TIRUPATI EZHUMALAI VENKATESA

A movie review by Balaji Balasubramaniam

Ramanarayanan, known for his 'godly' movies and movies with lots of animals(and Baby Shamilee), picks a full-length comedy(with a message to boot) for his 100th movie behind the camera. The comedy is cheap and aims for the lowest denominator and the message is all but lost in the chaos but the comedy works at quite a few places to offer lots of laughs. This is more than what can be said for other recent full-length comedies like Unakkaaga Ellaam Unakkaaga.

The movie contains more than a few similarities to Viralukketha Veekkam. Apart from featuring the same couple Vadivelu and 'Kovai' Sarala, TEV also has three couples, has cheap comedy as its lifeline, is filmed on a shoe-string budget, takes place primarily indoors and contains a message(the situation is reversed here since it was the husbands who learned a lesson in Viralukketha Veekkam while here its the wives who learn the importance of relationships over money). The big difference is that TEV aims to be a full-length comedy with scarcely a serious scene while Viralukketha Veekkam had its share of serious moments, especially between Livingston and Kushboo. TEV's approach works better and the comedy itself being funnier, it provides a far more entertaining time.

Lalitha(Sarala), Padmini(Oorvasi) and Ragini(Roja) are sisters constantly dreaming of a rich lifestyle. Ragini is also vain because of her beauty(When a sick man touches her to save her, she removes her sari and burns it in the middle of the road). When their father ('Venniraadai' Moorthy), a watchman, announces that his landlord has left on vacation leaving his house empty and locked, they take the chance and start living in the house. The top portion of the house is rented to Tirupati(Vadivelu), Ezhumalai(S.V.Sekhar) and Venkatesa(Prabhu). Falsely assuming that they are millionares, Lalitha, Padmini and Ragini wed Tirupati, Ezhumalai and Venkatesa respectively. But they learn about the true state of their husbands soon enough and kick them out. Tirupati, Ezhumalai and Venkatesa return with Rs. 3 crores and lay the condition that their wives will get the money if they do their husbands' bidding for the next month.

Even though Prabhu and Roja get first billing in the credits, its Vadivelu and Sarala who have maximum screen time. Consequently, they figure in the funniest scenes of the movie. Their experience when Vadivelu goes to fill the role of an actor and Sarala fulfilling Vedivelu's mother's vows are the comic highlights of the movie. Among the vow fulifillment scenes, the scene where she walks on fire('Venniraadai' Moorthy too gets involved) and the way Oorvasi and Moorthy react to Sarala after she returns from Tirupati offer the biggest laughs. There is also the raining of blows by Sarala on Vadivelu, a recent feature in movies like the aforementioned Viralukketha Veekkam and Nesam Pudhusu. In an in-joke, Vadivelu even mentions that he recalls getting beaten the same way recently!

Another actor who makes an impression is 'Venniraadai' Moorthy. He has several funny lines and his delivery and timing are good too. S.V.Sekhar, rarely seen in movies, makes us laugh purely because of his dialog delivery. Many of his interactions with Oorvasi (like the scene where he talks to her about finding a cure for some new diseases) are funny because of the way he delivers the dialog. The laughs are doubled when Vivek enters the scene proclaiming that he is Oorvasi's first husband and father of their two children. Prabhu and Roja have the weakest portions of the movie, both with respect to comedy and his plan for correcting her. His scenes with Alphonso(with a song too) are boring and in the end, achieve nothing.

Ofcourse there are quite a few places where laughs are lacking. The movie also extends its running time unnecessarily. The movie is pretty much finished once the wives have learned their lesson but then the movie introduces a cinematic and uncalled for 'twist' and then a fight that is not even funny. Though the movie pokes fun at its own situation initially(when Prabhu asks Roja and Sarala where they got the jeep, Sarala replies that such questions should not be asked during the climax), its fails to maintain the cleverness and the fight soon descends into boredom.

Songs are uninteresting and their picturisation is unimaginative (After a string of movies where actresses like Simran (Edhirum Pudhirum, Andhappuram), Rambha(Kaadhalar Dhinam) and Roja(Kaadhal Kavidhai, Nenjinile) appeared in single song sequences, we now have actor-turned-director R.Sunderrajan appearing for a single song in this movie!).