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Cast:
| Sharat
Kumar |
Suresh
Gopi |
Devayani |
Abhirami |
| Ashish
Vidyarthi |
Haripriya |
Senthil |
Goundamani |
| Director:
Raj Kapoor |
 It is male bonding this time, centering round the great friendship between Thiru and Surya. As the film opens, one knows what to expect. And the director doesn't disappoint, moving his narration steadily through
clichéd scenes and predictable situations.
The director does not waste any time on preludes and romances, but zeroes in, straight to the friendship factor. So when the story opens, both Thiru and Surya are married, and we're told that it is Thiru who had selected a bride for Surya and vice versa. And soon the duo would select the grooms for each other's sisters too. We're also informed that their friendship is a legacy carried over from their grandfathers and fathers who were thick friends. A lot of feel-good scenes follow, with the two friends almost going overboard to prove the point. Like, while Surya's uncle gives a tight slap to Thiru for breaking a village custom, he gets a tight return-slap from his nephew. Again, it's Thiru who's bringing up Surya's little daughter, Surya having magnanimously handed her over to the childless couple.
 Time for the villains of the piece to move in actively, though they were all along hovering in the background making
unapproving sounds at this great show of friendship. One is Surya's own mother, who is irked by Surya's over-dependence on Thiru. The other is Shankara, a local big-wig who holds the duo's fathers responsible for his own father's humiliation and death, decades back. So if the friendship is a legacy, so is the enmity factor. But the scene of the bitter parting of ways of the friends is the weakest link in the script with Thiru's wife's action most unconvincing here. Added to that is the distracting habit the director has of going frequently into flashbacks for each of his characters.
Sharat's is a neat performance without much fuss. Suresh Gopi dominates the frames with his towering personality, but needs to make his dialogue delivery more natural. Devayani and Abhirami fit into their roles well, though why the character of Devayani (as Thiru's wife) remains silent when the friends bitterly part ways, is a mystery. A word from her could have cleared the whole misunderstanding. But of course the director wanted to bide his time, dragging the film further. The Senthil-Goundamani comedy falls flat, Goundamani allowed to butt in with his wise-cracks, whatever the situation and whoever is in the frame!
Malini Mannath
published on 06th Oct 2002
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