.

Director Prashanth G Sekar seems to have had a gripping story to tell. But then, he fails to narrate it in an interesting fashion. He does not bring it to a convincing conclusion and thereby ends up with a film that is only one third of what it could have actually been.  

Yaanum Theeyavan falls short from what it could be.