Deepavali -- Movie Review

Introduction: Let me get honest about this. I watched this movie only for two reasons. One is the fact that it had 3 songs that I liked a lot & the other reason is that it had Bhavana!!! (And you obviously know which of these two is the main reason..... :-) ) The fact that the movie was directed by Ezhil, the director who is known for making 'senti' movies like "Thulatha Mannamum Thullum" and "Poovellam Unn Vaasam" did act as a small deterrent. How did this bold venture of mine turn out to be?

Story: The story starts on an interesting note with the hero Billu('Jayam' Ravi) getting thrashed by henchmen of the villain and left to die in the highway. The hero gets hit by a lorry and he is thrown out of the road. He survives the accident and as only heroes can, gets out of the hospital bed to rush towards Bangalore in his bike. In Bangalore, the heroine Susi(Bhavana) is happy singing a song & is getting ready for her betrothal. When Billu enters the scene and asks Susi to come with him, Susi looks bewildered as she doesn't recognize Billu. The story goes on a flashback mode to trace why Susi behaves as though she doesn't know Billu with whom she was in love in Chennai. Whether Billu is able to win the love of Susi forms the rest of the plot.

It seems the producer of the movie Lingusamy(The director of movies like 'Run', 'Anandam' & 'Sandai Kozhi') has ghost directed the movie in many places for there are sudden changes in pace of the movie. After the brisk start to the movie, the movie starts meandering its way. At the point where the audience could not have taken it anymore, an interesting twist happens in the plot that makes us sit up and expect more. This sequence of 'slow' motion type of story & a sudden twist in the script occurs throughout the movie and proves to be the undoing for the film.

Performances: As expected, 'Jayam' Ravi proves his mettle in action & dance sequences. The unexpected thing is his portrayal of a soft lover character with panache. 'Jayam' Ravi proves my expectation wrong with his subdued performance. He really emotes well & handles the role with complete ease. Hats off to him. Bhavana appears in beautiful, jazzy costumes and looks awesome :-) . And regarding her acting, she delivers what is expected of a person from the Malayalam movie industry. A topnotch performance. Then there is some worthy performances from Vijayakumar, Haneefa, Devadarshini & villain(Not sure about his name).

Other aspects: The Yuvan tuned songs "Kadhal Vaithu", "Pogathe" & "Thoduvaen" are worth many a listen. The picturization of the songs is a treat to the eyes with the colors, hues & costumes making the songs a visually satisfying experience. Don't miss out the way in which the camera plays around some middle eastern country fort during the song "Thoduvaen". Yuvan comes of age with a classy background score. Be it the introduction of the hero, the soft & poignant love scenes, the meeting between the hero & the villain, Yuvan comes up with scintillating scores for each of these scenes.

The camera by Vijay Milton has class written all over it. I did not think even for a moment that the Royapuram area around which the movie revolves is actually a set done by Sasikumar. A wonderfully done piece of artwork that would have made the stalwarts like Sabu Cyril & 'Thotta' Tharani happy.

Final Cut: Despite exemplary performances by the actors & the technical crew, this movie fails to create the much needed impact because of a sloppy storyline. If the screenplay had been much more taut, this movie could have gone to become a great box office hit.

Rating: 5/10