There were good reviews about this movie on all channels as well as papers, so I went on a Sunday noon to see this movie (without an advance reservation). The movie was running to packed houses at Sathyam and Inox, and so I ended up going to Devi Theater. A few words about the theater first. Devi Theaters, which was the pioneer of DTS in Chennai, was considered one of the best theaters in the city. But now the theater is in a very bad state now but the tickets for the movie were sold out. We managed to get the Rs.30 tickets in ‘black’ for Rs.50. After wasting time at Sathyam to get tickets there we ended a few minutes late for the show at Devi and the ticket counters were closed. But a flower vendor sitting in front of the theater saw us coming late and immediately came to us and offered us tickets for the show that has just started. The guy who takes all the late entrants to their seats with a torch light for assistance was obviously in cahoots with the people who sell black tickets, as he was the one who collected the money from us. We found that there were people sitting in ‘our’ seats. The ‘torch guy’ verbally abused all the people occupying our seats at the top of his voice and chased them away to other seats. All this while a song was going on in the movie! It was damn funny and a bit embarrassing too as we were standing and blocking the view for many people even as the guy was chasing people away one by one.
The movie was good. It was a neat concept to start with. Sneha has lots of friends and likes to be in big social circle. So she readily accepts Cheran’s hand for marriage (arranged) as he lives in a huge joint family. The marriage is shown rather elaborately in Chettinad style and looks good on the big screen. Cheran finds it difficult to have privacy with his wife while being in such a huge joint family, even as Sneha loves it. So he is overjoyed when he gets transferred (Cheran works in a power station) to a remote but picturesque village in the hills. Sneha is silently devastated even as her relatives congratulate her saying she would be having a prolonged honeymoon in their new place.
Cheran is away at work from morning to evening and Sneha occasionally keeps herself occupied by visiting her neighbour. But the loneliness slowly gets to her as she gets depressed and does strange things like recording the sounds she hears everyday. She also desperately seeks the company of people and purposely pulls out the nuts of the fan mounting or damages other items so that the electricians or any other repair men come home and she can have some one to talk to. These scenes are well shot and directed. ‘Kanja’ Karuppu once again does a good job playing a role that does not take up too much of the screen time in the name of a comedy track. Sneha’s acting is realistic and so is that of Cheran who lives up to his title of ‘Edhartha Nayagan’. But the story which runs at a leisurely pace for 2 hours suddenly starts to move rapidly and in the process loses some credibility. Jayaram, who portrays the doctor, diagnoses the ailment of Sneha just from the one line uttered by her when he visits her house and on hearing the sounds she has recorded. And immediately the movie hurtles on predictable lines to the end. Irrespective of the rather incongruous ending, the movie is a good watch. A decent family movie (as claimed by the movie makers) that does not have unnecessary melodrama in the name of romance and action and has already begun attracting repeat audiences.
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