Gajaana Movie Review : A high-concept idea gets lost in low-effort execution

Gajaana Movie Synopsis: Nandhivarman and his team venture into the Nagamalai forest in search of the invaluable Naaga stones. Will they succeed in their quest, even with their lives at stake?

Gajaana Movie Review: Gajaana is amateurish, ill-conceived and pretentious. When a film presents intriguing high-concept ideas, we would also expect its execution to have depth and nuance. However, that's not the case with this film. Right from the evidently fake blood to the poorly-conceived CGI animals, Gajaana is let down by poor execution.

The story unfolds as Hema (Vedhika) goes to visit writer Manjeri Kesavan (Hareesh Peradi) after being intrigued by the latter’s writings on history. But, as it turns out, both of them have hidden a part of their actual identity. Kesavan narrates to Hema the story of Nandhivarman, who had ventured into the Nagamalai forest to get hold of the precious Naaga stones. Everyone who has gone to the forest with the same intent has either died mysteriously or gone insane. So, the question remains as to what happened to Nandhivarman? Sadly, we won't know that now since the film leaves many questions unanswered and instead teases a sequel right at the end.

Therefore, what happens is that Gajaana provides an incomplete movie-watching experience. Not every film needs a Part 2 to tell its story. The filler scenes with Yogi Babu and Rajendran act as comic relief but have zero significance to the plot. The time spent on those scenes could have been used to tell the main plot, as we are still in the dark as to what happened to the leads even when the film ends.

Vedhika and Hareesh Peradi are convincing in their parts, and the rest of the cast are decent as well. A special shoutout to Chandini Tamilarasan for pulling off her character with conviction even with the silly look that's been assigned to her. Achu Rajamani’s music also deserves a special shout-out, as he does his best to hype up what's going on screen.

Gajaana gets butchered in execution with its unnecessary positioning of a sequel, unconvincing CGI and the lack of focus given to individual character arcs.