Film: Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga
Director: Rajesh M.
Cast: Arya ,Tamannaah,Santhanam, Bhanu, Sayaji Shinde, Shakeela.
After their fairly engaging comic-caper Boss Engira Bhaskaran, the trio of Arya-Santhanam-Rajesh returns with Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga. It was a film where the antics of the two actors were supposed to tickle your funny bones yet again and blow your blues away. But that does not happen. And if one manages to sit through all that the duo does in the name of humour, it only reveals one’s high level of endurance.
As the title suggests, Vasu and Saravanan are childhood buddies. ‘We grew up together, ate together, went to school together and even failed together’, is how they explain their friendship. At times, Vasu (Santhanam) seems the smarter one, Saravanan (Arya) a bit of a dud. And at times, it is vice versa, depending on the situation and confusing one as to who the real hero of the film is. Also, Vasu apart from occupying equal or more space than Saravanan, seems to be in control of the situation most of the times with Saravanan almost looking like his sidekick! There is a lot of slapstick comedy thrown in here and a lot of verbal banter, but nothing that really works. The screenplay is listless, the narration insipid. Vasu gets married to Seema (Bhanu). Put off by Saravanan’s juvenile humour-sense, she gives an ultimatum to Vasu to choose between her and his friendship. Vasu hits out on the idea of getting Saravanan married, so that he would be out of their way. One expects a predictable scenario to follow, and the director does not disappoint. Saravanan falls for Aishwaria (Tamannaah), a gleeful Vasu offering him tips to woo her. There is this scene where Vasu suggests that Sarvananan gift her a ‘Taj Mahal’ the symbol of love. And Saravanan gifts her the ‘Taj Mahal’ brand of tea! Aishwaria, meanwhile, after all the fun she was having at Saravanan’s expense and goading him on to do more such acts (the one in the museum is an example), predictably falls for him. Arya seems to be miscast in the role, sharing zilch chemistry with Tamannaah. Tamannaah looks gorgeous in some tastefully designed clothes. But unlike Rajesh’s earlier heroines, she has very little to do here. Santhanam’s wisecracks work in a couple of places, but fall flat most of the time.
Post-interval, one hoped that the scenario would improve. But it continues on the same graph, with more puerile humour and juvenile antics of the duo thrown in. The characters seem to be suffering from a heavy dose of verbal diarrhoea with non-stop conversations going on. After trying out almost everything, the director, in what seems like a desperate move, brings Shakeela into the scenario. She plays ‘Akila chechi’, a social activist supporting the cause of men jilted or harassed by their women. But the move backfires, for ‘Chechi’s’ entry provides no excitement. And then follows the entry of another hero in the picture, which again is just an add-on. The narration moves in bits and pieces here. It’s probably the weakest of Rajesh’s scripts to date. The director seems to have exhausted his stock of comic-gags and needs to rethink and reinvent. Or probably needs to explore another genre.