Actually it's tough to understand the route ‘Thillalangadi' (U) takes, and the screenplay and direction don't better matters. By the time you realise that behind the comic façade lies a tale of a serious do-gooder you lose patience. Is it really from the stable of the king of remakes? Where is the insight and individuality director Raja displayed in his ‘M. Kumaran,' ‘Unakkum Enakkum' and ‘Santosh Subramaniam'?
This remake of ‘Kick' doesn't do justice to the humour element that was the mainstay of the Telugu original – ‘Jayam' Ravi struggles to make an impact in ‘Thillalangadi.' The brothers, director Raja and hero Ravi, who've served us many a hit, lose their grip this time. Raja ought to have fathomed Ravi's limitations in the comedy genre and worked out strategies to make his performance spontaneous. A commercial film needn't be plausible, but it can't afford to be impossible.
When the story, which moves in a particular direction, changes tack, it proves a turn for the worse. The viewer, who is waiting for some respite from the line that gets increasingly confounding, finds the rambling an added onus. Krishna (‘Jayam' Ravi) and Nisha (Tamannaah) had been lovers once upon a time, but his rolling-stone-approach to life and profession put her off. She is all set to get married to Krishna Kumar (Shaam), a police officer. But has she really got over Krishna?
The sequence for the song ‘Sol Paechu Kaetkaadha …' is interestingly conceived but still you cannot forgive Raja's screenplay or Yuvan's score. The music is a far cry from what the composer is capable of, and the song sequences that are oft recurring speed-breakers in the screenplay, erupt at the most unseemly moments. Thankfully, the item number towards the end has been cut short.
About the cast
Like Ravi, Tamannaah is a misfit too. Over-reacting to situations most of the time, she comes up with an unappealing show. Vadivelu is the usual nincompoop he portrays in films -- the silliness evokes laughter at times. Sad that Manivannan and ‘Kaadhal' Dandapani have been relegated to a corner with a two-line dialogue each. In the entire melee the only actor who emerges with a sensibly underplayed performance is Shaam.
You can't believe that parents such as Prabhu and Suhasini exist! Their son is behaving in the most bizarre manner possible and they don't seem to mind it one bit! In fact they seem to be quite proud of the son's eccentricity.
So what do you say about a film that tries hard to be funny and serious at once, a hero who projects himself as an aimless wanderer and is also a Robin Hood at the same time, a heroine who comes up with the same kind of expressions in scene after scene and a comedian who tickles in fits and starts?
Quagmire of confusion!
