SUYAMVARAM

A movie review by Balaji Balasubramaniam

Cast:	Satyaraj, Parthiban, Prabhu, Bagyaraj, Karthik, Prabhu Deva, Arjun, Napolean, Livingston, Pandiarajan, Abbas, Vineeth, Mansur Ali Khan, Vijayakumar, Senthil, Janakaraj, Rambha, Roja, Kasturi, Maheswari, Kushboo, Ishwarya, Suvalakshmi, Oorvasi, Preeti, Vichitra
Music:	S.A.Rajkumar, Vidyasagar, Deva, Sirpi
Direction:	P.Vasu, Liyakat Ali Khan

Considering the quality of recent movies like Kaadhalar Dhinam and Sangamam which took an inordinate amount of time to reach the screen, my expectations were not all that high for Suyamvaram. After all, the whole movie was filmed in less a day(23 hours, 58 minutes to be exact, a Guinness World Record) with a whole host of actors, actresses and directors working at different locations at a feverish pace. But the movie is a pleasant surprise, offering two and a half hours of enjoyable viewing.

Taken purely on its own merit as a movie, this one would have probably earned only two stars It sure has its flaws. It is never as funny as the promise of the material, the editing is atrocious, almost all the romances are contrived and there are portions when I looked at my watch. But the obvious effort that has gone into making it in less than 24 hours, the unity displayed by all those involved in its making and ofcourse, the thrill of seeing a true multi-starrer in tamil cinema all made me award it the extra star. One can't help but feel a little proud of tamil cinema after viewing Suyamvaram.

The 'puja' is shown during the opening credits, with Rajnikanth and Kamalhassan jointly lighting the traditional 'kuthuvilakku'. The movie itself opens with the 60th birthday celebrations of Kuselan and Suseela(Vijayakumar and Manjula), who have 9 children(3 boys-Satyaraj, Prabhu, Abbas and 6 girls-Rambha, Roja, Kasturi, Maheswari, Preeti, Suvalakshmi). Parthiban is their loyal servant while Napolean is their family doctor. Kuselan gets a heart attack and wishes to see all his children married before he dies. So a huge interview is arranged for prospective grooms and brides with the interview being conducted by Bagyaraj and Oorvasi and two doctors, Janakaraj and Senthil.

Satyaraj, Prabhu and Abbas have affairs with Kushboo, Ishwarya and Heera respectively while Roja, Kasturi, Maheswari and Preeti are in love with Prabhu Deva, Pandiarajan, Vineeth and Livingston respectively. Each of them gets their lover ready for the interview and they are selected. Rambha is linked with absent-minded doctor Karthik who shows up thinking its an interview for a doctor's post in a clinic while Suvalakshmi, who is handicapped, pairs with Parthiban in the end. Mansur Ali Khan, with Vichitra in tow, tries to worm his way in as a groom and when that effort fails, he kidnaps the 9 brides for ransom. Assitant Commissioner Arjun shows up, foils the plan and all's well that ends well.

The screenplay has been devised rather cleverly, with minimal interaction between the characters, allowing most of their scenes to be filmed separately. There are only two places, at the beginning and the end, where most of the huge cast is seen together. But it is definitely nice to see so many stars together in the same movie. While multi-starrers are common in hindi, it is rare to see more than two stars appearing together in the same movie in tamil. And even then, one of them plays a guest role(like Ajith in Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen or Karthik in Aanandha Poongaatre). So, even if each has only a very small fraction of screen time, it is fun to see all the actors, most of whom are leading actors today, together in one movie.

Ishwarya walks away with the acting honours - and most of the laughs - with a scene stealing performance as a toilet cleaner. With her telugu adding to the fun, her conversations with Prabhu make you wish that this couple had more screen time. Karthik provides some laughs as the absent-minded doctor though the script writer does not manage to extract as much from this comedy mine as 'Crazy' Mohan did with the same role for 'Kovai' Sarala in Poovellaam Kettuppaar. Prabhu Deva shows off his dance steps in two songs while Arjun manages to catch the eye with a prolonged sequence(including a fight) towards the end. Bagyaraj and Oorvasi have some nice scenes and Parthiban figures in quite a few scenes with his trademark dialog delivery. He has fun introducing all the actresses with their real name and the name of their characters. None of the others in the cast impress.

One enjoyable aspect of the movie is the number of in-jokes making sly references to earlier movies of the stars. Watch out for Prabhu's Chinna Thambi reference, Parthiban's use of Ulle Veliye, Prabhu Deva's take it easy policy and ofcourse, the Mundhaanai Mudichu music for Bagyaraj and Oorvasi. Along the same vein, Bagyaraj also manages to introduce Pandiarajan as his student. The songs are passable though they wouldn't make me rush out to buy the soundtrack any time soon. Siva Siva... is catchy though its sounds similar to Tirupati Ezhumalai... from Ninaivirukkum Varai.