Earlier this year, S Ve Shekher brought back his comedy play Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam after 40 years — with some of the cast intact. There was no improvisation apart from the fact that he had snipped about an hour from the original. He has carried over that unwillingness to adapt to this (forced) sequel to a 1982 feature that genuinely elicited situational laughs.
In Manal Kayiru 2 , it’s confusing whether we’re witnessing bad cinema or an unbearable stage play that was lazily recorded (the camera work is terrible and inconsistent). The verve that the actors brought back then – as Kittumani (Shekher), who set unrealistic conditions for marriage, and the wily Naradhar Naidu (Visu), who took up the task of finding an eligible bride – is completely missing in the next generation. The first part had puns on why Kittumani’s wife is cooking chicken like chakaravalli kezhangu (sweet potato) that still make us chuckle; here, when a girl says “matches are made in heaven”, Arjun (Ashwin Shekhar) replies, “No. Matches are made in Sivakasi.” And that’s not the least of the torture we have to endure.
Genre: Comedy-drama
Starring: S Ve Shekhar, Ashwin Sshekhar, Poorna, Visu
Storyline: A sequel that deals with the same subject of conditional marriage with reversed gender roles
Bottomline: An unfunny stage play in the guise of a film
The gender roles are reversed now, with Kittumani’s daughter Nisha (Poorna) demanding that her husband to-be meet eight conditions. A very tired-looking Naradhar Naidu — Visu’s signature voice has completely faded with time — wishes to extend his services one more time. Along with his assistant Swami (Swaminathan), he once again plots the necessary deceits. What we’re left with are an old timer’s principles on life and marital compromise that haven’t changed since 1982, and to be fair, a few successful gags in between.
One of the conditions that Nisha sets for the groom is that he shouldn’t have an affinity for films or politics (yes, in 2016) and Naidu says: “Very good! That means she wants someone who can’t act.” Maybe they meant it as an acknowledgement of Ashwin’s skills, who elicits more facepalms than laughter from the audience, especially with his presence in two unnecessary commercial placements — a love duet in Malaysia and a depressed-guy kuththu song. What is a source of relief though is that he’s a Tamil film hero with an MBA degree and a job (acting in his friend’s cringe-worthy commercials).
S Ve Shekher keeps these fragile elements together. His digs on contemporary politics are very visible, but so are his own, current affiliations. His in-your-face display of the tricolour protruding from his breast pocket may be easy to spot, but pay enough attention and you’ll see a clever slip in of a Swachch Bharat poster too.
It’s quite clear that if Manal Kayiru 2 was made into a play, it would mean repeating this flaccid attempt at humour hundreds of times. Easier to record it on camera and hit them en masse , director Madhan Kumar would have thought.
