Sillunu Oru Kadhal

After Vettaiyadu Vellaiyadu, this movie was very eagerly anticipated by me. Why? Because Surya was acting in it, and as I mentioned earlier, most of the songs in the movie are good to listen to. So, even though the trailers did not seem very promising, I still wanted to go see it as soon as it got released. The D-day was yesterday. We went for the 11.15p late night show. That we decided to go a bit early to get tickets was a good decision. Even for a show that late, families with young kids in prams too had showed up and it was sold out by the time the movie started.

At the end of 3.5 hours, I wondered, why?

(Warning: Spoilers galore in review ahead.)

This movie takes the definition of boring to new heights. The first half of the movie solely, entirely, completely and definitely revolves around the fact that Surya and Jyothika make a lovey-dovey couple. And mind you, its not even one of those cutesy romances (like the kind in Alaipayuthey). Rather, its one of those annoying, "please grow up" kinds which makes you desperately long for a remote to press the "fast forward" button.

Anyways, S and J have a kid too. This kid will most probably have the distinction of mouthing the most irritating, grown-up dialogues of the year. And here I was, naively thinking that the days of precocious "Baby Shalini" like kids were long gone. And then, there is actress Sukanya in the movie - you wonder why though. I think she wanted to show off her new clothes with matching accessories to a wider audience. She was overdressed in most of the scenes (I have seen brides more simply made up at weddings). And then, there is Vadivelu who is supposed to inject some comedy into the movie. I just slightly showed my teeth for about two of the "jokes" I guess!

Net net, quite a few of the scenes in the first half are unnecessary and could have been easily trimmed off. But, wait a minute, then the first half would have then been ten minutes long! Anyways, by interval time, we were like, is there a story?

Post interval, Bhoomika makes an appearance in a flashback. She was apparently Surya's lover in college. There are a bunch "romantic" scenes here too. Again, it adds neither color nor excitement to the proceedings. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Jyothika reads about this broken romance in Surya's old diary (by the way, is not reading other people's diary without their permission a bad habit?But I digress)

When she finishes reading the diary, Jyothika then comes up with the brilliant idea that Surya should meet up with the ex-lover and spend a day alone with her. For what good joy is anyone's guess. Anyways, the other pair (Surya and Bhoomika) meet up by themselves and then Jyothika finally realizes (because Bhoomika says so in a letter) that Surya loves her (i.e. Jyothika) and her (again, Jyothika) alone. Yaaaaawn! The end.

Towards the end of the movie, all of us were fidgeting a lot, waiting for it to get over. But the mood was considerably lightened by the number of sarcastic audience comments which flew back and forth across the theatre. At some point I had almost stopped watching the movie and was instead closely following the comments and laughing! At the end of the movie, as the audience walked out, disappointment hung heavy in the air. Most people though, sighed with relief at having successfully finished enduring the neverending ordeal. Some people were even comparing it unfavorably with Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (I think the director can contemplate suicide about now)!!! Anyways, that was that.

Oh, what about the songs, which attracted me in the first place? Most songs had okay picturization. The New York song, as expected, had lots of lovely shots of New York. Surya looked good in it. But why they had to insert a garishly made up Jyothika in clothes which looked like curtains/bedspreads also into the picturization is beyond me. Oh, and some of Bhoomika's salwar kameezes were really pretty (makes me want to buy tons of them). About the actors - Surya acted good. Bhoomika was okay other than the bits where she suddenly starts twittering like a mentally retarded child of three. Jyothika acted okay but she looked quite fat in a lot of scenes (its funny how her looks kept oscillating between good and terrible in turns). And as for the child artist - ugh, ugh, ugh!

Give this one a miss unless you are interested in learning how to get big actors, good music, good locations and yet churn out a pointless, boring movie.