Sometimes, when a movie comes out; especially when it’s a Pongal release, we expect goodness while hoping for greatness. We want to begin the arguably best Thamizh month of the year with a nice, wholesome Thamizh film. And sometimes, we come away wondering why it had to be less than good.
Here is an actor, Ilayathalapathy Vijay, who has a boyish charm about him, has captured the hearts of many youths and indeed, enjoys popularity across all age-groups. His almost-constant portrayal of the ‘namma local smart guy’ seems to have made him partial to masala movies. However, this also makes his films happily suitable for a ‘U’ certification and hence, family viewing.
Vijay is an actor who dances with equal ease and grace, maintains optimum weight, and always plays do-gooding roles. Unlike other body-building and body-shrinking actors, he simply throws the concept of the proverbial six-pack out of the window and yet looks jaw-droppingly fit in his shirtless running scenes.
The cast is pretty good with Keerthi Suresh as the heroine, the well-built, imposing Jagapathi Babu as the main villain with his henchman played by Daniel Balaji (a natural), Sathish for comic relief, and more able actors like Thambi Ramaiah in the movie. The theme is Malpractices in Medical Colleges and money-making scams through education with unqualified rogues at the helm.
All this sounds perfect for a happy pongal release. Except for the presentation of the story.
The worthy storyline has been executed rather poorly, all things considered. Too many cliches and too wordy dialogues spoiled the film’s pace and mood. Heartening it was, that the background music bytes during the fight scenes were noteworthy. But we are unable to make the song and dance about this film’s songs and dances as we should, because the melodies were missing magic and the costumes were outrageous. Vijay’s shirtless scenes were certainly better than some of his costumes, it pains me to say.
When a boy sees a girl and falls for her, he’s going to try his luck by giving her flowers and longing gazes for sure. But is he truly going to drop all his work and routines and unceremoniously dash off for a cause to save his newly-beloved from any and all dangers and snags? The answer seems to be yes. He doesn’t yet know her from Adam, but he is in love. Ok, when Cupid strikes, perhaps we can accept surrender. I think an old joke explains the movie away.
Here it is:-
Question: What is that tingly feeling you get when you fall in love?
Answer: That’s common sense leaving the body.
Well, this sure seems to have happened here.
It doesn’t take much to please people who are already in a holiday mood around Pongal time. So, a tweak here, an edit there, a crisp set of scenes further down the film, fewer lines in meaningful, hard-hitting dialogues, etc. would have seriously helped this film a lot. The saving grace was solely Vijay’s stardom.
More than anything, the insipid music and choreography in the dance scenes was a below-the-belt hit for die-hard Vijay fans like yours truly.
That famous refrain from Bairavaa: “Varalaam Varalaam, Vaa!” is as much a challenge as an invitation!
Writen by Sujata Tarakesan