The tirade of movies, love stories set in the backdrop of villages, after the surprise success of Kalavani has not really stopped. Konjam Veyil Konjam Mazhai, with a lyrical title, is one such. The problem with Konjam Veyil Konjam Mazhai is that it lacks Kalavani’s candor and its portrayal of close to life characters. Unlike Kalavani, the movie travels beyond the village and into the city, finding its root back in the village soon enough. That is not a bad thing; besides, the director also has an imprecise conviction of realism that he portrays in the movie.

By now, we are already experiencing an overdose of village love stories and the all the forms of that genre have been tried and tested upon - which makes us feel like we are going through the revival of Bharathiraja era but only with less intense and legendary movies. The formulaic tale here seems to be a blossoming love affair set amidst a hardnosed bunch of people (families, village elders and the ubiquitous characters of such movies the maternal uncle himself). So we have all the archaic characters required. But surprisingly, Konjam Veyil Konjam Mazhai takes a different turn from then on. For better? If only!

Cupid strikes Tej and Geethika, who are in the same class, but when the rest of the village comes to know of the same, opposition crops up from ten different directions. Their life takes different turns and the hidden love tears their love apart.

Now the theme is not fresh or unseen, but it still has potential to be explored. But what goes wrong is the sense of amateurishness running through the vein of the movie. The character portrayal lacks depth, for instance although the love between Tej and Geethika are given good screen space, Geethika’s mysterious denial of the affair is baffling. We understand the director wants it to be an explosive twist but he conveniently forgot to place scenes that substantiate such a move. The portrayal of realism is unsubtle at best and on your face.

Since melodrama rules, it becomes imperative for the actors to have good acting skills. However, it is largely compromised and the sense of amateurishness prevails throughout the movie. Technical aspects are not certainly among the pluses of the movie. So is Bharani’s music that is flat and lifeless.

On the whole, Konjam Veyil Konjam Mazhai is director Egadesi’s attempt to portray a different dimension of village love. An attempt in vain, so to say.

Verdict: Lots of nothingness!