Remo is made with a generous budget, has actors of calibre and an able technical team. What it lacks is a story that makes all their effort worthwhile. The promotional blitzkrieg focused on its lead actor Sivakarthikeyan donning the garb of a woman, a pretty-looking nurse to be precise. The actor appears all dolled up, with mascara-laden eyelashes, lip colour, perfect hairdo and a feminine gait to look the part of Remo (short for his cooked up name Regina Motwani).
The reason why he masquerades as a woman is laughable. SK (Siva) is a wannabe actor who fails miserably in auditions. He spots Dr. Kavya (Keerthy Suresh), and it’s love at first sight. She’s already engaged. But, like many on-screen heroes, he still wants to try his luck.
An audition that he does for director K.S. Ravikumar’s film (and fails, of course) as a nurse, comes in handy. Dressed like a nurse, he befriends Kavya, lands a job at the same hospital and thinks he can confuse the hell out of her since she’s going in for an arranged marriage, and will have no clue if the chosen guy is the right one for her.
Sathish Krishnan and Mottai Rajendran are SK’s allies. The trio add fun to some scenes; others fall flat perhaps because some of the references don’t have the same impact in dubbing. To the team’s credit, they’ve tried to add local flavour with Telugu hits playing in the background, references to Pawan Kalyan and a random shot of a Telugu television channel.
Remo looks aesthetic, thanks to cinematography by P.C. Sreeram, Sathyan Sooryan and M.S. Vivekanand and has peppy numbers by Anirudh Ravichander. For its scale and ambition, if only it had something better to narrate.
A guy trying to play on the inherent anxieties that any young woman entering an arranged marriage is bound to have can sustain interest only to some extent. Sure, she doesn’t know enough about her groom. Does she have a better alternative? The guy Divya meets (SK) woos her with fireworks, sky lanterns and presents her with a whistle! She turns, at first perplexed and later expecting to see him each time a whistle goes off. At one point, you want that shrill whistle to just stop. For an educated, working woman, it’s a surprise she doesn’t even once ask him what he’s doing.
Predictably, the groom chosen by her parents turns out to be a cheapskate. The drama would have been engaging at least if there had been a tough contest between the two men.
The film is peppered with chauvinistic dialogues where SK talks about girls being heart breakers and how they are the reason why boys make mistakes. Talk about saying anything to justify the hero’s absurdity in the name of love!
If there’s anything worth appreciating, besides technical values, it’s Siva Karthikeyan in the nurse avatar and the charming Keerthy Suresh. Those who’ve watched Siva Karthikeyan’s initial films would know that he’s been a part of much better projects and is capable of good work. As for Keerthy, she’s got potential and it will be a treat to watch her in a better, deserving film.
There’s a passing reference to Kamal Haasan’s Avvai Shanmugi ( Bhamane Satyabhamane in Telugu). That film had a strong emotional hook and some crackling wit that made viewers look past a few cringe-inducing moments. Remo doesn’t give its hero a strong reason to masquerade as a woman.
It’s just a boy-meets-girl story trying to look different.
- Sangeetha Devi Dundoo
Remo
Cast : Sivakarthikeyan, Keerthy Suresh
Direction : Bakkiyaraj Kannan
