I was extremely impressed with the scenes in the school, when Dhanush and Shruti initially fall in love with each other. It did make me sit back and watch with a sense of admiration, the kind of detailing, makeup, acting, camerawork and direction that had gone into them. Dhanush and Shruti did look like school going kids. Looks apart, I would say it was superlative performances by both the actors to carry it through. Even the detailing and characterization of the girl’s family was outstanding. The physically intimate scene between the lead couple too does have this daring touch to it.
But once the 2nd flash back starts and the background to Dhanush’s suicide is slowly revealed, the film just collapses like a pack of cards heads into a free fall zone and becomes a disaster – in terms of structure, plot, storyline, acting, continuity, characterization. The strangest part is that even when the ultimate, most awaited and anticipated Kolaveri song arrives, it is a like a wet Diwali cracker, failing to go off. This is a craziest example of how the Kolaveri music video of the making of the song was so popular but the actual song filmed for the film, is a complete disaster. The motivation for it was simply out of place. Not a word or a clap or a whistle came from the audience though the cinema hall was full of young college kids. Even the other songs made no impact, looking very pale and weak. All the planned plot twists, crisis situations, tensions in the script, acting, motifs, visual effects, fail to work. They all seem to be planted without any logical growth or even a need. The disastrous slide of the hero into a psychopath, without any motivation, or growth in the characterization, seems to reflect in the film form too.
I kept wondering what motivated Aishwarya to make a film like this. What is it that she is trying to say?! Is she just trying her hand in making a commercial film with a different story? Or is she saying that all these school love stories end up with disastrous consequences. Or to be careful of rich boys falling in love with school going girls? Or boys who strongly propose to and follow young girls are potentially mentally deranged persons? Or is she creating a revolution by making the boy and girl marry and tie the mangalsutra in a pub with the censor lines below saying Alcohol is injurious to health? Or that she is creating an awareness about mental disorders. Whatever, but on all these counts it has to be said the film fails miserably.
In terms of performances, both Dhanush and Shruti have given their best, but their chemistry fails to lift off except in the school scenes. Shruti is better than her disastrous act in 7aum Arivu,but still, there is something unconvincing about her. Probably, she looks too rehearsed. For Dhanush, this is an easier role, as he has already done such roles in his earlier films, Mayakkam Enna for instance. Even the role of his friend Senthil (Sunder Ramu) is similar to the role in Mayakkam Enna. Rohini as Shruti’s mother brings about a refreshingly mature act as do Prabhu and Bhanupriya as Dhanush’s parents.
In spite of a unique but a rather strange overall chemistry of the film – Aishwarya Dhanush as the debutant director and daughter of superstar Rajinikanth, directing her husband, Dhanush, and Kamal Haasan’s daughter, Shruthi, the film produced by Dhanush’s father, music scored by the debutant Anirudh, her cousin, the film’s Kolaveri song already a huge hit, I could just not be engaged with the film or sympathize with the lead characters or the story line on the whole as the film progresses. Just like Ram’s character, his sudden slide, the structure and pacing of the film too becomes very weak and finally ends up committing hara-kiri as he does, ending rather abruptly with a title saying ‘a film by Aishwarya’.
Tamil, Romance, Drama, Color