Film: Romeo Juliet
Director: Lakshman
Cast: Jayam Ravi, Hansika Motwani
At least there’s a nice idea in Romeo Juliet . Karthick (a bland Jayam Ravi) is a gym trainer. Aishwarya (Hansika Motwani, flawlessly implementing the acting mantra of treating everyone around as if they were her 97-year-old grandfather) is a flight attendant. He’s a modest man, content with life on treadmill-mode, but she has her head in the clouds — she wants to marry rich. They come together when she mistakes him for someone with a Benz and a house on Boat Club Road.
The most interesting stretch of Romeo Juliet — on paper; certainly not in execution — is when Aishwarya finds out the truth about Karthick, and because he’s fallen for her and won’t let her go so easily, she decides to teach him a cruel lesson. She takes him to fancy places and makes him spend tons of money to show him the kind of life she wants.
Karthick, in a turn of events quite rare for Tamil cinema, debases himself constantly. Later, of course, he gets his spine back.
The film, though, is a disaster. It’s impossible to digest the overall preposterousness. The writing is painfully inconsistent. It’s a new kind of screenwriting. Everything’s a bit, just for that moment — who cares about consistency and narrative arcs?
It might have helped if the jokes were funny. Maybe the characters are the real joke. Take Aishwarya’s super-rich fiancé (Vamsi Krishna). What kind of business tycoon coolly hands over the operations of his company to a flight attendant? Ah, but again, I’m thinking about logic-u. Clearly, I’m no youth-u.
Baradwaj Rangan
