I've always been a fan of Tamil movies with simple love stories - be it the youthful Kaadhal Desam, the scintillating Minsaara Kanavu or the emotional Mouna Raagam. But off late, such movies have become a rarity, what with populistic heroism oriented films dominating the industry. No wonder, I didn't see many new Tamil movies in 2009. I cannot watch a movie where the hero is larger than life, beating up the villains left, right and center, and blurting out punch dialogues like no-one else's business. The only exception to this rule is ofcourse, the evergreen Super Star Rajni.
In such a boring scenario, Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya (VTV) feels like the first few drops of the monsoon rain. Having fallen in love with the music of this movie for over a month now, I couldn't wait to see how the songs have been picturized. Moreover, the promos of this movie have also been very interesting. I always liked the films of Gowtham Menon and he has moved up the ranks to become my favorite director next to Maniratnam, displacing Shankar. His beautiful depiction of the love and the chemistry between the hero and heroine in most of his movies is very memorable - the mature interactions between Surya and Jyotika in Kaaka Kaaka or the love-at-first-sight scene in the train in Vaaranam Aayiram (what a cute scene it is!).
There is nothing new about the story of VTV - Hindu boy meets Christian girl, love at first sight, follows her wherever she goes. We might have seen such stories like a hundred times but the screenplay and the dialogues in VTV are unique and new. I loved the scene when the hero Karthik goes to Alleppey to meet Jessie and the dialogue that follows when she asks him why he likes her so much. For some reason, I couldn't take the image of Sameera Reddy in the first few dialogues of Trisha. I guess because Chinmayi has dubbed for Trisha and her voice suited so much for Sameera in Vaaranam Aayiram. Except for Manmadhan, I haven't seen any of Simbu's movies. This guy definitely has much more capability to act than a typical hero. Hope he does more soft roles in his future movies. His expressions in this movie have been very good, right from the time he falls in love, the confusions on why Trisha wouldn't reciprocate and the frustrations when she says "It's over".
Trisha's characterization of an indecisive and confused woman is well portrayed. 'Enna enakke theriyaathu, enakku enna venum-nu ennakke theriyaathu" summarizes everything of her behavior. But I felt maybe a few more scenes where the conflict between her feelings and her family's responses could have been included which might have added more rationale to the way she keeps changing her decision.
The guy who plays Simbu's friend provides some good entertainment in the first half, with his humorous one-liners. The colors, the costumes and the locations of "Hosanna" and "Omana Penne" provide a visual delight. The background score by Rahman was perfect, especially in the first half (wish I could buy a CD of just the background tunes).The climax of the movie had an unexpected twist. But I don't think there is a better way to end this story.
VTV is a beautiful movie with very good performances by Simbu and Trisha, brilliant music and memorable dialogues. I wouldn't mind watching it a few more times.
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