Vaanam - “Unmayileye love-aa?”

Before I get into a full fledged review of this movie that, shall we say, was easily the best Tamil "Entertainer" I have seen this year.  Note the deliberate use of the quotes,  I will get to the reason for them later.  But first, some one please clarify this for me, why in a billion blue blazes is Bharat called Chinna Thalapathy?  Hasn't the ilaiya thalapathi done enough damage to our sense already?  But he did live up to the name in this flick, he was so pathetic in his acting, I am sure that, somewhere, Vijay was rejoicing the fact that there is an Actor worse than him.


Before I saw Vanam, i had already seen Vedam and was completely mesmerized with Allu Arjun's amazing portrayal of a get-rich-quick-scheming-guilt ridden soul, but what I was not ready for was the fact that Simbu, better known as "Sombu" among his haters(thats right, that guy had no fans till VTV, or even the ones he had where ashamed to come out "of the closet") could pull off that role with ease and not overtly use his hands as he does in all his other movies till date.  The fact that the movie reminds you of Babel and other Alejandro Gonzallez movies should be the least of your worries.  If not for directors "Adapting" foreign movies and english music tracks, how is your everyday India Kudimagan(Drunk son/commonly called citi(zen)jun) going to get some international exposure?


A beautiful song reflecting the ultimate tone of the movie "Dheivam vaazhvadhu yenge? Thavarugal unarum manidhargal nenjil" is spoilt with Bharath opening the movie with his fake rocker boy attitude and complete lack of guitar chord holding skills.  Why have two songs back to back?  If you had too, then why not go for a melody?  Even if slash played the lead and you super imposed Bharat with the guitar to that music, it would still leave a bad taste in all your mouths, trust me on this.  He is the worst thing that happened to the movie.  But never fear, since our man, Santhanam is here.  You are so engrossed with laughing your head off at Santhanams comedy and trying to understand his underlying puns, that the next scene, which usually throws Bharat into your face, is either missed, or just passed off with a shrug.  I feel bad for Vega, who must have undergone a lot of training to sound like the dumb idiot wanna be bimbo that she does sound exactly like, to be cast opposite this over shadowing monstrosity!  Talking of Monstrosity's, Who the hell is this Female:

  
And where the hell is the uber cute Sneha Ullal.  I am disappoint!...so much that i ahve nothing to say about her.  Her dog britney in the movie did a much better performance than she did.  She had two expressions throughout the entire movie, "wanna be rich gal happy" and "wanna be rich girl dumbified".  Even when she slightly pecks Simbhu on his lips and reassures him, there is no feeling, you as the audience, feel nothing at all. Bland and Blah!


How do you plan a film with so many intersecting stories when half the story strands are simply not interesting enough?  The movie could have been a production to reckon with had the director invested a little more time and effort in tying the knots better than letting his characters, right from Bharat to the young kid mouth out his moral policies!  And again only someone as Uber Pathetic and cheesy as Bharat, can ruin a beautiful scene with the mineral water being used to explain religion.  Stop with the fake accent already, we get it, you are a rock star!  And for the life of me, I couldn't figure out where these locations they claim to be the Bangalore<==>Chennai highway actually are?


People(Especially the Female Kind) feel that you could've removed Anushka from the movie and not missed a thing, to them I say...."Be a Man!!!" and then you would understand! ;)


The fact that Simbu has kept his otherwise unruly fingers under control is a big plus for him.  Even in the big climax scene, we were all looking forward to some Veral Vitthai(Finger stunt), but were presently pleased and surprised.  And the F-word in Evan di unna pethan  is a first in tamil movies, if I am not mistaken.  


People made fun of the dubbing and the cut, copy and paste feel of few scenes of Anushka's.  To them i say, "Do you know a one miss.Shriya, or the ever bubble gum chewing and badly lip syncing Sarah-Jane_Dias.  Case Dismissed!


Overall a fun watch with a really nice message.  We have seen the likes of Aayitha Ezhuthu that took us through its lives-converging trajectories with far more sophistication(thus the quotes around entertainer in the beginning)  , but hey that is Mani!!  So in the End, please give it up for Krish and my main Man Sombu...I am Simbu!!!  Take a bow...you guys deserve it!!!


(P.S. For those of you who are wondering why i haven't spoken about Prakash Raj and Saranya, I say in the words of Santhanam "Naan innum avalavu periya appataicker agalainga!!!" (I humbly accept that I am still not such a big wig movie critic to review and comment on the likes of them))