Film: Saravanan Irukka Bayamaen
Cast: Udhayanidhi Stalin, Regina Cassandra, Srushti Dange, Soori
Director: Ezhil
Director Ezhil’s Velainu Vandhutta Vellaikaaran was one of the most enjoyable films last year, and Udhayanidhi Stalin’s Manithan could well rank as his best acting project in a relatively young film career. When this combo decided to join hands, the general expectation was that a fun romantic comedy was on the cards. Sadly, the film plays instead like the director’s greatest hits compilation gone bad.
The film opens with a fictional Dho Zindagi (two lives) party and its breakup into two over a cheap reason. The rest of the opening portions of the film revolve around three stories involving Mansoor Ali Khan (ebullient as ever), Udhayanidhi and Soori, and how one small confusion leads to big changes in the lives of these characters. It seems like a terrific premise to build a movie on, but sadly, not much is done with it. Regina Cassandra’s character gets a lovely introduction over the beautifully sung and shot Langu Langu, but then as is the trend with Tamil cinema these days, she never gets a chance to kick her character into the next gear.
The star of the first half is, undoubtedly, Yogi Babu, whose timing is impeccable. His content and delivery makes you wish the film had invested more in the rest of the amazingly talented comedians at its disposal. A panchayat scene featuring Robo Shankar and Vidyullekha Raman that breaks down into an antakshari screams comic potential on paper, but unfortunately, devolves into such a mess that a character is left to question the merits of the scene within the film itself.
There is a satirical version of a famous Padayappa scene, which Udhay carries well, but immediately afterwards, when Udhay asks his friends to stick posters in the city, he asks them to not stick any around schools. Tonally the film shifts between parody and something meaningful, and it never strikes the right tone in either of the categories.
There is a twist at the end of the first half, which is immediately resolved at the start of the second half, and how that twist helps the story attain its end, forms the rest of the film. Towards the end of the film, there’s a callback to a character from the start of the film. Regardless of how well this actually worked, it makes you wonder how much better the film could have been if the director had paid more attention to the Chekhov’s gun principle throughout the movie.