A middle-aged woman (Jyotika), trapped between family duties and a mundane clerical job, discovers herself after a disastrous encounter with the President of India.
First things first. Suriya has to be commended for producing the ideal film for wife Jyotika to stage a comeback after 8 long years. To make a film that revolves around a female protagonist in a hero-centric industry takes guts and on top of that, the film addresses issues extremely relevant to most, if not all, Indian women in their mid 30s today. That said, the film is not really original, being the re-make of director Rosshan Andrrews own Malayalam film, How Old Are You, itself a comeback vehicle for Manju Warrier!
One is bound to compare the two films, especially since 36 Vayadhinile follows the original pretty faithfully with only some minor changes, so much of what I want to say about the film is already there in my review of the earlier Malayalam film. Consequently, it might make sense to read that review here, as much of what works in the original works here and what does not, doesn’t do so here either. Definitely, one right decision taken in Tamil was to reduce the length to 115 minutes that makes the film crisper, while beginning with the Rasaathi number over the opening credit titles works really well. The dialogues make some pertinent points and are thought-provoking as well. However, the insertion of the flashback sequences add nothing to the film at all.
Both films depend on the central comeback performance. Jyotika looks absolutely radiant and does manage to carry the film on her shoulders, but never quite looks like she is stuck in the drudgery of life the way Manju Warrier did in the original. I would say Manju Warrier’s performance had an edge over this one and was the more complete act with a better character graph and greater depth. Also, there are bits where Jyotika is OTT and cutesy, cutesy that doesn’t quite come off now in her mid 30s. And then there’s the fact that her lines always have to be dubbed so she is also dependent on the ‘performance’ of the dubbing artist. Still, she does have her share of effective moments in the film and one can say that overall, it is a good return for her. But the bigger flaw here is Rahman as the husband, who takes his wife for granted and somewhere has even stopped respecting her. He comes across as a nasty cad, even worse than Kunchacko Boban in the original, and thus, the moment at the end with the President appears even more ludicrous here, when his approval becomes Jyotika’s happiest moment. Amritha Anil reprises her role as the protagonist’s daughter and is pretty much the same in both films, as is Siddharth Basu as the President of India. The rest of the supporting cast is fine and it is nice to see fine actors like Nasser, Delhi Ganesh and Mohan Raman in small cameos.
The film is technically adequate in terms of production design, camerawork and editing, while Santhosh Narayan adds to the film with the songs especially Rasaathi but it has to be said here that the background score is very ordinary.
Overall, 36 Vayadhinile has its heart in the real place, makes some important points, is decent viewing and provides Jyotika with a good enough comeback to the Tamil screen.
Tamil, Drama, Color
After a gap of some 7-8 years, Jyothika makes it to the big screen last weekend. Jyothika was last seen in the Mozhi film. A very good review upperstall thanks..!
Romba Nandri!
I would say that Jyothika has done more justice to the role than Manju. Manju has a problem which actually has stopped her from achieving her potential and that is the fact that she takes herself far too seriously. It is never a pleasure to watch someone indulging in self importance and she is one such person. Her movies never excite me, although to be fair on her, she chooses her roles wisely. This is why Jyothika comes acoss better in the movie. There is something endearing and unpredictable about Jyothika. Neither does she, unlike Manju, throw her weaight around. She doesn’t have that kind of vanity. She takes you on a philosophical journey to realising identity and fulling a dream regardless of age and gender (as the movie is intended to), wheras Manju tells you a story (probably her story!) through the movie. Jyothika’s presentation of the character is compelling than Manju’s. As I said, Manju must give up her uppity attitude and take herself less seriously to connect with her audience. That said, Jyothika must improve on her posture, she is often seen bent when she does those dance steps and walks on the streets. She must work on her posture, her fitness instructure is doing a bad job if she hasn’t been advised of that. Also I would have thought, Jyothika being a Bombay girl would wear better cotton sarees and create the Jyothika style sarees like Manju did through the movies (although Manju’s sarees were as doom and gloom as her persona). Jyothika is very pretty, she could enhance her personality if she had a personal adviser on style and appearance. She is still on the plumper side, and her age will catch up very quickly unless she corrects her posture and if she doesn’t do something about her hairstyle and dressing. I am not suggesting they be flambouyant, but she needs a revamp as far as her sarees are concerned. I have never liked Manju, she is too full of herself and I could never enjoy any movie of her because she is working far too hard to create a brand of herself. It is an utter and total turn off. I think she will soon sleepwalk into being a typecast.
Nidhi,
Thanks for your feedback.
To each his own. I found more depth and layering to Manju Warrier’s performance.
But as I said to each his own. Cheers!