“Thani Oruvan” set the tone in Tamil Film Industry delivering a blockbuster in the form of an intelligent and racy screenplay however uncompromising on commercial entertainment. Now the lead pair in the form of Arvind Swamy and Jayam Ravi are back again with Bogan under another director Lakshman.
To be fair “Bogan” is no “TO”, while TO was more on the lines of reality, Bogan is more like a fantasy ride. Extravagant in its premise it still manages to capture attention. Bogan opens up really impressively and the tempo immediately takes a dip. Surprisingly Bogan is interesting only while Arvind Swamy is on screen. The script falters despite the presence of “thrill” factor in the plot and the movie ends rather tamely.
Bogan also suffers from casting issues. Jayam Ravi was wonderful in TO but in Bogan he is terribly miscast and is not able to match the style and swagger of Arvind Swamy. Honest in his portrayal Jayam Ravi suffers from just being too honest, though he should be appreciated for agreeing to play second fiddle to Arvind Swamy. Hansika Motwani too fails big time in her limited useless role. Others support the film well. It is Arvind Swamy with his swagger and charm that makes Bogan worthwhile watching and even the dialogues for him work well, while otherwise the dialogues are pedestrian in the movie. Arvind is clearly the hottest property in TFI for portrayal of “anti hero” and he seems to be enjoying his second innings giving every other hero a run for his money.
Imam overdoes his music in the movie and delivers well in two songs that are out of his comfort zone. Cinematography is sharp by Soundarrajan and Anthony’s editing despite his trademark cuts could have helped more in shortening the lengths. The dialogues as mentioned earlier are very plain. Direction by Lakshman is good while it’s the writing that could have been more focused and smarter.
On the whole Bogan is definitely a onetime watch despite all its shortcomings compensated by Arvind Swamy. Bogan could have easily been a multi starrer but sadly TFI has still not matured with most of the box office stars carrying a huge ego along with their stardom.
BOGAN – BOW -ARVIND SWAMY !!
2.5/5
B.U.Shreesha.
