AAHA KALYANAM MOVIE REVIEW

Marriages are made in heaven, they say and everyone dreams about a perfect marriage. Aaha Kalyanam is about two young wedding planners, who help people realise their dream of a perfect wedding.
 

The celebrated Yash Raj Films, ventures into Tamil cinema with this remake of their own Band Baaja Baaraat, which featured Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma in the lead. Aaha Kalyanam is also the directorial debut of A Gokul Krishna, a former assistant of Vishnuvardhan.
 

In short, the movie is about the two central characters, Shruthi Subramaniam (Vaani Kapoor), an ambitious graduate, who is very passionate about wedding planning and Shakthivel (Nani), a carefree and chirpy lad, who partners with Shruthi in her business, just to escape from taking up his father’s agriculture business. Everything goes great, until Shruthi decides to take a slight detour from her own ‘set of rules’ and Shakthi in turn, tries to stick to it. What follows is Aaha Kalyanam in a nutshell.

Nani as Shakthi fits the character of a carefree youth perfectly, with his broken English and casual attitude. His one liners are really funny and his dialogue timings are accurate. However his Tamil at places sound strained. But that again has been put to place with a funny retort from his friend about his Telugu accent. On the other hand, Vaani has done well with her lines and lip sync. Half of the credits must be given to Chinmayee, who has dubbed for the actress. A specialist that she is, Chinmayee’s modulations and dialogue delivery fitted the character to the T.

As far as performances, Aaha Kalyanam provides great scope for the leads and both Nani, who is known for his intense roles and Vaani, having won a Filmfare in her debut movie, keep up their reputation. The scene where they part and the climax sequence are perfect instances that show both are excellent performers.

On the other hand, the supporting actors, Badava Gopi and Sriram deliver what is required from them and Simran, in her short appearance, is as brilliant as she has always been.

Being a film with marriages as its central theme, music and dance are expected to have prominent parts. That said, Dharan’s songs help the film retain its festive spirit and the energetic dance moves create the right mood for the film.  

As far as choreography, Brindha’s work in the songs, Kadha Kadha, Bon Bon and Punch song, shows her expertise in the craft. The ace choreographer has made use of the sets, extraordinary dancers and the exuberant leads to the fullest in making all the songs cheerful, absorbing and colourful. The flashy costumes and vibrant art work by RC Velu make the whole movie look rich. Vaani’s moves are impressive too and draw immense attraction. Her dexterity with foot work is also evident.

The overall bright ambience makes it easy for cinematographer Loganathan Srinivasan to make the film a visual treat and Bavan Sreekumar’s clean cuts avoid unnecessary jumps and jerks in the continuity of the movie. Rajiv Rajaraman has done great work penning the dialogues to suit the Tamil audience. His work is natural, humorous and intense at places.

Most of all, director Gokul Krishna makes an impressive debut by placing everything proportionally and on the right spot. However, he could have worked more on losing the North Indian touch that crops on and off.  It is to the credit of the director that he has used a song to showcase different types of weddings and to demonstrate the ascent of the leads in their career.

There is a saying - “Love and marriage, love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage! You can't have one without the other.” This realization, which proves Shruthi’s idea of “finance and romance can never go together”, wrong, is the essence of Aaha Kalyanam.
 

On the whole, Aaha Kalyanam is like a near perfect wedding, which has very less unpleasant moments that are completely overshadowed by the overflowing happiness.