Ayalaan

First and foremost, props to the entire team for getting to the end despite 6-7 years of production hell.

Ayalaan was... different from the usual stuff I've seen before, but also very similar in various ways. Ravikumar's Indru Netri Naalai (INN) was done really well for a Kollywood audience, and I was curious to see how this one took shape.

I think the movie deserves props for the writing, a sci-fi alien movie in Kollywood could go so wrong if not packaged in a certain way, and I think the film does get this part right. "Tattoo" (interesting choice of names) pretty much carried the film IMO and I suppose that was the intent....? You've not seen a funnier alien before. Always been glad that SK is okay 'sharing screen space' with the script, he does so in this film as well and delivers what's expected of him. The VFX team did a terrific job.

That's about the good parts. Plot wise, you've seen this several times before, just that this has an alien twist to it. The music was...mid. Yogibabu was given some chuckle-worthy dialogues but I don't know why we're still subjecting him to body-shaming comedy. Didn't need both him and Karunakaran in the film, one would have sufficed. We're overusing Yogibabu, I wish he were more selective too. Rakulpreet was given the usual heroine role, take it out, it doesn't alter the plot. I was glad to see that Isha Kopikar got the opportunity to return to the big screen, but I don't know why we needed two villains. We could have simply had her be the main antagonist things would have still been fine. This movie has also made me think twice before spending $ on a film with a 'corporate villain'. Tired of this BS.

All that said, the film is being unfairly dinged for being a 'kids film' and not having anything for the adults who go with them, the alien could be for the kids but the message, albeit not a strong one, about nature is for the adults. If the kids get the message and act upon it, time will tell.

Ayalaan was a good attempt at telling the same old story in a new way, don't know if that was because of the delay. That said, to completely disregard this film as a kids' movie is unfair criticism. By that logic, so was Koi Mil Gaya/Krrish - now iconic to some. I wouldn't mind a better written sci-fi sequel to see where Thamizh can go from here, but this movie, could have been great, was passable.