The National Award for Best Direction for the year 2009 was won by Bala, and as you may all know, he won it for Naan Kadavul, a morbid portrayal of some of the lesser known characters of our dirty world. It was a spellbinding drama with loads of black comedy and sarcasm and i personally regard it as one of the greatest Indian movies ever made. No kidding.

And after making a rock solid movie such as Naan Kadavul, Bala announced that he was gonna change gears and direct a full blown comedy - Avan Ivan (2011). I wasn't skeptical at all. The kind of talent this man has shown has drawn enough respect to make the audience trust the director's intentions, and i am sure most of you will agree with me here. But alas ! Avan Ivan is so contrived and haphazard that it makes you doubt if it was Bala who was behind the lens. This is by far his worst movie till date and as far as critical success is concerned, his first failure.

Most of the comedy is lame or poorly timed. The script lacks development and the movie wanders aimlessly into a gargantuan mess. The music department has not done its job well either. Yuvan Shankar Raja's discography can do better without the addition of Avan Ivan. A villain pops up from thin air, a college girl falls in love with Arya (just like that!) and the Police never show up when we need them the most, not even at a murder site in full public view ! Vishal's character is the only shining light in the film and the actor manages to save many scenes with his honest expressions. Arya has little to do and comes across as loud and boorish, a stark difference from his fiery role in Naan Kadavul. The female leads do not help the film in any way, though Ambika has some wonderful one-liners to deliver. Applause should also be directed at Highness (GM Kumar), the zamindar who befriends the half-brothers. Only recently, in Aadukalam (2011) this old fella had rendered a wonderful performance.

But largely, Avan Ivan is completely devoid of any real content. There are many moments where the acting is grossly overdone, including Vishal's. The blame rests on Bala, and i will say Bala alone. When you don't know what or where your script is, the actors can't do much. My expectations fizzled out within the first 30 minutes itself and i found myself staring at another Tamil dampener. Bala, of all people has let us down. I wish him better days ahead. For now, its Go Vishal !

Bala is one of the few directors who is not afraid to experiment, take up any plot no matter how dark or unfamiliar it is and most importantly, tries to portray his characters as believable yet fascinating. He is the one director I thought I could always count on to come up with something entirely fresh and out-of-the-box as opposed to the commercial crap that is currently plaguing our Tamil cinema. Well, I am not sure anymore.

Avan Ivan has a very simple story line, a lot of irrelevant scenes, whole lot of forced comedy, many plot-holes, many unanswered questions and most disappointing of all, Arya's unnatural acting.

The story goes like this: G.M. Kumar, the village "Jameen" is like a father-figure to Arya and Vishal. He is brutally murdered by the villain and then, as expected the half-brothers avenge his death. There are many sub-plots but none of which are developed. In fact, 75% of the movie is irrelevant to the main story.

Just for the sake of completeness, here are some aspects that may be considered as positives: Vishal, considering his abominable acting in most of his previous movies, has done an impressive job. G.M. Kumar has also done a decent job. Yuvan, as usual, has done his bit with BGM. Ambika delivers some strong one-liners that might amuse some (disgust most).

Bottom line: If you are a Bala fan like me, you will be disgusted.

The good things in this movie are vishal,arya acting and yuvan's music.

yuvan's BG music was awesome. Vishal's intro track and is acting throughout the movie was awesome. arya's causal acting was good. Dialogues are extremely good.

But the movie has plenty of worst things. Comedy in few places was not good. Heroines doesn't help the movie. Arya's love is not natural and unbelievable. G.M. Kumar's death(which was one of the key part) in the movie have not impacted me. Songs in the album was too good but songs in the movie was worse. Arya is a thief in this movie but not even single scene supports that he is a thief.

Bala have not utilized yuvan's work. Bala have proved that film cannot be taken without story. I felt it has my failure.

Wasn't like a BALA film! It seems Director BALA decided to take a break and has did this film just without seriousness I guess. He hasn't worked well with the screenplay(the van worth a crore inside it!). The direction just doesn't have the perfection required for the powerful characterization! And the characters had a lot of scope and no one did well. As if BALA was satisfied with the first take alone and didn't wanna go for another take. I mean there were situations where the actors could've given their best. for instance, when VISHAL performs on stage in front of actor SURYA...Did he really deserve that kinda applause? If you call that as some fabulous acting that brings tears to your eye, then what will you call the performance by VIKRAM in PITHAMAGAN after SURYA's death??? If you ask me I'll say that VISHAL did well in the climax and the opening song alone..since he risked his eye, does that mean that there's no need to put extreme effort in acting?He did well but should've done better! Aarya did not have much scope comparatively, He did his part. GN kumar and the rest of the cast definitely should have done a lot better. Music was sick!Unnecessary BGM results with inaudible dialogues and Yuvan should have played a bit emotional musics whenever necessary..so there's no feel for any! Editing was idiotic ending a movie just like that? It seemed to me like BALA knew all of the mistakes in the movie and just went with it! One thing is for sure, This 'll be the worst of BALA's .....HOPEFULLY!