THILLU MULLU MOVIE REVIEW

'Thillu Mullu' is a legendary film, directed by K.Balachander and ably performed by Superstar Rajinikanth and Thengai Seenivasan, who made their roles memorable ! And when one is to remake one of the classiest comedy films of Tamizh cinema, it takes a bucket load of guts and dare to do it, and to have Shiva to reprise the role of Rajini's, the stakes just shoot several notches higher. Badri has taken the extremely daunting challenge, by remaking the cult hit. Did he succeed in making any sort of justifications for his actions ?

Shiva, does what Ajith did when the latter donned the role of 'Billa', another role made memorable by Rajinikanth. He made the role as his own, without any imitations of the Superstar. His stoic expressions, with a poker face, is his USP and he plays to the gallery with them. He pulls of his comic portions with consummate ease ! The naughty and quirky smile adds more sheen to both character(s) he portrays in the film. Prakash Raj, dons the role of Thengai Seenivasan's, and he too follows Shiva's way by not imitating the legendary actor, and utilizing his own creativity to the hilt. It must have definitely been a cake walk to the veteran performer. Isha Talwar makes her debut in Tamizh cinema, and is lucky enough to have an easy role to do. A big bunch of comedians such as Kovai Sarala (in her usual loud self), Soori, Sathyan, Manobala, Ilavarasu, Sachu, Monisha, Devadarshini, Ajay Rathnam, Swaminathan, Ashwin Raja and George contribute to the fun quotient of the film. As for cameos, there are Venkat Prabhu, cinematographer Sakthi Saravanan, rapper Blaaze, Bosskey, Valeri Nobbe, and Shivashankar but the grandest of it, goes to the one and only Santhanam, who was in his usual wise-cracking elements ! He takes center-stage in an extended cameo, and happily entertains us, with his one-liners !

The technical department of the film was functional with their contributions, and there's pretty much nothing to rave about in particular. 'Thalapathy' Dinesh and 'Dragon' Prakash's stunt choreography was quite overboard, though it fitted the style and presentation of the overall film. R.K Vijay Murugan's production design was okay, especially with the interior props of the protagonist's middle-class home and the posh bungalow and office premises of Prakash Raj's character. Praveen K.L and Srikanth N.B have done their best, to keep the film racy and not languorous in its pace, though two songs in the second half were absolute speed breakers. J.Lakshmanan's cinematography was adequate, though his song picturization was quite ordinary, considering the brilliant works being showcased in contemporary Tamizh cinema by fellow cinematographers.

M.S Viswanathan and Yuvan Shankar Raja join hands for the first time in composing songs for a film. The legendary latter's two songs have been retained for this film, while Yuvan has composed another set of two fresh songs. The cult opening title song, "Thillu Mullu" had both the composers making a cool cameo, along with Canadian singer Tha Prophecy, in a video song mixed with funny montage clips. "Kai Pesi" was shot on the lead pair, in nice locations with simple building landmarks, and interspersed with funny montage sequences of Shiva day-dreaming of his heroine. "Aaja Aaja" was shot in a Dubai club, and also had scenic views of Dubai, with a glamorous Isha Talwar. "Raagangal Padhinaaru" was also shot in more picturesque locations in Dubai, especially in the desert landscape. The background score was just functional, along with some nice touches of melody, sprinkled in few moments.

Badri has taken the basic thread of Sachin Bhowmick's story and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's screenplay and made a more contemporary slapstick mould of the original comedy film. The film is enjoyable, especially with the funny and wacky one-liners of T.Balaji and Ramesh Vaidhya's. But for those who have watched the original, the unchanged storyline might bore you, since one is familiar with all the twists and turns. Badri has made use of his artistes USP to good use for the film and incorporated all of their pluses into his style of presentation of 'Thillu Mullu'. As mentioned earlier, the crisp film could be even better, if the songs did not play as mere speed-breakers, especially in the second half. Some sequences have been especially inserted into the screenplay, just for the sake of making use of the artistes' performance style and ability. The eccentricity and zany attitude of the original is not present in this, loud and clumsy film, which might be a turn-off for the fans of the original.

'Thillu Mullu' - Badri comes unscathed in his remake attempt but still some classics can be just left untouched.


Ratings: 2.75/5 STARS

BY:TAMIL