Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya is an intriguing tale about Karthik, a mechanical engineer / "wannabe" film-maker who falls in love with Jessi who hails from an orthodox Christian family. GM has pumped in a lot of effort and writing into the making of the movie , paying attention to minute details ... But, does his hard-work reap him the dividents that he deserves ???
The movie starts in an interesting fashion and the proceedings nosedive into the plot without much hiccups . ( with umpteen number of repetitive frames (and scenes), over-exposed lighting at certain places , Silenced dialogues - inspiration from Mani Ratnam's style of film-making is undeniable )
After a brief introduction of the lead pair , the proceedings give way to a romantic relationship between 'Karthik' - A simple , practical , go-lucky guy and a very complex female 'Jessy' . Their romantic encounters , the role fate plays in their lives and the complications that arise due to the confused nature of the character "Jessy" forms the rest of the story .
The characterization of the confused lady Jessy ( Thrisha is horribly miscast here ) is perhaps the biggest USP of the movie , the whole film revolves around her parents , her relatives , her marriage , her actions and her decisions . Even though , we ve seen heroine-oriented love stories before , VTV stands out as it offers something unique - None of the earlier movies in Tamil Cinema tried to explore the deep emotions of a confused & a complex mind of a woman ( not abnormal ) beyond one certain level , VTV scores a point in that aspect . Its very hard to erase Jessy out of your mind ( atleast i find it difficult to :P) - I have met a Jessy a lot of times in my life but i am not able to recall who it was :P- She is my neighbour ,my sister , my classmate , my friend , my online friend , my chat buddy etc etc . For me , Jessy is just EVERYWHERE .. Wherever i see a girl - I see a Jessy
As the movie progresses , we get to see a lot of fine touches and attention to minuscule detail ( A GautamMenon trademark ) When jessy gets up from the diner-table , her parents express their displeasure and the scene was well portrayed - even without any dialogues !! The movie does not posses any scene that is used as a "Filler". If GM wants a character to say a word - he justifies the usage of the word later on. Ex: Karthik asking for Joseph's( jessy's dad ) height was used later on , and Jessy expressing her family's repulsive nature towards Cinema and movies is later on used in the diner-table conversation between Ganesh and Jessy's uncle in Kerala . Such stuff are nothing fantabulous as they do not affect the grueling pace of the movie ...still , Such fine aspects elevate the feel of the movie and enhances the cinematic experience ( we ve seen such fine stuff in earlier GM movies already ).
Pace is definitely a point of concern with VTV , it falters very badly halfway into the 1st half , and later on picks up during the interval-block . The second half moves at a very grueling pace except for a very few places which holds the viewer's interest . I do agree that it is totally unfair to expect a racy narration from a soft romantic movie - But on the other hand, film-makers must not make movies that serve as unintentional lullabies for the audience ( VTV's 2nd half is one such lullaby btw :P ) The second half would have been better off without some unnecessary 20 minutes ( NOTE : those 20 minutes were not fillers - they had a relevance with the plot , but they were elements that induces sleep in large doses :P - removing/editing them will definitely act as a +ve factor that will favor the BO result of the movie )
Instead of positives and negatives - i will segregate the important aspects of the film as :::: a) good b) bad c)Could have been better :::
The GOOD :
1) The character - Jessy
2) The movie has a lot of "CLUTCH-THE-ARMS-OF-YOUR-PARTNER" kinda scenes ... esp the scene where Karthik describes about Jessy in the penultimate portion of the movie - was awesommmmmme - Love overflowed via the theatre screen :P
3) Minute attention to details
The BAD :
1) Trisha's acting was absolutely horrible , She fails to emote in most of the movies and her pathetic acting is a big let down to many important scenes . Jessy's characterisation is one of the best i ve seen in recent times - Trisha has successfully made a mess out of that role with her terrible performance (:x)
2) Irresistably slow 2nd half - that sends the viewers into a state of half-sleep . I was squirming in my seats after 20 minutes into the interval
3) Mannipaya and Aaromale were mindblowing numbers - But they did not go well along with the mood of the movie , I personally felt the placement of those songs looked rather too forced - and it disrupts the flow of the movie
COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER :
1) ARR disappoints with the BGM . It was just good in parts . The rock BGM that was used in the scenes involving the Coffee shop was absolutely horrible and the main theme song " Vinnaithandi Varuvaya" never suited the feel of the movie
2) Manoj Paramahamsa - a fantastic cinematographer who stormed the industry with a technical masterpiece Eeram fails to live upto the standards set by himself with his earlier movie . The frames were brilliant , the locations were exotic and the movie on the whole was extremely glossy , yet it failed to live upto my expectations . ( it was gud not great :P )
With a director of GM's calibre on his side ( who is known for churning out hyper-stylish movies) , Manoj must have taken extra care to do a better work in the camera department , but sadly the output is inferior to that of his earlier work - Eeram
3) Simbu's performance was quite decent , but its nothing great either. I can easily think of better choices for the role of Karthik.
He imitated surya in a lot of places and it looked quite funny on screen. Inspite of having an ace director to guide him , Simbu's version of Karthik is not convincing at all ! ( he does deserve a pat on his back for his pucca image make-over though ;) )
To sum it up - VTV ends up sumwhere between Average and Good. Its a perfect example for a movie that falls in the " Love it / Hate it" categorie. A lot of portions remind you incidents that takes place in your real life , yet the movie feels artificial and completely misses the "MAGIC" . If u manage to ignore the horrible pace of the 2nd half , u may end up liking the movie ;)
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