Raavanan

Raavanan 

2010

5/5 stars

Dev Prakash  (Prithviraj Sukumaran), a ruthlessly determined police officer, is transferred to a province to capture Veera (played by Vikram), a local hero that has waged a bloody campaign against the area police.  Veera kidnaps Dev's wife, Ragini (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), beginning a violent and bloody fourteen day chase that ends in a showdown between the two men.

(Karthik and Priyamani also feature.)

The acting is superb, natural, and believable, from the leads to the supporting artists.  Vikram is especially convincing as he treads the line between sane and unhinged, but Bachchan is equally impressive in her extremely emotional role. The camera work is stunning -- angles, colors, points-of-view -- and the entire film has a gritty, striking beauty.  The music (songs and incidental both) is often haunting and always highly effective.  As for the suspenseful story, it is chilling, well-plotted, nicely paced, and wholly engrossing.  Overall, it's simply a fantastic film, and while the violence and subject make it not universally suitable, I still highly recommend it.

(This film was shot in Hindi and Tamil simultaneously, with slightly differing casts.  My equally glowing review of the Hindi version can be found here.)