I'll be honest with what I really liked about 'Tiyaan': the guts shown by the makers in addressing an increasingly alarming issue faced by Indians today - violence in the name of religion. What is not so great is the manner in which scenarist Murali Gopy and director Jiyen Krishnakumar have chosen to get this point across.
Mahashay Bhagwan (Murali Gopy), a self-proclaimed godman wants to take over property in rural Uttarakhand to build a new ashram much to the chagrin of the villagefolk - a heterogeneous mix of communities and people from various religions (and castes) that have been living in harmony for decades. Standing in Bhagwan's way is a Brahmin scholar Pattabhiramagiri (Indrajith) and a couple of his allies (who give into Mahashay's manipulations early on). Things get personal for Pattabhiramagiri when his family is at the receiving end of threats/dirty deeds from Mahashay Bhagwan. Coming to his eventual aid is a gangster-turned-fakir who goes by the name of Aslan Mohammed (Prithviraj), the story of whom is told in detail in the latter half.
The first twenty minutes (before Gopy's entry) are undeniably the best part of the film: people in the village are going about their usual business - the sight of goons terrorizing the locals in the name of religion has become a familiar sight; Suraaj and Ananya lend a completely down-to-earth tone to the scenario. But once the "stars" take over, the film tries to cater to the artsy and the massy all at once - an effort the makers fail desperately in.
There are a whole bunch of scenes pointing fingers at incidents of 'religious intolerance' taking place throughout the country: Suraaj's character renames his shop from Nair's to Nayyar's in an endeavor to save his livelihood, a cop beating up his son for eating beef (while the financiers of the godman gorge on beef-burgers), Muslim dwellers leaving town when an extremist Hindu godman begins to rule the roost - more importantly, these segments are trying to make a statement. But where it fails is in the fact that while the film preaches about throwing away all sorts of casteist and religious segregation, it does so by making Brahmanism look stronger (trivia: the stretch where Pattarabhiramagiri exclaims that he's a Brahmin and the goons dare not touch him; the interval block where a small Dalit kid, who draws water from Pattabhiramagiri's well which apparently is the only potable source in the village, bows down at the scholar in the same manner that he was taught to pray to the gods, earlier in the movie.)
The unhurried nature of the screenplay also makes the audience feel laggard. Once we see Aslan Mohammed on-screen, we know that he's going to be the saviour for Pattabhiramagiri by default. This is again spoonfed to the audience through segments laced with philosophical dialogue. Aslan's flashback sequence almost plays out like a stark revenge drama where people just keep dying. Aslan's character is undoubtedly the trump card here - but the screenplay doesn't put him to good use - his relationship with Pattabhi itself feels feigned. I wonder how things would've been had they met during normal times (or would they have at all?). Prithviraj's stoic stance does help elevate Aslan marginally. The casting choices are more or less fine - even the (at times) hammy Gopy. It's the writing that lets them and the viewers down. I do believe that this screenplay would have actually been excellent material for a play/novel than a film.
The (couple of) fight sequences are unimaginatively choreographed - well, this was where the movie tried reminding us that the makers' intentions were purely "commercial" but unfortunately, they fail in this domain too. Gopi Sunder's background score gets repetitive because the film basically revolves around three characters with each having their own distinct score, played to the hilt till our ear-drums can take no more. DOP Satheesh Kurup has captured the Northern Plains in all its brownness that kind of imparts an idiosyncratic flavor to the movie. At 2h 46m, it almost feels that the edit department didn't show a lot of sincerity to their task. What a long wait it was, for a finale that could've been predicted so effortlessly.
Verdict: A complete misfire!
