Uthamaputhiran

A remake of the Telugu film Ready, Uthamaputhiran has as cliched a start as it can get with Shriya, in a guest appearance, running away from her marriage. While Mithran R Jawahar’s earlier film, Yaaradi Nee Mohini (2008), touched a chord, this script with a hackneyed storyline does not. The comedy is good in the first part of the film but post-interval, it simply grates your nerves.

Siva (Dhanush) is a college student who is ready to help anyone in distress. When his friend’s girlfriend is about to be forcibly married to another person, he and his group rush to rescue her but by mistake carry off Pooja (Genelia). To their surprise, she is happy about it as she was being forced to marry her uncle’s son as they want her property. She falls in love with Siva and manages to stay in Siva’s house. Whether the couple is united or not forms the rest of the story.

The first part of the film still manages to go along like a breezy enough entertainer but the second part, where Dhanush’s family stages a drama to convince Genelia’s uncles to let her marry him, merely ends up looking rather artificial and silly. In fact, the second part suddenly looks like a whole new film with new characters turning up and the style of the film changing. Despite a large ensemble of good actors, the film falls flat as the script is far too predictable to keep the audience engaged.

Dhanush performs his role with ease and it does not anyway offer too much of scope for histrionics. For Genelia, this is just one more of her bubbly roles and her performance is standard Genelia. Vivek as Emotional Ekambaram livens up the second part of the film with his entry and his chemistry with Dhanush brings the roof down and these are among the best moments in the otherwise predictable film. Aarthi brings in chuckles too. Mayilsamy and Karunas do their bit well. Of the rest, K Bhagyaraj performs well especially in emotionally charged scenes where he berates Genelia for breaking an award which was the pride of his life and later when he softens as he realizes that she has just taken upon the blame upon herself to protect his sister-in-law. Yesteryear actresses Rekha, Ambika and Rajalakshmi evoke a sense of nostalgia and play their roles as housewives well. Uma Padmanabhan is her lively self. Ashish Vidyarthy’s and Jayaprakash’s characters are for the most part caricatures rather than villains. The climax is a big letdown and the events that lead up to it also do not seem convincing enough.

On the technical side, music by Vijay Antony is quite catchy. Usuma Larase is a catchy song and the melodious En Nenju is worth mentioning too. The camera work is good, the foreign locales have been exploited well. The fight sequence shot on a highway near a mountain is especially good with its innovative angles and presentation.