How would it be to see sunshine in Chirapunjee? That's how one feels when watching 'Veyil' that portrays all facets of human emotions including romance in the most realistic manner.

The title means sunshine, but in many scenes the tears flow like the Chirapunjee rains and nothing can prevent that.

Being reprimanded by his father at a young age, Pasupathy (Murugesan) leaves home and joins a theatre in another town. As he grows up, he gets to stick posters and then gradually gets promoted to operator. At such a time, he falls in love.

Priyanka is the daughter of the tea-stall owner across the road from the theatre and she and Pasupathy fall madly in love. Back home, Pasupathy's younger brother Bharath (Kadir) runs an ad agency and tries to better his family's fortunes. Bhavana comes to dub at Bharath's agency. She and Bharath fall in love.

When Priyanka's father comes to know of her romance, there's trouble. She commits suicide and Pasupathy's life becomes dark and without direction. His life goes from one trauma to another. About 20 years later, he wants to renew old relationships and returns to his hometown. Instead of welcoming back his son, Pasupathy's father drives him away again. What happens to him after that forms the rest of the story.

The song "Veyilodu vilayaada veyilodu uravaadi..." where little children play together takes us back to our younger days. Pasupathy loses relationship with his parents, siblings, the girl he dreamed of making his wife and his touching portrayal as a man who loses so many things is really moving.

Wearing worn clothes and tattered footwear, when Pasupathy returns to his hometown, one can see a perceptible tremor in his legs. When he reaches his home, he tries to introduce himself to his father, so he would recognize him, but the father chooses not to pay attention to him. In this sorry situation, Pasupathy fights to hold back his tears. But the tears of the audience spill over instead. Such minute facets of acting throughout the film, is evidence of his immense acting talent.

When he's again accused of being a thief, Pasupathy laments that he's not. When he tries to talk to his younger brother Bharath, he asks hesitatingly if he's the butcher's son. When he kills the villain and sits like an Ayyanar statue till his last breath, no accolades would do justice to the elevated level of acting that Pasupathy portrays in these scenes.

While most of the attention is centered on Pasupathy, one must also appreciate Bharath in generously letting it be so and taking back seat.

Priyanka is capable of being another Sarita. She does fantastic acting when she reveals her love to Pasupathy through her eloquent eyes. GM Kumar as the adamant, unrelenting father who shuns his son, has done a fabulous job. (Kumar is the director of 'Aruvadai Naal.')

Bhavana as the dubbing artiste, TK Kala as the mother, Shreya as the childhood friend and Ravi Maria as the villain have done well too. Madhi's camera brings alive the relationships and pain of the characters. He has used appropriate mood for the various emotions on screen. Another strong point of the film is the crisp editing.

Music by GV Prakash could well put him in the list of greats like KV Mahadevan, MSV, Ilayaraja, AR Rehman etc. The song “Urugudhe marugudhe” with its violin and flute indeed makes us melt.

To run films on his girlfriend's hands, to stick on false moustache and trying to see record dance are scenes where Na Muthukumar's lines are appropriate and so is the picturisation that makes it all seem almost poetic.

Director Vasanthabalan has shown symbolic scenes like immersing hot iron rod in water to show rise of rage and he must be commended for his fresh slant of thoughts. Coming out of the theatre, the director said the story was a reflection of his own life. Now that he has purged that pain, may his life be full of light.

Just when we thought that there's a dearth of lifelike situations being made into realistic cinema, Vasanthabalan has shown that he's there to fill that void.

'Veyil' invokes emotions.