YOGI MOVIE REVIEW

Starring: Ameer, Madhumitha, Snehan, SwathiDirection: Subramaniam SivaMusic: Yuvan Shankar RajaProduction: Team Work ProductionAmeer’s Yogi, as presumed, is a multi-layered gritty saga set in the mean slums of Chennai where the mere act of survival is a mammoth task in the despicable living conditions. The movie opens up a Pandora’s Box of lives of the children of the lesser God and as scene after scene unfurl, you get a dreadful insight into the world of those people hidden beneath their cringe-worthy surroundings. Ameer is a slum-dweller who graduates from petty crimes to murder for better revenues. During one of his assignments, he makes way with a car and inadvertently bestowed with the ownership of a child. The child’s mother gets hurt in an accident after the car stealing and the reluctant Ameer is left with the custody of the toddler. It takes no time for him to abandon the kid in one of the street corners, but he holds himself back and brings the kid home for he had never forgiven himself for the loss of a life in a similar manner earlier in his life. Though Swathi and Vincent Ashokan are married, the toddler that is born to Swathi is not Vincent Ashokan’s. With the affluent Swathi now in the hospital, Vincent decides to seize the opportunity to put an end to thetoddler’s life to inherit his wife’s wealth. Ameer crosses roads with Vincent in his hunt and unintentionally kills his aide, played by lyricist Snehan. The rest of the movie forms the cop’s hunt for Ameer, Swathi’s quest for her kid and Vincent Ashokan’s search for the kid (for different reasons). After playing out a near-gripping tale, Yogi culminates in a rather theatrical climax. Ameer gets into the skin of a petty goon who gradually becomes a criminal, accidentally owning a baby. The razor sharp dialogues in his coarse voice accentuate his performance and the way he carries a repulsive past with him can be quite depressing for the viewer. His father character, played by journalist Devarajan, is impeccable. He metes out domestic violence at his wife, unapologetic about the death of his little daughter and uses his wife’s dead body to make money. Quite disconcerting and it doesn’t feel that Devarajan is a newcomer. Another revelation in the movie is (actually there are two, another being Snehan who effortlessly portrays a mean thug) Madhumitha, playing the role of a single mother whose husband walks out on her. Her eyes speak volumes than actually her words and when she is forced to breast-feed the baby of a stranger, she becomes the epitome of motherhood. A picture of whatever little love is left in the world. The scene in which Ameer inconsiderately leaving condensed milk in the baby’s lips to make it stop crying from hunger and returning to find the baby’s mouth infested with ants is really unsettling. On the flip side, there is a liberal dosage of melodrama; the way Devarajan gets killed can be off-putting, Ameer’s efforts at engaging the baby can seem slipped in for no reason and a few unwarranted fight sequences are out of place. Director Subramania Siva seems to have faltered while trying to make the movie for the masses. This often dilutes the substance of the movie, but largely, Siva has succeeded in the direction process. Yogi is definitely not a time pass movie, it can be distressing. On the other hand, if you are looking for a heavy duty movie with some brilliant performances, try it. It wouldn’t hurt to see the darker side of human life once in a while. It tells you the tryst of happiness with life’s strange play of fate, when hope gets crushed. Verdict: Heavy weight saga!