Dev is essentially about where someone is headed in life. Its protagonist Dev (Karthi) is an adventure junkie - and the film establishes that pretty early. When we first see him, he’s trekking in the Himalayas. Minutes later, we see him plunging into a lake from quite a height. Clearly, Dev loves his travel.
It’s ironic that Dev, someone who loves the fast pace of life, doesn’t quite like the idea “speed dating”. He wants to fall in love, and that he does when he stumbles upon the Facebook profile of Meghna Padmavathy (Rakul Preet Singh), a high-flying CEO of a successful company. The entire film chronicles their adventures and the tribulations that come with it.
Dev tries taking the same road that earlier Kollywood flicks like Vinaithaandi Varuvaaya and Accham Enbadhu Madamayada took, but the results are pretty ordinary. Director Rajath Ravishankar seems to have been inspired by the Gautham Menon love universe quite a bit – Dev takes off on a road trip (remember Accham Enbadhu ...?) all of a sudden and later, strums the guitar during a song (remember Vaaranam Aayiram ?). It also seems to be no coincidence that Rakul is named Meghna in the film... remember Sameera Reddy from Vaaranam Aayiram ?
- Genre: Romance
- Cast: Karthi, Rakul Preet Singh, RJ Vignesh, Prakash Raj, Ramya Krishnan
- Storyline: A fun-loving youngster falls in love and has to undertake his dream adventure journey
The filmmaker’s writing of the male lead is a job done well but the relationship between him and Meghna isn’t. There’s no drama or complication – except those that the couple impose on themselves, for the sake of egging the film forward – and this goes on well into the second half. The presence of RJ Vignesh as a stand-up comedian lightens up things a bit, but even that doesn’t sustain interest after a while.
It’s interesting to see Karthi tread a path that his elder brother has travelled successfully before - sporting colourful jackets and shaking a leg to peppy Harris Jayaraj numbers that sound just like the songs he dished out a decade ago. ‘Oru Nooru Murai’ is pleasant, but the rest of the songs and the background score is as predictable as they come from the music composer’s stable of songs.
While Rakul looks apt for her part, she doesn’t quite convince in her ‘falling in love’ portions. Prakash Raj and Ramya Krishnan don’t get too much to do in between all the songs and a couple of needless action sequences.
The visuals by cinematographer Velraj are among the saving graces. It helps that he has picturesque locations – like the snow-clad Himalayas and the colourful background for the songs. Even Chennai looks a little posh. That might perhaps be the only achievement of Dev .
