Gautham Menon is one film maker who had already established his style of work through movies like melodiously fresh ‘Minnale’, pathbreaking ‘Kakka Kakka’, thrilling ‘Vettayadu Vilayadu’ and national award winning ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’. I would like to forget the unoriginal ‘Pachaikili Muthucharam’, which was a direct lift from ‘Derailed’ – a B grade Hollywood movie.Gautham’s new venture – Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (VTV) – falls into the genre ‘love story’. We have seen countless love stories, almost everyone coming with a tag ‘different’. So how different is this movie, let us see.
The movie evolves on Karthik (Silambarasan), a 22 year old engineering graduate chasing the dream of becoming a film maker, and Jessie (Thrisha), a 23 year old program analyst by profession. Jessie belongs to an orthodox malayali christian family. She is loved by everyone in her family and has been raised under strict surveillance of her father Joseph (Baby Antony). Karthik’s life transforms when she meets Jessie (and trust me it is a very casual – non cinematic - meeting) and Jessie’s world changes when Karthik confesses his love towards her. With minor twists and turns in their life, their confused minds sail through a confused relationship and wrecks when she finally decides to forget him. Karthik moves on to become a film maker and years later meets Jessie (a very inevitable cinematic meeting). And within minutes the movie comes to an end.I know the above storyline is no better from any of the love stories we had seen. But this is it! VTV doesn’t bother about its story line – it revolves around the characters. And that is the biggest strength of the movie – the biggest weakness too! Gautham’s new movie is not about incidents, it is about characters. The movie starts, flows and ends with its protagonists.
Simbu has never been this lovable. His acts and mannerisms are natural and have been well captured. Thrisha is beautiful and charming as always, she gets through the ‘confused in love’ Jessie with ease. Ganesh is good and Babu Antony is impressive. Eventhough we have Kitty (Sivakumar – Karthik’s father), Uma Padmanaban, K. S. Ravikumar as himself etc, we really does not care much about them. The story is entirely woven on Karthik and Jessy.A R Rahman’s tunes for Thamarai’s beautiful Lyrics is passable but background score is harmonious. Of the songs "Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa" melodiously sung by Karthik stays back with us. The tracks which comes in the second half does not fit the flow. Maybe an independent session with the tracks might makes them rated better – like most of Rahman’s tunes.
Manoj Paramahamsa’s cinematography and Anthony’s cuts are perfect and adds high value to the seamless narration. Rajeevan’s Art direction is adequate. Nalini Sriram’s costumes are simple, realistic and exquisite. Flexi Stu’s Choreography has got nothing new to offer.
Gautham Menon should be commented for extracting decent and lovable performances from the leads. VTV starts good, lacks pace in the middle, and even though the climax (which portrays the difference between reel life and real life) might strike as a surprise, fails to give a last minute impression. In the end, Gautham has successfully made a watchable movie with a weak storyline and engaging screenplay - thanks to chemistry between Silambarasan and Thrisha.Recommendation: Nice weekend watch with your friends
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Labels: Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, Gautham Menon, Cinema, review, തമിഴ് സിനിമ, ദൃശ്യന്, വിണ്ണൈത്താണ്ടി വരുവായാ
