Aramm Tamil film review - A beautiful, hard-hitting social film...

Movie poster image source & credit: Wikipedia

Aramm (meaning good deed) is an excellent deed by director Gopi Nainar. And #respect to Kotapadi J Rajesh for producing this effort.Wish these films made the 100 crores, too. Instead of just some crappy masala mass-entertainers.

Nayanthara does full justice as District Collector Madhivadhani. What is admirable is how she doesn't command more screen space, and respects the script and the screen-time of the support cast, throughout. That's pretty selfless for a huge actor of her calibre and reach, and she just commands respect through her subtle performance, instead.

The story addresses the social issue of water-related issues. Through the director's vision, we see that while the nation has made huge progress in rocket-science, our system still cannot cater to the common man's basic needs of (say) water and education. It goes one-step deeper, or a few feet under - pun intended! - and talks about the uncovered and forgotten borewell drills that are left open, which kids and small-sized people fall easy prey to. You must have come across a couple of such incidents in the papers in the last 2-3 years.

Cinematographer Om Prakash is also a hero in this film via his brilliant cinematography. His shots roar about the drought situations, all through the film.

Ghibran's soundtrack is decent, though too loud in some places, and is backed by some beautiful lyrics that pierce through your heart.

I don't know if it's just me, but in every film that she acts brilliantly in, there's that one scene where Nayanthara proves she is human, too, and can err. That moment in this one is in that scene when she coughs and is offered water. Did not seem very natural to me. I recall of one such instance in each of her other recent films as well.

Ramachandran Durairaj is excellent in the role of the father, and speaks through his eyes and tears. He is a natural! And even Sulu Lakshmi, as the mother, is decent.

People should watch this film. The direction is first-class, aided by very good screenplay, editing and camera-work. Please watch this in a movie-hall so that more and more of such cinema is encouraged.

Wish I could meet the director. I like how he has spoken about corruption and the nonchalant nature of politicians over people. It also doesn't get very preachy, and I also liked how he never loses focus on the topic, as this could have easily gotten melodramatic or over-the-top, with a super-performer like Nayanthara. Not to mention how he extracts natural performances from the villages in the film and talks about their day-to-day issues in a way that is palpable. Pah! #respect

My verdict: 4 out of 5. Certainly the best Tamil film of the year. Had tears in my eyes on 2-3 occasions through the film..Pretty touching... and am really glad it did not have some Narcissistic superstar mass-hero. :)