CHANDAMAMA MOVIE REVIEW

Karunas is a good comedian, provided that he is given a good scope and character to perform. His tryst as lead actor in films such as 'Dindigul Sarathy', 'Ambasamudram Ambani', might have produced mixed results, but it has not stopped him from doing further lead roles. 'Chandamama' is one such venture, and here, he plays the role of a untalented novelist-wannabe.

The cast comprised mostly of experienced artistes, so it was just a walk-in-the-park for most of them. Karunas, was in his elements doing comedy scenes, but also gets to try out more emotional sequences as well and is passable overall. Shwetha Basu has potential to be a good artiste, if she tutelage under a good director. Harish Kalyan, though was very poor in all aspects ! R.Sundarrajan, M.S Bhaskar, Ilavarasu, Sujatha, G.M Kumar, Madan Bob, Mohan Ram, Kottachi, 'Crane' Manohar and etc all were decent enough for their roles.

'Mafia' Sasi and 'Fire' Karthik were credited for stunt practices, but what was their exact contribution, is a mystery. Mani Suchitra's art work was simple and apt for the low budget of the film. G.Murali's editing should be noted for keeping the length of the film from being over-stretched. Anandha Kuttan's cinematography was sufficient enough. Nothing more to discuss about the camera work. Srikanth Deva's score was pretty bad. "Koyambedu Silk" is a regular dance number, which was shot in a market setting and had Raghasiya as the item girl. Kudos to Karunas, for attempting to dance well. "Yaarodi" is a melody, which was shot on the lead pair in villages, lakes, paddy fields and dams. "Kandene" is a bit song, which comes in as a situational song, which was shot on Harish, recording it in Srikanth Deva's studio. "Narayana" is a dance number, which was shot on Sridhar and also a few montage sequences were inserted, into the video clip. Srikanth Deva's background score was worse, as he fails to balance the synchronization between humor and emotional scenes. The movie, almost had a complete melodramatic score, throughout !

R.Radhakrishnan's script, was a very poorly written one, which is not in tune with current circumstances. Songs are simply thrown in for the sake of having them. Dialogues by P.S Ramnath were just adequate. The screenplay was too boring, which makes us to lose interest in watching the artistes perform. Its still a puzzle, if the director wanted to come out with a comedy film or a melodramatic, one. But whatever it is, he fails miserably in both genres, if you go according to the scenes.

'Chandamama' - might have been bearable for the audiences of smaller towns and villages of a couple of decades ago !


Ratings: 1/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL