JODI
A movie review by Balaji Balasubramaniam
| Cast: | Prashanth, Simran, Nasser, Vijayakumar, Ramesh Arvind, Ambika, Dhamu, Ramesh Khanna, Sumitra, Janakaraj |
| Music: | A.R.Rehman |
| Direction: | Pravin Gandhi |
It is impossible to avoid a sense of deja vu when watching Jodi. With the exact same storyline - of young lovers
switching places to find their way into their future in-laws' hearts - as Poovellaam Kaettuppaar,
which is still fresh in our minds, comparisons between the two are inevitable. The similarity is extended by the fact that
the fathers of the couple are the same artistes, Vijayakumar and Nasser, in both movies. But though
Poovellaam Kaettuppaar contained some of the best laughs among recent movies, Jodi, with its right mix of
romance, comedy and sentiments, offers superior overall entertainment.
Kannan(Prashanth), repairs musical instruments for a living. His father Rudramurthy(Nasser), who works in the registrar's office, is against love marriages and makes it a point to advise young lovers showing up at his desk after eloping. Kannan falls for Gayatri(Simran), whose father Vengudu(Vijayakumar) had been a prominent music critic but after a disastrous incident, has given up the job and is now just a pale shadow of his old self. After a mutual decision of marrying only with their parents' consent, Gayatri moves into Rudramurthy's neighbour's house while Kannan tries to attach himself to Gayatri's family. Things proceed on track until Kannan's attempt to set right Vengudu's past results in his own union with Gayatri being threatened.
It is obvious that tamil cinema directors are struggling to find interesting variations to the boy-meets-girl-and-falls-in-love scenario. Barring Vaali and to a smaller extent, Kannodu Kaanbadhellaam, I can't think of a single movie in recent times where the romance has been handled in a novel fashion. Here too, the romance turns out to be the weakest portion of the movie as Prashant goes around with an anklet while searching for his dream woman(or should that be "the woman with his dream legs?!") and then goes through the usual travails of being misunderstood by Simran before she understands his love. The love triangle is given a new twist as we also have Ambika as the older woman pining for Prashant. Though this leads to some funny lines for Dhamu and co., the net effect is one of crudeness.
The conversation Prashanth and Simran have, about marrying only with the consent of parents, is sensible and even moralistic There is a distinct improvement in the quality of the movie from this point onwards. The gradual entry of Simran into the good books of Prashant's family is interesting and the director exhibits cleverness in the scene where she attends to his phone call right under their noses. Prashant starts off on the wrong foot, being seen as a rowdy by Simran's family, but gradually turns things around. His meeting with his landlord, who sees the bachelors renting his house as his future sons-in-law, provides some laughs. The introduction of Ramesh Arvind into the equation livens up the proceedings quite a bit and the director manages to resolve things cleanly, though predictably, without messing up. Ramesh Khanna's antics provide additional comic relief and his use of movie names during the final scene evokes chuckles.
Prashant and Simran team up again after Kannedhire Thondrinaal and both show marked improvement in acting skills. Prashant has fought energetically. Simran also displays some so far unseen comic skills during the portions with Janakaraj. Vijayakumar, in a get-up similar to the one in Sangamam and Nasser are adequate. Dhamu sparkles with some funny one-liners early on.
Rehman has just reused the tunes he composed for one of his hindi movies. Two of the songs sound good. The song sequences have been picturised well with some nice locales and pleasant choreography. Isha Gopikar, Vairamuthu and Gangai Amaran have cameo appearances.
