February 26, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya: Predictable but Competent
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya is blatantly guided by the mantra 'Simple But Powerful'. There is nothing new about the film as it is a threadbare love story, but then Gautham Menon’s (the director) fascinating climax astonishes you.
Young and colorful are the two words that can aptly describe Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya. It is a close-to-heart film for everyone, incisively catered to the tastes of the contemporary audience, especially, the youngsters. The film poignantly speaks about the love story between Karthik (Silambarasan), a wannabe filmmaker, who accommodates himself in a house as a tenant. Jessie (Trisha), an employee in Infosys, is the daughter of the house's owner. Predictably, it is love at first sight for the young lad and he keeps following the traits of the hundreds of heroes who have been doing this over the years. But, after a certain extent, when he can afford to capture the heart of Jessie, he is discombobulated by Jessie. As her parents get to know about this, they arrange her daughter’s marriage with someone.
What unfolds next is a series of events that are somewhat unpredictable.
Talking about the performances, it is worth mentioning that Silambarasan and Trisha have delivered moderately good performances before. Silambarasan with his rejuvenated looks and mature performance keeps us engrossed by his gestures throughout the film. Be it the sequence where he follows Trisha to KFC and reacts to Trisha’s question– “Are you following me?” He reacts as coolly as a cucumber and responds by saying ‘not so’ and gradually keeps looking at her even though the waiter blocks his vision. There are lots of humorous quotes in order to deliver a comical effect. His emotional outbreaks and final touch of words with Trisha, where he reveals, ‘There’s a girl in my heart’ (actually he means Jessie herself)' are reasonably moving.
Sometimes, you will feel the film resembles ‘Oru Thalai Raagam’ that was a stunning love story with a decorous approach churned out decades before.
Trisha is awesome. Maybe, she looks a little old compared with Silambarasan, but shares good onscreen chemistry with Simbhu. Gowtham Menon has keenly shaped her characterization and doesn’t let her overreact as she did in previous ones.
Kudos to Gowtham for crafting the tale with fewer characterizations and don’t miss the guy accompanying Simbhu as a cinematographer (earlier performed a negative role in Gowtham’s ‘Pacchaikili Muthucharam’ as a taxi driver).
A.R. Rahman leaves you speechless with his extraordinary music, with his ‘Aromalae’ and ‘Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya’ as signature themes that enhance the emotional quotients of the movie. Cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa is top-notch with his brilliant placements of camera angles and just makes the film so colorful. The elegance of Trisha’s house is superb and so are the exotic lanes of US.
Anthony’s editing looks simple and fine. But his immediate cuts for the ‘Omana Pennae’ are annoying and it’s really tedious to see an inappropriate dance steps.
When it comes to narration, the first half passes with interesting moments while the second hour has some sort of slow pace that ends up with a brighter note during climax.
For sure, the film would make it big at the box office as there aren’t any big contenders for the next few weeks.
Verdict: Feel the love
Rating: 3.5/5
-Sampurn Wire
