Calling Yaanum Theeyavan generic would be an understatement. It’s like calling Sachin Tendulkar a ‘decent’ batsman. Lacking specificity, here’s a film that would have worked just as well even if they’d name the hero ‘A’ and the heroine ‘B’. But the makers call him Mike (Ashwin Jerome) and her Sowmya (Varsha Bollamma, who not only looks but even acts like Nazriya) instead. The hero does heroic things. He’s the lead guitarist of the college rock band and even as he woos the college with his singing (and dancing with a guitar) skills, he proposes to her. Sowmya, expectedly, acts heroine-like. When she’s not busy depriving Mike of a kiss, she’s busy snatching cigarettes off him.
As a romantic couple, they do what’s expected of them… they canoodle during movies, hangout with silly friends and go on long walks. So when these two run into a deranged criminal, Pasupathy (Raju Sundaram), we expect this remarkably bland love story to turn into a thriller.
- Director: Prashanth G Sekar
- Cast: Ashwin Jerome, Varsha Bollamma, Raju Sundaram
- Storyline: A newly-married couple moves into an apartment above that of a psycho killer’s
But no such luck there. It takes another half hour or so for the film to finally move along. The couple, now married, moves into an apartment just above that of Pasupathy’s. It’s where the film should ideally have begun. And when we expect the film to turn into a Saw-like thriller, it meanders even further with a lengthier sub-plot involving Pasupathy and the criminal-politician nexus. Instead of feeling the hopelessness of being trapped in a house full of criminals, we’re back feeling bored again.
Much of the blame for this comes from the generic writing. It’s like the crew has set off to make a film without ever developing anything fully. Expectedly, the results too aren’t remarkable. It’s not the lead actors…it’s the audience that’s trapped.
