Yeidhavan review: Director Sakthi delivers a clean and gripping family entertainer

Director Sakthi Rajasekaran’s Yeidhavan is quite a gripping action thriller which has been reasonably well made. The director, through his film, shows how students, who enrol themselves in private medical colleges that are either not recognised, or lose their recognition half way through an academic year, are made to suffer.

Krishna (Kalaiyarasan), a middle-class entrepreneur who sells machines to detect counterfeit currency, is intent on getting his younger sister a seat in a medical college. Competition is intense, and despite the girl scoring high marks in her final year of schooling, she misses out on the free seat by a whisker. Unable to bear her disappointment, Krishna promises that he will get her admitted to a private medical college. But he soon realises that’s easier said than done. Every medical college that he approaches says that they have no seats left and that admissions are over.

Just as he is about to give up, he gets to know that admissions are very much on and that private medical colleges usually have their seats secretly sold through brokers for a hefty capitation fee that ranges from anywhere between Rs60 lakh to over a crore. He tracks down a broker who sells seats for several private medical colleges to find a way out. The broker suggests that he get his sister admitted to the least expensive of these colleges, at the outrageous cost of Rs50 lakh.

With no other go, Krishna, his dad  (Vela Ramamoorthy) and his friends borrow money from all their known sources to raise around Rs55 lakh for his sister’s education. He gets a receipt for the fee, but not to the tune of the Rs50 lakh he paid. Nevertheless, his sister is admitted to the college and everything seems fine for a while until one day, the Medical Council chooses to revoke the college’s licence for failing to meet the norms. On learning this, Krishna rushes to the MCI (Medical Council of India) and explains his situation. The officer there, points out that there is very little chance that the college’s licence will be renewed that year and advises him to try and get his money back from the management.

Angry and hurt, Krishna returns to meet the broker who got them admission. He demands his money back but the broker says that he will have to forego his money and the best thing for him would be to let his sister continue studying in the college. The owner of the college, Gautham, is in no mood to relent and sends his goons to tell Krishna bluntly that his money will not be returned, and that he can try and do whatever he wants to do about it.

A bitter Krishna, who is determined to recover his money back, calls his girlfriend Janani (Satna Titus), a police sub-inspector, and explains to her about the problem. She advises him to file a police complaint in the station in his area. He does so but then, a corrupt inspector, sides with the college owner and tries to pin a murder case on Krishna. On the way to the police station for an enquiry, his sister is killed in a car accident.

Krishna’s anger now turns into rage. Left with no option, he decides to kill both Gautham and his chief goon. Just as he is pondering how, fate brings him in touch with Dharman (Krishna), a rowdy sheeter and thug who has an old score to settle with Gautham. What has Dharman got against Gautham and his men? How does Krishna use Dharman to get justice? What happens to the broker? Does Krishna eventually get justice? These questions are answered through the film.

The film is quite gripping and keeps you interested right from the start to finish. Tight editing by Alen, good background music by Paartav Barggo are big pluses for the film. Director Sakthi’s dialogues, co-written by Sathish Sounder, help the film score on several occasions. Cinematographer C Prem Kumar does a decent job for the most part of the film. However, he seems to have had problems with getting the lighting right in some sequences, including the opening scene.

Kalaiyarasan as Krishna does a neat job and has no problem carrying the film on his shoulders along with Gautham, who does an exceptionally good job as the villain. As the fanatic who will go to any extent to save his fortunes, Gautham is brilliant. Krishna as Dharman too impresses. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of Satna, who, as Janani, looks pretty, but is far from convincing as a police officer. She looks too fragile for one to believe that she is a cop.

On the whole, the film is a clean and interesting entertainer that can be watched with the entire family.