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After a long time, here comes a film with a socially relevant theme. Usually, in the commercial world of films, it’s not often one gets to watch films that to deep into the actual nature of crime, the motives of the culprits and their origin. 9 out of 10 films tend to take the safer path where sequences showing the hero’s courage and valour are shown prominently than treading the logical path.

‘Aanmai Thavarel’, though, makes a sincere attempt to portray the crime in vivid detail and stands out from the rest of the pack for the way it has been made. Velappan should be appreciated for taking on a topic considered taboo in the industry for a long time now. Dealing with the heinous crime of ‘woman trafficking’, the film opens with kidnapping of a young lady from a public place in an urban locality in the wee hours. The ‘professional network’ which swings into action in moving the victim away from the scene as soon as possible is shown rather realistically, The network’s subsequent plans, which appear well-thought out ones, leave the police clueless in the end.

The director cleverly manages to show the might of the police force in sequences where they move in search of the missing victim: policemen seem to known exactly as to where to knock for the right source of information they are looking for. In their efforts to nab the culprits, they are forced to stand up to administrative constraints and withstand political pressures. Watch the film to find out whether the girl is rescued or ends up as a ‘show-piece’ in one of the many brothel networks in the country!

As stated at the outset, the director and crew deserve appreciation of the highest order for coming up with such a bold subject. Velappan apparent had done his homework before embarking on the project and has managed to portray successfully as to how the criminals and police operate even as both attempt to outwit the other. The abduction, movement by the criminals to take away the victim, tracking by the police and the final bidding auction where the woman is put up for ‘sale’ in the most inhuman method: everything has been filmed well to keep the viewers sit glued to the screens. Going by he way the police are shows to be operating, it is likely that their image would register multi-fold increase in the minds of the public from now onwards.

Each product is not made sans any flaws and the film is no exception to the rule. The romantic sequences between the lead pair are unimpressive and fail to jell with the rest o the story. Also, the cinematic depiction of the police office’s role appear have been an act of injecting some ‘dramatism’ to the proceedings. The biggest question mark, however, is how a person would emerge literally unscathed out of a major bomb explosion. The climax fight sequence too lacks credibility.

Despite all these, the film is quite interesting as the makers have attempted to make the film from a very different perspective. Debutante Velappan shows skills in film-making that appear to have been in-born and not trained by any. He should be lauded for making a decent enough film (the film could easily have been made vulgarish had the director manipulated the theme) free from obscenity, even while dealing with such a ‘hot’ subject.

Newcomers’ performances could have been better. The hero looks out of place in most of the sequences and needs to work on his emotions and reactions. Sampath, as usual, has delivered another intense performance (another Nasser in the making?).

Aanmai Thavarel does send out a message that crime has its roots deeper than we can possibly imagine. No matter how hard the police might try to curb it, crime will be part of our society, as long as the individual is cleansed in his ‘mind’.