Dhayanidhi Azhagiri's Meeka Entertainment collaborates with Varun Manian's Radiance Media for this oddly titled filmed, 'Vadacurry'. Saravana Rajan, a former assistant of Venkat Prabhu makes his debut in this film, which has the 'Subramaniapuram' pair of Jai and Swathi Reddy back together. The director confesses in the beginning stages, that the film's title has no whatsoever connection with the script, so what will this film be all about ?
Jai dons a role which has no dissimilarities from his previous works. Its the same quintessential middle-class boy, who is soft-spoken yet sneaky and a little naughty in nature. Its a neat performance from him and the director has some deadpan-humor type of dialogues for Jai, which our hero delivers effortlessly. Swathi Reddy looks very pretty and cute but as it is with regular Tamizh cinema, her character has no bearing on the script. The film definitely belongs to RJ Balaji, who keeps us entertained with his quintessential gibberish dialogues, for which he is popular for. He is the lifeline of the film and without him, it would have been pretty difficult to carry ourselves watching this film. The rest of the cast such as Aruldoss, Kasthuri, Ajay Raj, Sai Prasath, Misha Ghoshal, Ramachandran and etc have pedestrian roles. There are cameo appearances from Venkat Prabhu, Premgi Amaren and Mahat Raghavendra, with Venkat having more screen timing.
Anusha Dhayanidhi is in charge of the costume designing and her works for the lead pair is commendable, which is realistic yet pleasing for the eyes. Swathi was very pretty and cute, in particular. Action choreography is handled by K.Ashok and the major sequence is the climax fight, which was very neatly composed and is not over-the-top, and also suits Jai's physical attributes and personality. Tha.Ramalingam takes care of the art department and his props setting was spot on, especially with Jai's lower middle class home setting and also with the numerous factory and warehouse environment, which were pivotal to the script's story-line. Praveen K.L's editing is crisp, and he keeps the duration of the film short, where it reaches just above 2 hours. The editing in songs, especially has his stamp all over and added more quality output for the visuals. Cinematography is by Venkatesh.S and has done a neat job. The warehouse sequences have good lighting, which enhances the quality of the visuals and the climax fight sequence was well shot.
Music is done by debutante duo Vivek Siva & Mervin Solomon, who worked as sound engineers for Anirudh Ravichander before. The songs are peppy and blends well with the mood and presentation of the film. "Kelunganne Kelunga" is the opening song and was shot on Jai and the characters revolving around him and his lifestyle. The lower middle-class scenario was well captured for this song, which has plenty of montages, put well by Praveen K.L. "Low Aana Life-U" sung by Anirudh Ravichander, had the much talked about special appearance of Indo-Canadian Bollywood star Sunny Leone, a former popular and celebrated pornographic actress. The song has a groove to it, though the picturization was a little letdown, bar the presence of Sunny Leone, providing the glamour quotient. The pick of the album, "Nenjukulle Nee" was shot on Jai and Swathi Reddy with dance sequence interspersing with some montages and has Jai rooting after Swathi. A female version of this song appears soon, and was shot on Swathi. "Ullangkaiyil" was shot creatively with some VFX works done by Lovren Studios, which had the concept of Jai, getting entrapped within a smartphone and its world of applications. "Vaada Nanba" is a situational bit song, which appears during the climax portion. The background score was neatly arranged by the duo and looks like they are a very good prospect for Tamizh cinema.
The film has an extremely simple central plot and the director comes up with sequences, pertaining to this single idea. But the story only moves in the second half, leaving the entire first half redundant ! Youth audience might overlook this flaw due to the good songs and RJ Balaji's wacky dialogues and comedy portions. Saravana Rajan, keeps the proceeding simple and is not very adventurous with his story-telling. But the director's character writing was a big letdown. Jai seems to be in a confused mood throughout the film and its odd seeing him react the way he did during the entire second half. The romance sequence is lifeless and is a complete time waste, especially with Swathi's role being projected as a selfish bimbo. The antagonists were lacking vigor and the surprise the director throws at us after all the suspense-building process, eventually fails to shock us, due to this lack of strong characterizations issue. Some loopholes are evident in the story-line, which the director has failed to take notice of, and there are unwanted sequences in the film, which carries no extra quality input, for the script. The only thing which keeps us glued to the film is RJ Balaji's antics and the 'surprise' element the director keeps in store for us, in the climax in which the villain is revealed.
