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Aaryan movie review: A serial killer who comes back from the dead to go on a killing spree isn’t a new idea in crime fiction. There are countless paperbacks and airport thrillers that could lay claim to this familiar logline. But Aaryan uses this well-worn premise to craft a “whydunnit,” and that’s about it. Beyond its slick treatment, there isn’t much depth. Essentially an inversion of Ratsasan, to which it has already been unfavourably compared, given the presence of its leading man Vishnu Vishal, Aaryan offers just enough variation in execution to stand apart superficially. Still, it’s not the kind of thriller that sustains engagement through the genre’s usual pleasures of layered revelations or breadcrumb trails leading to a killer.
This is the kind of film where the intrigue of the premise and the gradual backfilling of the murderer’s details and modus operandi are meant to substitute for the genuine thrill of uncovering the killer yourself. The film begins promisingly, with a disruption during a live TV program hosted by Nayana (a painfully underused Shraddha Srinath) and the introduction of Azhagar (Selvaraghavan), a gun-wielding, frustrated writer who never received the readership or recognition he craved for his pulp paperbacks with titles like Eye of the Tiger, Crimson Sky, and Bleeding Heart. You get the idea, don’t you?
A hostage situation, a six-man death sentence, and a writer wielding a gun form the central puzzle the film tries to trace back to its origin. Why is this reclusive writer doing all this? Who is he really? Who are the intended victims, and why choose them? Aaryan attempts to answer these questions but ends up as a mundane, derivative thriller that feels more like an amateur filmmaker’s thesis project on serial killers than a worthy follow-up to Ratsasan.
Contrary to Ratsasan, the writing here feels perfunctory to the point of nonexistence. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a ChatGPT-prompted script, stitching together familiar tropes from Tamil procedurals of the past decade into one bland yet coherent package. The beats are recycled with little novelty, and what unfolds is a weary film straining to surprise you with an end reveal that takes far too long to arrive. Aaryan is economical only in the sense that it wastes no time establishing its characters or stakes. Arivudai Nambi (Vishnu Vishal), a hot-headed cop, is introduced early, and we expect the film to shift gears into intrigue, but Aaryan remains content with being technically competent yet dramatically inert.
Vishnu Vishal approaches the role with the necessary detachment it demands. He understands the assignment and wisely stays out of the script’s way, allowing its simplified thrills to unfold as intended. Tasked with portraying a thinly sketched archetype, he does his best to lend weight to the emotional aloofness of a workaholic cop. Yet the script is so enamoured with its own central mystery that everything else feels incidental.
The decision to centre the story on a cop on the verge of divorce, brought about by his obsessive commitment to work, being handed a mysterious case feels monotonous and creatively bankrupt. The wife, played by Maanasa Choudary, is relegated to a token role, appearing only when the script requires an emotional support system for the hero. The same flatness that defines her character haunts the film as a whole. The murders and their connections feel like afterthoughts, welded into an icy mystery with no real stakes for anyone involved. Even the token “woke” casting of a trans character comes across as another incidental detail thrown in with the hope that it might stick, but, of course, it doesn’t.
Selvaraghavan brings the right mix of nonchalance and offhand quirks to his performance as the serial killer (no spoilers here; the film reveals this in the very first scene). But his distinctive cadence and physicality are squandered on heavy-handed social messaging that feels misplaced in a procedural like Aaryan. The attempt to evoke empathy fizzles out by the end, leaving you wondering how certain scenes were even approved during production. The inherent nobility of the film’s theme is sensationalized instead, reduced to melodramatic, manipulative writing.
Ghibran, however, is the only one having any real fun here, constantly amplifying the non-existent stakes of Praveen K and Manu Anand’s screenplay with his electric score. He ensures it stands apart from his exceptional work in Ratsasan, giving Aaryan a much-needed pulse through a deft blend of synth-driven beats and an old-school thriller soundscape.
This could have been a passable thriller had the writing invested in fleshing out the hero’s personal conflict or adding dimension to his aloofness. The central crimes could have been executed with more finesse, and the messaging handled with greater subtlety. Instead, everything here feels like a means to another end in a belaboured procedural that scatters a few good ideas across a stale plate. It’s a sorry sight to see a film so painstakingly designed to provoke emotion end up leaving you completely numb by the end credits. Ironically, all that lingers is the spirit of the question posed by the anchor to the serial killer at the start of the film: “Isn’t this too much of a cliché?”
Aaryan movie cast: Vishnu Vishal, Selvaraghavan, Shraddha Srinath, Maanasa Choudhary
Aaryan movie director: Praveen K
Aaryan movie rating: 2 stars
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