HELLO

A movie review by Balaji Balasubramaniam

Several movies have set up a problem well enough, only to fail to maintain the same pace while the problem is being resolved. Hello falls prey to the same symptom. The first half is well structured and entertaining but the movie slows down in the second half with the number of contrivances the director has to introduce to keep the story moving, hindering him.

Chandru's(Prashanth) only aim in life is to find a girl and fall in love. To this end, he loiters around busstands and his friends' STD/ISD booth, saying hello to the girls who pass by. Both his friends (Charlie and Vaiyapuri) have girlfriends and taunt him regarding his inability to get one for himself. Chandru's friend Gayatri(Sujitha) promises to bring him a girl who would act as his girlfriend and improve his image in front of his friends. But when she doesn't show up, Chandru points out another girl in the temple as his lover. But this leads to some unfortunate incidents in the girl, Sweta's(Preeti) life. Chandru then tries to find ways to make amends for his mistake.

The director has resorted to several artificial situations to move the story forward. As a result, there is no involvement in the happenings and instead, just some nagging questions. For example, when Prashanth is so desperate for love(to the extent of talking to the girls to come to make phone calls), how does he jump into a friendship with Sujitha right from the word go? It is also tough to believe that one's friends could be so non-understanding of a situation. Right from teasing Prashanth about not having a girlfriend to pestering him to bring her out inspite of his explanations, their behaviour is unbelievable and irritating. When a guy says that calling his lover would create problems for her, are there friends who would pester him to call her at home at midnight? While in this particular case it is for the sake of comedy, situations like this abound in the movie.

Inspite of these, it is to the director's credit that the first half is pretty engaging viewing. Aided by some nice comedy (Manivannan's reactions to Prashanth's phone calls are hilarious), it moves along pretty fast. The coincidences multiply in the second half and the proceedings slow down also. The story here bears similarity to Kaadhale Nimmadhi with Preeti proclaiming her innocence but her family members not believing her. The screenplay twists and turns to create situations where Prashanth and Preeti can meet. Her feelings for him are developed too quickly to make an impact and her reasons, especially in the light of her character and the explanations she gives to her family members, are not credible enough. The climax is short, which is a blessing since we know exactly what is going to happen.

Prashanth adds nothing new to his role. His performance in the climax is sincere. Newcomer Preeti looks pretty and acts well too. But its Sujitha who catches the eye as their mutual friend. With the added advantage of a nice character and down-to-earth dialogs, she makes her girl-next-door role sparkle. Ranjit is the typical hot-headed brother of Preeti. Deva comes up with an extremely catchy song in Salaam Gulaamu.... Though reminding one of an old Chandrababu song, it's tune stays with us. Indha Nimisham... is a soothing, melodious number.