Film: Hello Naan Pei Pesuren
Director: S.Baskar
Cast: Vaibhav, Aishwarya Rajesh, Oviya, Karunakaran, VTV Ganesh, Yogi Babu
Participant in the short film TV reality show Naalaya Iyakunar, Baskar has chosen the horror -comic genre for his debut venture. Bankrolled by Sundar C who is adept at making films in the genre, Hello Naan... is a far more interesting take on the genre than many of the films we had got to see in recent times.
Entertaining for the most part, it has a first half that is hilarious and interesting. If the second half too had been crafted as diligently and skillfully as the earlier part, the film would have been a totally satisfying experience. The director has played down the horror-scenario and upped the humour-quotient and this has worked to the film’s advantage. Vaibhav is more relaxed here than he was in his earlier films. He has let down his defence and gone with the easy uninhibited flow of the character. He plays a petty thief who breaks into homes and makes himself comfortable there.
Falling for Kavita (Aishwarya), he woos her relentlessly. It’s when he steals a cell phone and brings it home that his problems begin. For, accompanying the phone and staying put in his home is the spirit of the girl to whom it belonged.
The ring tone of the phone is eerily cute and funny. Oviya plays the ghost with elan. The scene of Oviya’s back story as narrated by Karunakaran the lover who ditched her to marry another, is a hilarious one, Karunakaran at his funniest here.
For Aishwarya Rajesh who has mostly played staid roles, the latter part offers her a chance to showcase anew dimension to her performance. The early scenes where Yogi Babu a wannabe music composer and his two companions sing the popular Kyonki Thum Hi Ho.... number(Ashiqi-2) is hilarious. In fact it’s Yogi’s witty lines and the expressions to go with it, that pep up the initial moments of the film.
The dialogues are sparkling and the director generates humour even out of the most poignant situations.
The narration has quite a few blocks of fun moments which keep one laughing for the most part. Like the whole episode where Kavita’s brother (VTV Ganesh) who runs a troupe that dances at funerals, asks Vaibhav to master the moves if he was serious about marrying Kavita. There is a take on the Emotional Athyachaar... song number (of Hindi film Dev D) with a similar dress and act by two men. If the script falls short at any point, it’s at the place where Vaibhav and Ganesh bring in Games Samy (Singampuli) to exorcise the ghost, the whole exercise boring.
An impressive work of a debutant maker, the film at just about 110 minutes of viewing time is a fairly engaging watch.