Lens – Tamil Movie Review | Vetri Maaran | G V Prakash Kumar | Currently Globally Movie Review

There are many genres of movies and many subgenres of movies but, for a basic movie watcher, movies are just three types, movies which are absolute shit, movies you enjoy and movies that don\’t let you sleep. 

Lens belongs to the third part and it is a movie that doesn\’t let you sleep for days altogether. 

Socially conscious movies are often preachy or has to be sugar-coated and strayed away from actual motive to not become one another preachy movie. Take Shankar\’s most of the movies as an example. They are great and they have a message but, they are commercialized to make ends meet for everyone involved. 

Movies so raw that they touch your heart and brain both are a rarity amidst all the horror comedies and village comedies Tamil movies are currently obsessed with. 

Lens is an exception. Lens stays away from commercialization. Lens has no unwanted moments whatsoever in the whole run. It comes straight to the point and keeps slapping us hard with hard-hitting dialogues and impacting performances and screenplay.

The concept and the screenplay 

As with the story, this movie starts with two strangers doing a webcam sex chat and later, we see the male who took part in the chat (Aravind played by the director Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan) is blackmailed by another male (Yohan played by Anand Swamy) who chats from the same account and it is also revealed that the blackmailer actually has kidnapped Aravind\’s wife Swathi (Misha Goshal). Now, the blackmailer threatens that he is going to commit suicide live on the skype call. Why does he do this? What actually happened? These questions are answered as time passes by and a highly relevant social message is conveyed in form of a psychological thriller.

The movie has majorly only 2 characters who talk to each other on a skype call and few intercuts to Swathi, Aravind\’s friend and police department and a flashback portion. But, despite fewer characters and a huge portion of chatting, the movie never feels boring and that is because of the great writing by Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan.

If left a bit long, few scenes in the movie could have bordered to become soft pornography but, the maker\’s talent has made the scenes look aesthetically shot and much necessary to the process.

Technicalities:

Lens relies more on the 2 lead male characters as they occupy a major portion of the movie and they do not let the movie down. Particularly, Anand Swamy as the blackmailer with a past is terrific and this man owes an award for his realistic performances. Also, to play such a heavy role with multiple shades at ease is commendable. His smile at the end twist when Arvind asks him \”What is the difference between him and Arvind\” is one example of how talented this man is.

Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan has done an excellent job as Aravind and his innocent pleading in initial stages makes up for the lack of humor in the movie and instead behaves as a dark comedy. 

Ashwathy Lal as Angel steals our hearts with her performance as a speech-impaired girl and her role is the most important part of the movie\’s message and she justifies her casting by doing an impeccable job. Misha Ghoshal has a smaller role to do and she has done what she was asked to do. 

Music by G. V. Prakash Kumar is one of the major positive points of the movie and BGM intensifies the impact viewers get during the movie. Flashback song is pleasant but, has a familiar air to it. 

The cinematography is laudable with many POV shots and skype shots making the movie realistic as it happens just before eyes and this shot selection is important for making the viewers immerse into this story and making the final impact heavier. 

Overall, in this social media era, everything you do is present between everyone\’s eyes and actions hat might seem simple and harmless to you, might have larger consequences than you ever dreamt of. Also, as mighty Newton said, every action has an equal reaction. 

This movie might look as an adult movie for the content but, the message it contains is something that has to be instilled in everyone\’s minds right from the teenager with social media account/ internet access.

Vetrimaaran should be highly appreciated for funding this movie\’s release and to provide recognition to such rare gems is a praiseworthy job. 

Currently Globally bows to Jayaprakash Radhakrishnan and we would love to see what this man could do if he is provided with much better tools and financial independence. Way to go sir.

Our verdict: 

Watch this movie, if you use the Internet. Watch this movie, if you have social media account. Watch this movie, if you are a movie lover. Finally, Don\’t miss this movie!

P.S. This movie was initially made for only film festivals and have won a lot of awards and the actual dialogues were in English and it had to be dubbed in Tamil and so, you might find many lip-sync errors. But, at the end, content matters than the language used.