MTLR - Karthik Calling Jessie ( Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya - Tamil)

In an era where the role of an item girl and that of an heroine is almost same, it is commendable that Gautam V. Menon has devoted his entire movie to portray the power that a woman can wield over a man in an extremely unpretentious way. For the men who have had lost their hearts to someone, Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya would be delectable. Rest, I am afraid they would never be able to understand the depth of emotions impersonated.

I usually do not like to review a movie, may be because I am not a very good critic. I do not (try to) comment on the film per se, but only try to catalog my experiences and thoughts in a movie hall as much as possible. I believe that each of us have our own tastes, and our own interpretation of a movie is our right, the right we buy with our exorbitantly priced tickets. But after seeing many a polarized reaction for Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya, roughly translated "would you come across the skies (for me)", I decided to take a moral low ground and put a small review.

The first half of the movie revolves around a single dialogue used excessively: "of all the woman, why I have to see(fall for) you." Karthik, portrayed by Silambarasan, a.k.a Simbu, falls for Jessie portrayed by Trisha, the moment he sees her. Karthik goes insanely mad, and tries to charm her for the better half of the first half. Jessie too finds herself falling for him, with her only inhibition being the caste and age differences between them. Karthik is 22, Jessie is 23, and Karthik is a Tamil Hindu, whereas Jessie is a Malayali Christian. Finally she does fall for him, but as expected there is opposition. However, I do not see equal opposition from both of the families. Karthik's family is subtly portrayed as an understanding family, whereas Jessie's family as belligerent, albeit only when it comes to an inter-caste relationship. In fact, Karthik even spends some time with Jessie's family in her home, and the hosts are shown to be more than affable (they think both are friends at that time).

Jessie's parents want her to get married to a Christian, and almost succeed in that endeavour, only for Jessie to break the marriage just before saying "I do" in the Church. The second half of the movie exhibits a labyrinth of dialogues, which albeit simple would need good attention to follow the thread, exchanged between the casts. Karthik's dream of becoming a director seems to get some shape as he joins as an assistant director to Kutty, portrayed by K.S. Ravikumar. But the more he seem to go towards this goal, the more he finds losing her lady love. The movie is said to have two climaxes. In one, what actually happens is shown, and in the other one, what Karthik wished to have happen is shown by Karthik himself as a movie in his first directorial venture. It is not 12B type; the climaxes are shown sequentially.

Gautam Menon is always very frugal when it comes to casting, and you will find only a handful of characters throughout the movie. The significant of the lot is definitely Ganesh Janardhanan (played as himself) who assists Karthik through his journey of love and career. They parents and siblings do what that is expected of them.

I find that Jessie's role is shown in a very subtle negative shade IF I have to apply the usual formula of love movies. Now why, I leave that to your interpretation. But there are three heroes in the movie. Simbu has come a long way from his finger-acting antics to put in a very mature performance. Not once he deviates from what is expected of his character. There are no punch lines, no double entendres, no inveigled attack on politicians, and definitely no trace of"little superstar." The second hero is A.R. Rahman's music and background score. So much have been reviewed about the songs that I do not wish to go again on that path. But I should say one thing: Hosanna, Omana penne and Aromale sounds heavenly when you hear and see it with the context of the movie. There was a pleasant surprise when "mustafa mustafa" song is used as a BGM during of the scenes. Third hero is the cinematographer Manoj Paramahamsa. You just cant get enough of the beautiful locations. To say that the picturization of Hosanna and Omana Penne is exquisite is an understatement. Watch yourself!

The movie at 2 hours and 40 minutes is found to be tad lengthy, with some songs in the second half seem unwarranted. The dialogues are very repetitive and doesn't seem to go in any direction. In total, the movie could have been much better. For those who have these opinions, please read my first para again. Try to juxtapose this movie with its Telugu version "Ye Maaya Chesave", and may be you might get a bit more from the movie. The fact that the Telugu soundtrack is also an hit bears testimony that ARR's music transcends any barrier.