Film: Moone Moonu Varthai
Director: Madhumita
Cast: Arjun Chidambaram, Aditi Chengappa, Venkatesh Harinathan, SPB, Lakshmi.
It’s meant to be a breezy light entertainer centered on the lives of two friends, who after various experiences, realise the value of life and relationships, and their responsibilities. But there are hardly any genuine fun moments. The narration is flat and the screenplay lacks lustre.
Moone Moonu Varthai opens at a hospital where Bhagyaraj (playing himself) is recuperating from an illness. A fan, Arjun (Arjun Chidambaram) approaches him and narrates to him a story for his next script. It happens to be Arjun’s own story. The narration moves back and forth in time, depicting the happenings in Arjun’s life. We get to learn about the three friends — Arjun, Karna and Karthik — unemployed and whiling away their time in idle pursuits. With Karthik (Nitin Sathya) getting married and the director almost losing sight of him after that, it’s just the two friends and their antics we have to bear. The duo decides to launch its own business TVS (Thadangaluku Varundugirom Service), which helps convey unpleasant messages and bad news to the ones they are intended to. It includes services like breaking up an engagement for a client who is the would-be bridegroom himself; conveying to employees that they are sacked by the management, and so on. The duo also encounters a quirky widower and his dead wife (Bhaskar and Arthi), and another village landlord. But none of these is even remotely funny. Generating misunderstanding and heartburns, the duo’s redemption act follows later. Some characters keep remarking ‘how amusing this is’, or ‘what a twist here’, but it leaves the viewers untouched! If we try to recall one amusing moment, it would be the scene at Karthik’s home, where Karna, touched by Karthik’s wife’s sister-act, gets emotional. Debutant hero Arjun seems to have the potential, while Venkatesh as Karna, makes some real funny expressions.
The romantic interlude between Arjun and Anjali (Aditi) is a lifeless one. There are veterans SPB and Lakshmi who play Arjun’s grandparents. But after the initial scenes, they disappear on a tour, and return towards the end. There are too many dialogues in the film. It’s like if the characters are in the frame, it’s mandatory that they keep talking. How one wishes there were some moments of silence, where the visuals would have done the talking. Moone Moonu Varthai is more like a college skit and a juvenile one at that.