'Aaryan' review: Vishnu Vishal's latest crime thriller lacks the thrills

In 2018, Vishnu Vishal's Ratsasan rewrote the rules of the crime thriller genre in Indian cinema. From its screenplay, direction and performances, it was a benchmark in storytelling for crime thrillers, so much so that there have been multiple remakes and films inspired by it over the years. After seven years, Vishal returns to the crime thriller with his latest offering Aaryan.

 

The film is set in Chennai and the opening act is intriguing as a struggling writer (Selvaraghavan) gatecrashes a popular television show hosted by Naina (Shraddha Srinath) and declares that he would orchestrate six murders in six days starting from today. If this doesn't send shockwaves amongst the people in the studio, revealing the first victim takes the tension up by a few notches.

 

DCP Nambi (Vishnu Vishal) is assigned this strange serial-killing case that apparently doesn't seem to have a pattern or motive from the outset. With no potential clues to work with, Nambi must win the race against time to track down the details of victims to protect them. Will he succeed in his mission? What is the connection between the six victims? Why did the writer plan these murders? All this forms the crux of Aaryan.

 

Comparisons are inevitable but first things first - Aaryan cannot be put in the same sentence as Ratsasan. While the opening act does spark curiosity, the screenplay is barely gripping and there is a monotonous nature to the film. Vishal tries to put in an earnest performance but he is let down by weak characterisation in the writing.

 

Director Praveen, who has also co-written the script along with Manu Anand, had a very interesting premise to work with. However, they aren't able get the viewers hooked to the investigation which appears very dated in its execution. Selvaraghavan puts in a solid act as the struggling author with layered emotions and arguably gets the meatiest character of them all including the main protagonist.

 

There isn't anything about Nambi that we haven't seen before in crime thrillers. He is a loner, has a broken marriage and is a workaholic. We've seen these tropes so many times that it requires an innovative screenplay to hold things together if you want to go down this route one more time. Unfortunately, Aaryan just takes the predictable option and some of the sequences are just too convenient than clever.

 

The other thing that misfires is the climax of the film. While the opening 15 minutes managed to create a spark, the finale couldn't match up to that. For a film that attempts to a different crime film, the jigsaw puzzle coming together at the end has to have a 'wow factor' in it. However, here it is more of a social message that just doesn't land.

 

Overall, Aaryan is a crime thriller with noble intentions but lacks the thrills and misses its mark.

 

Film: Aaryan

Cast: Vishnu Vishal, Selvaraghavan, Shraddha Srinath, Maanasa Choudhary, Karunakaran

Director: Praveen K

Rating: 2/5

 

 

 

 

 

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