'Vadacurry' - RJ Balaji to the rescue !
Ratings: 2.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
Sundar.C came back to the limelight as a successful director with 'Masala Cafe' after his ill-fated decision of becoming a lead actor. Now he's back with another ensemble young cast in 'Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru' and also with a different city backdrop. Can Sundar.C maintain his grip in the box-office with his enviable track record of churning out hit comedy movies ? 'Masala Cafe' did kick-start, but can he follow suit with TSVK ?
For Siddharth, it would have been a piece of cake enacting the loser role of Kumar. But its interesting to see him do a complete comedy film, which could be the first in his career, thus far. Nevertheless, an easy and comfortable job for him. Hansika Motwani, is not far behind and she too delivers a convincing performance, with apt expressions and neat comedy timing. Not to forget, she looks a million bucks in this film, and is perfect for the role of a quintessential Tamizh audience dream-girl ! The man Santhanam, was just too good as Mokia, and his ever-present, rocking dialogue delivery and comedy timing was there, to deliver the actual USP of the film. We just wonder, how this guy can go on and on, with his antics in nearly all the important films of a calendar year, and yet never fail to evoke laughter ! The biggest asset of the film is the big cast which has RJ Balaji, Ganesh Venkatraman, Devadarshini, Bosskey, Aishwarya Menon, Chitra Letchumanan, Manobala, Nalini, Veena Kumar, Vidyullekha Raman, Sri Ranjini, George and Vichu Vishwanath, who all chipped in with their comic antics, which further enlivened the screenplay. Besides that, there were cameo appearances from Vishal Krishna, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, John Vijay, Karunakaran and Khushboo Sundar, which further spiced up the humor quotient.
Khushboo Sundar takes care of the costume designing, and she has done a wonderful job, especially with the main characters of Siddharth, Hansika, Santhanam and Ganesh, who were looking great ! 'Thalapathy' Dinesh's stunt choreography was functional and sufficed the need of the script. Gururaj's production design was simple, yet neat and his art work for the a song sequence was well handled. Praveen K.L and Srikanth N.B's editing was smooth but sadly the songs were just unwanted breaks in the film's screenplay. Gopi Amarnath's cinematography was fresh and cool on the eyes, with cool color tone and well picturized song sequences. His lighting is a must-mention, as well.
C.Sathya's musical score was easy on the ears and pleasant to listen to. "Melliya Saaral" is a short song, which was used as the heroine's introductory song, which was shot in a posh office setting. "Azhagendral" is the pick of the lot among all songs, which was well shot in a rural temple setting, which had a celebratory marriage backdrop. Not to forget, Hansika was smashing in the sarees ! "Kozhu Kozhu" was shot on the lead pair in Japan, and had backdrops of harbor, railway stops and city center. "Enna Pesa" had more scenic locations of Japan, with beautiful snowy mountains, and spring-filled blossoming trees of postcard worthy gardens. "Lovekku Yes" is another popular track from the song, which had different and colorful sets by Gururaj and efficient lighting from Gopi Amarnath. "Thiruttu Pasanga" is an end-credits song, which featured nearly all the artistes from the film, dancing on a graphic-filled backdrop, and good editing from the editors.
The winning element of the film, is the screenplay by Sundar.C developed with a team consisting Srinivas Kavinayam, Prabhu Dass, Karunakaran and Nalan Kumarasamy of 'Soodhu Kavvum' fame. The urban setting was well used for the script and Sundar.C never leaves any open space or gap in the screenplay, and the jokes starts to come in thick and fast, scene by scene. The second half plays an even faster tempo, with lesser songs. Sundar.C's directorial skill should be applauded, for he has handled the film expertly, which should be credited to his experience of handling such humor-filled comedy films, in his long career. Besides that, he has used the services of Nalan Kumarasamy once again for the dialogues department, along with Venkat Raghavan, who came up with side-splitting one-liners, especially for Santhanam, who uttered them nonchalantly. A bonus plus-point for the film is the clean and family-friendly jokes, with no double entendres or loud slapstick comedy. Some sequences were well conceptualized, keeping in mind of the contemporary urban audiences' taste and connectedness element.
'Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru' - a clean, jollyfull entertainer. Sundar.C is definitely back in action !
Ratings: 3/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
