Review: ‘Aruvam’ – Honest & brutal


Chennai: After Aval, Siddharth is back with a horror film Aruvam (which means shapeless). It speaks about an upright food safety officer, who wants to see a world without food contamination.

He goes on a rampage to seal tea shops, hotels, oil packaging companies, milk and dal processing units where the products were processed on chemicals to stay fresh. He gets murdered and how he takes revenge as ghost is the heart of the movie.

Aruvam, directed by debutant Sai Shekar, is an engrosser. Catherine Tresa plays the female lead. Siddharth (Jagan) who was waiting in signal on road sees Catherine (Jothi) who is lecturing an astrologer to release the parrot instead of making money out of it. Jagan follows her and.. you guessed it right.. he falls in love with her. The first half is impressive and the director maintains the suspense about the ghost but for some clichés. Jothi, who doesn’t have a sense for smell, is a teacher in a government school.

Sathish (Muthu) who comes along with Siddharth only during raids comes up with one-liners which hardly evokes laughter. Madhusudhan, Kabir Singh, Stunt Silva and Madras fame Nandakumar play antagonists in the movie and do full justice.

Siddharth and Catherine’s onscreen chemistry is good. Siddharth’s role in Aruvam is a different version of what he did in his last Sivappu Manjal Pachai. He has enough opportunity to prove his acting skills. Catherine Tresa looks cute and bubbly.

What begins well loses steam as it progresses. The latter part fails to impress. Had Sai Sekhar maintained thrilling moments all through, Aruvam could have ended as a different fare.