In 1994, for an interview with Empire Magazine , Quentin Tarantino said, “I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don’t like that, then tough tills, don’t go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don’t do homages.” Sudheer Varma endorses the first line in the film. Pay attention and you’ll also notice that BitTorrent is listed as a media partner and that just marks the beginning of the director’s tongue-in-cheek humour.
The story is about a stolen idol of Ganesha from Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram and how it changes hands and finally lands into the hands of Surya (Nikhil), Bhanu (Pooja Ramachandran) and Ravi (Sathya), these three people make pick-pocketing look breezy and at times, even sexy. Swati (Swati) comes into the picture when Surya steals her bike in order to run from a pick-pocketing scenario gone wrong. Mix in lots of lying that includes claiming to be a software engineer, they fall in love. There are many people interested in the idol and the story is about numerous double-triple-quadruple-penta-hecta-hexa-octa-nana-crossings, lots of chasing around, ending in a Mexican stand-off that not-so-surprisingly includes more than three people.
Nikhil looks sophisticated and Pooja brings a tough-guy spirit to the screen. Swati is her usual self, giving into over-expression at times; while we liked her hair bands, the ones with flowers were over the top. Ravi Babu as the ‘bad-guy-with-a-comic-side-kick’ is rather entertaining.
If we were to pick three things in the film that were alluring, we’d go with the suave pick-pocketing! The networked act of pick-pocketing looks so ‘cool’ that you’ll want to take lessons! The music is our next choice and we wholeheartedly welcome songs sans the dance! The music compliments the well-edited sequences of the film, like the scenes with stylised slow-motion. The third thing we’d pick is the cinematography — where you see fresh and quirky camera angles, slides and pans and Richard Prasad achieves a certain visual aesthetic. You’ll find many references to Guy Ritchie and Tarantino in the film, some of these references can be seen as props laid out in the film.
It is good filmmaking because the film rightfully engages the visual medium to tell a story, influenced it might be; but that cannot take away from the fact that it is a well-shot film. Editing too is excellent, the opening sequence with Jogi Brothers connects itself to the middle in a seamless fashion, add to this bold and bright colours and an ensemble of characters, you're probably doing it right. Besides, you won half the battle when the title you choose for the film proves to be relevant!
Cast: Nikhil, Pooja, Sathya, Swati, Ravi Babu
Genre: Crime-comedy
Direction: Sudheer Varma
Music: Sunny MR
Plot: How does one get stuck in a villain's quest to acquire a stolen Ganesh Idol.
Bottomline: The film will pick-pocket your brain and you’ll most probably end up feeling richer, if not a millionaire
