Sillunnu Oru Kaadhal

Missing the woods for the trees

A Surya-Jyothika starrer, a few days before they tied the knot in real life. The build-up to the movie release was immense and the title song `Jillunnu oru kaadhal...' ably aided the efforts. But the movie....?

It is actually an interesting plot which begins with a young Jyothika (Jo from now on) who has dreams of a love marriage, getting into an arranged marriage with Surya. Six years later, they are deliriously happy and have a precocious kid too. And in the middle of this smooth life, Jo discovers Surya's old diary which tells her that Surya loved and actually tied the knot with another girl Ishu (The same name as his daughter's) during his college days. But the girl's MP father bashes up the newly married Surya and whisks his daughter away to an unknown place. A series of events and Surya weds Jo. Jo now goes off in search of Ishu, the lover girl and brings her back into her husband's life for one day! And then the movie ends somehow.

An interesting plot, which could've explored how the knowledge of bigamy affects the family- Does Jo feel threatened even if Ishu has never surfaced in Surya's life after the ill-fated wedding? Does she feel differently about her husband? Or alternately, the movie could have explored how Surya and Bhoomika (who plays Ishu) feel when they meet years later and their personalities are very different.

Instead we have a wife talking about how she wants her husband to `enjoy one day of his life with the girl he loved' because she understands what love is!!! And then turns the entire plot into some sentimental mish-mash, which is even more difficult to understand. I really cannot understand how a scriptwriter can so completely miss the point of the story and talk such unadulterated rot!!

Vadivelu's comedy is cheap, dirty and vulgar, not to mention unlaughable. Surya has managed to portray the two different personalities (carefree and irresponsible college rowdy to happy, responsible and caring family man) quite well, but with a pointless story the effort also becomes pointless. Jo looks really nice, her costumes are great and does a decent job as the wife but ditto as above. Bhoomika is puzzling and I can't even figure out if she acted well or not.

Music- loved the title song and Kummi Adi. Machhakari is Ok. The rest exist.

I went to the movie with less than zero expectations, but still came away irritated by the entire pointlessness of it all. Come on Tamil Cinema, make intelligent movies!