After Alagamperumal with Dum Dum Dum, Susi Ganesan, another assistant of Manirathnam, makes her debut, again under the Madras Talkies banner. Though the movies themselves are far apart in most aspects, Five Star adds further credence to the belief that directors from the Manirathnam fold are fairly talented and can be relied upon to present slick, entertaining features. With friendship as its theme, the movie takes us on an interesting trip, breaking several Tamil cinema cliches on the way.

Prabhu(Prasanna), Ilango(Krishna), Sundar(Karthik), Priya and Indra are the best of friends in college, swearing to never lose touch with one another later in life. They manage to get jobs in the same company but Ilango, who was whisked away to his village by his dictatorial father(Vijayan) and forced into marriage with the rustic Eeswari(Kanika), requests a posting in Bombay. He then runs away while the friends assume that he is in Bombay with his new wife. A few years later, the remaining four are still friends, working in the same company and even living in one house. Prabhu meets Eeswari on the train and without knowing that she is Ilango's wife, loses his heart to her. When the truth comes out, she becomes good friends with the gang while they promise to find Ilango and reunite him with her.

The movie takes on a nice theme of enduring friendship and manages to present it in an unsentimental fashion. While we have had several, mostly forgettable, movies focussing on a group of friends in college, the concept of the friends ensuring that their friendship lasts even after college ends, is nice. And director Susi Ganesan manages to successfully convey the fun that this concept could provide. The sight of the friends(and the husbands of the girls) staying together and having fun does make us think about our own friends in college and imagine living with them. Appreciably, the bond of friendship that exists among the group is made evident in a subtle fashion throughout the movie without any special, cinematic incidents to showcase it in an obvious manner. There are no sentimental, overt displays of the friendship but it is obvious that they will always be there for one another.

The movie has a lot of trouble getting off the ground. The surfeit of songs (all of which are picturised in a similar, unimaginative fashion), the distressingly familiar tamil cinema college environment and lack of direction in the story all make for a very painful first half hour. Thankfully the director recovers in time. The meeting between Prasanna and Kanika is what brings about the change and the one-sided romance is delightful. Prasanna's run-ins with her, both on the train and in the camera shop, are funny and cute and there are a few scenes(like their different ways of figuring out each other's names) that bring a smile to our lips. Her calm reaction on realising his intentions and Prasanna's attitude are all refreshingly fresh and the lack of sentiments and artificiality is welcome.

The movie could as well have been titled "Two Star" considering the relative exposure that the five friends get. While Prasanna gets the lion's share of the story and screen time, Krishna makes an impression inspite of the short time that he onscreen because of the importance of his character to the story. But the remaining three barely make an impression. Karthik's romance and marriage is too hurried for us to take it seriously and the value of Sandhya and Mangai to the story is only the silent contribution of their husbands to ensure that the frienship works. But this contribution is key and we nod our heads when the flower seller points it out at the end.

While the search for Krishna goes on a little too long, the culmination is not entirely expected. There are some nice dialogs during the meeting between him and Prasanna. Back home, Kanika's message to the village elders is delivered in a manner that is both effective and very funny. But this does not drown out the messages contained in her monologue as she makes several wonderful points. The movie ends in fine fashion with a meeting with the same flower seller from before and makes her and us realise that while many things may have changed, in a way, nothing has changed.

Prasanna makes full use of the oppurtunity and charms us along with Kanika. He is convincing during the serious scenes also. Krishna has the most chance for emoting and does great, especially when confronted by his friends about hiding news of his marriage. Kanika is suitably coy and homely as the village girl. Vijayan makes a mark as Krishna's father, especially during the meeting with the friends, expressing his ruefulness over the treatment he meted out to his son. Anuradha Sriram, along with her husband, debuts as music director but has mistaken youthful for catchy. Most songs sound alike - fast beats and unintelligible lyrics. But it is the slow song Thiru Thirudaa... that stays with us.