VISITOR COLUMN

Saravanan, the chief of Engeyum Eppothum - a movie that still remains in every ones heart has ventured on to this romance/action genre for his second release. Vikram Prabhu has equally been impressive like Saravanan, in his Kumki and this combo does add up to make an impressive crowd pulling factor despite being that important second outing for both, after a promising start. 

Opening with the minister of law himself creating a riot inside a law college after his 'minister quota' was refused. Vikram Prabhu (Gunasekaran), keeps watch on minister's brother Vamsi Krishna (Eeswaran - who does the illegal works for him) and times his assault on him to keep him from not surrendering being out on bail. The minister, who bailed his brother out has to face the consequence of going to jail. This is why our hero - the brave social thinker, took this risk.

Surabhi (Malini) makes her debut in a good role. The leads make a good pair on screen. Right from restricting Vikram Prabhu from urinating on road, allowing the stranger in and then asking who he was, following the hero on the streets to return his fish, the girl with arrears in double digits was nice on the eye and also on the act. Seeking help from school going sister, this girl manages to win the heart of our hero. As Vikram Prabhu wished for, the minister (Hariraj) can't find his brother on time and he gets arrested. Our hero thus releases the captive to signal the break.

The accidents on road during a chase, close to climax ensure that no other director in Tamil can show accidents more realistically. Camera and VFX have worked out that part well. Whether Vikram rescues Surabhi or not is the remaining.

Sathya has given the tunes and his work sometimes reminds us of Engeyum Eppothum. ‘Ranga Ranga’ and ‘Thanimayile’ have some interesting lyrics. Camera of Shakthi and Sreekar Prasad’s editing makes a good combo, but the movie runs for a full 2 hours and 30 minutes, which might have been reduced. Stunts of Rajasekar were realistic to some extent. Ganesh Venkatraman (Aravindan) reflects the role of police personnel again after ‘Unnai Pol Oruvan’ and is successful again. 

Directors giving movies like ‘Engeyum Eppothum’ might be well received by critics but they don't always enjoy a good sustainability in field and recognition among the audience as a hopeful. They don’t get to experience stardom. I may be wrong, but this might be one tempting reason for Saravanan to go to this genre, which was normal after the high standard of his successful and critically accepted previous work.

It is getting a formality in the movies to use construction sites as a perfect place for hiding the kidnapped captives. Wonder why all the construction sites stop constructing for that the kidnappers can use that place! Police as usual find the body of a dead after days. Just to see minister get arrested, a newspaper seller saying that he feels about satisfied in his job is too much. Similarly, naming a child at the time of filling school admission form is unrealistic. M.Saravanan has to be careful next time around, several silly things like these might be very hard on him and a threat to success. However the director does create the cuteness in love again and all the scenes do have good planning.

A movie that has scope for SUV’s and rowdies to fly around but the route our director chooses to convey his narration does make it slightly, but very slightly – DIFFERENT.

Marks: 7/10