YA YA MOVIE REVIEW

Ya Ya is a film directed by newcomer I. Rajasekaran and will mark the third release of the year for RJ turned actor Shiva who has a fourth one coming up next month. The film is expectedly a simple minded comedy about love and friendship.

The story begins on a good note with the introduction of Shiva and Santhanam, one is called Ramarajan and the other Rajkiran, named after the actors since their parents are big fans. The two however roam the streets assuming a different name – Dhoni and Sehwag respectively. While the initial set of scenes hinted that the film could take the Tamizh Padam kind of route by parodying the industry it soon dips its beak into the subject of love, and once Siva turns into a romantic this rom-com finds itself in no-man’s land.

The audiences watch Shiva’s films purely for the comedy and this film could have done with some more gags, especially since it features Santhanam too, but instead it stretches itself into love and betrayal segments that hamper the proceedings. A few more combination sequences between Shiva and Santhanam would have brought out more laughs with their contrasting yet complimenting style of timing and delivery.

As far as performances go, no one is really put to the task in this comedy caper. Shiva is his usual self and so is Santhanam, and both go about their business quite well. In a scene from Sonna Puriyathu Shiva threatens to dance to terrorize his nemesis but in this film the moves come without any warning!

Dhansika plays Sita, Shiva’s love interest, and it’s a simple role for the talented performer where she uses the opportunity to look attractive and shake a leg – something that she’s done very little of in her growing career. ‘Kadhal’ Sandhya makes a chirpy comeback to Tamil cinema as Ramarajan’s ‘mama ponnu’ Kanaka, and she’s effective in her comic portions.

The film also features Powerstar Sreenivasan who spends a lot of time doing impressions of all the top stars, sparing no one. His role is a brief one. Devadarshini plays the film’s cartoonish ‘villain’ as the buck toothed Councillor, and she performs with some effect.

Director Rajasekaran, a former associate of M.Rajesh, adopts the OKOK style of approach where there’s no real meaty story but the delivery being high on entertainment. But while Rajesh succeeds in his efforts by engaging the audience with a high dose of comedy and sparse use of sentiment and little else, this film finds it difficult to get the mix right.

Vijay Ebenezer’s songs make namesake appearances on the screen but Vetri’s camerawork is adept and presents moments that are good on the eye. T.S. Suresh’s editing is crisp and neat.