Veteran actress Sripriya makes her debut as a director with this flick, which is a remake of the well-received Malayalam film, '22 Female Kottayam' starring Rima Kallingal and Fahadh Faasil and directed by new-age director Aashiq Abu. A women-centric film, the original created some stir for its boldness in story telling and for its urbane approach. Can Sripriya recreate the same effect with Malini ?
Nithya Menen is a talented actress, but unfortunately she seems to be the wrong pick for this role. She is hardly convincing in this role of Malini's and struggles to shoulder the entire film, which is to be expected since she is the protagonist. Her changeover in the second half is not convincingly portrayed and she lacks the power and vigor to pull off the emotional climax sequence. Newcomer Krish J.Sathaar is equally less convincing as the sweet-talking Casanova and his pairing with Nithya Menen fails to sparkle, which is a crucial element of the script. Naresh is a total letdown, in the role done wonderfully by Prathap Pothen in the original. Naresh is certainly no match for Prathap. The rest of the cast such as the overbearingly loud Kovai Sarala, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Vidyullekha Raman, Anjali Rao, Janagi, AC Murali, Mohan V.Ram and etc had miniscule roles and has no effect over the script, pretty much.
Anu Parthasarathy could have done better with Nithya's costumes. Though she looked like a modern city girl, some excitement needed for the role was missing. And it applies for the rest of the cast as well. Prem Navas handled the art direction and his works with the posh bungalow setting and its properties was okay. The hospital set though could have been better propped. Bavan Sreekumar's editing was functional and he has kept the duration of the film crisp. But his scene transition is not smooth and is very abrupt, especially in the first half. Manoj Pillai handles the cinematography and his work sufficed the needs of the script. Better visuals could have done more wonders for the script.
Aravind-Shankar duo handles the music department. Their score is pretty much lukewarm and unexciting. "Vinmeengal" is the opening song of the protagonist and shot alongside her housemates, with montages of them and the hospital surroundings. "Kanneer Thuliye" is a pathos song, also shot with montages involving the lead pair. "Madharthammai" is the final song, which highlights feminism and appears towards the end. A remix version of the song, with music video style format was shot for promotional intentions and is available on Youtube.
First things, first. Its a welcome to see a woman director making her mark in Tamizh cinema. But sadly, Sripriya's direction is a major letdown. The film failed to elevate itself into a thrilling revenge-drama, though the script had potential. Sripriya has made some minor changes to Abhilash Kumar and Shyam Pushkaran's original storyline, but the overall effect of the film is a major minus-point. The first half is a very boring proceeding with lacklustre romance episodes, insipid drama, and irritating comedy sequences. Its a big disappointment that Sripriya has overlooked the most important elements of the script and has put her attention more into the dialogues element alone. Her dialogues are full of anger and feministic views and its sort of pretty obvious that this anger looks to be an extension of the memorable character she played in the 1978-released, C.Rudhraiya classic 'Aval Appadithaan'. The connectivity between the character played by Sripriya and the intensity of the dialogues mouthed by Nithya in the climax, is very apparent. Besides that, Sripriya's handling of the characterizations is weak as well, especially of the protagonists'. All the characters are half-baked and has no depth in the artistes' portrayal. The transformation of Nithya from the a naive, sweet girl to the revenge-seeking hardened woman, was badly presented.
'Malini 22 Palayamkottai' - Climax is the only sequence to check out !
Ratings: 2.25/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
It's been a very long time since Bharath had a decent hit in his career based on a original script by a director. The last was way back in 2006, that is the critically acclaimed Veyil by Vasanthabalan. He has been dishing out meaningless films and had a decent result with Kanden Kadhalai which was a remake of Jab We Met from Hindi and the recent multi-starrer Vaanam, another remake this time from Vedam, the Telugu film. Looks like the trend of delivering bad movies continues for Bharath as Yuvan Yuvathi didn't entertain the audiences at all, apart from Santhanam's comedy portions.
Bharath, does the usual antics of a cinema hero, by dancing, fighting and romancing the heroine but other than that there's nothing commendable from him. It applies to newcomer Rima Kallingal as well. A pleasant looking dusky girl, she didn't overact in her character and was natural, thanks to the experience of doing few films in Malayalam. Sampath was apt for the role and he scored in expressions and body language though it was a little bit loud. Sathyan made a small cameo and surprised as with a gay character. He's been improving from one film to another. Krishna and Divyadarshini played their parts appropriately and there's a cute cameo scene involving Sakthi and Anuja Iyer. The only character delivering good entertainment was Santhanam and as usual he was on top form, delivering sarcastic dialogues with brilliant timing and expressions, especially in his 'dream song'.
The film delivers average on technical front too. Vasugi Bhaskar and Santhiyasri dressed up the characters appropriately. Super Subbarayan's final stunt scene was normal, Ilaiyaraja's art direction was normal and G.K Prabakaran's editing was normal too. Gopi Jegadeeswaran did a decent job in the cinematography department especially in capturing the scenic locales of Seychelles in the "Oh My Angel" song. Vijay Anthony's delivery was average too with the "24 Mani Neram" song being the pick of the lot but the "Kolaikuthu" song was too loud and unwanted. Writer Ramakrishnan might had a decent story to tell but GNR Kumaravelan's screenplay was shoddy and boring. The proceedings in the film was not properly justified and the climax was abruptly done.
Yuvan Yuvathi was boring and Bharath should stop picking poor scripts, if he wants to survive in the heavily competitive Tamizh film industry.
Ratings: 1.5/5 STARS
BY:TAMIL
