Laadam…….Painful!
Starring: Charmi , Aravindhan, Kota Srinivasa Rao
Direction: Prabhu Solomon
Music: Dharan
Production: J.P.Kumar, D.Y.Chowdary
Is this the first time we see a promising director with a brilliant debut film losing all his identity with his second? Is this the first time we see our expectations mount in the first half only to be utterly disappointed with the second half of the movie? The answer is NO. And Prabhu Solomon who debuted with “Kokki” has given a very mediocre film in his second coming.
The opening of the movie is something you've been watching on Tamil screens for some time now: Rival gangs of Pavadai (Kota Srinivasa Rao) and Vempuli (V Jeyaprakash) rule the roost with a horde of men in Chennai. Vempuli, the rival kills Pavadai’s son. Enraged with this, Pavadai decides to seek revenge by killing Vempuli’s son who is returning from abroad within 16 days of his death. Every attempt of his is broken by Vempuli and his men.
Enter Kunjithapaatham (Newcomer Aravindhan), a naive young man from an orphanage to the city, eager to find a job and improve his life. And there is Angel (Charmee), a happy-go-lucky girl who goes around slipping ad-tags on houses by day, and breaks into empty houses by night but only to eat and sleep. Huh!
Mistakenly abducted by Pavadai’s men, Kunjithapaatham happens to meet Pavadai and explains that it is brain not anger which is a better weapon. Pavadai then hands the responsibility of murdering his rival’s son to Kunjithapaatham. And then begins a cat-and-mouse game, where Kunjithapaatham is steadily rammed with a horse-shoe in the form of the rival gangs' attempts to murder each other and himself -- thus explaining the movie's title. He gets into the company of Angel as well, who manages to liven up his stress-filled life with her random, silly observations even if it begins to get on his nerves at times.
The pre-interval scenes definitely catch your attention (not entirely though) and raises your expectations even though Charmee and her silly tricks bring the movie down now and then. But the post- interval scenes are just too amateurish for a movie. In spite of a gripping story running simultaneously, Prabhu has chosen boorish scenes and a comedy track to solve the puzzle. Yes, humor and laughter are important in a movie but when the main plot is handled and solved with comedy is something very hard to digest.
Sometime during the movie, you wonder whether you are watching a thriller or an insane comedy. You can easily find out that Prabhu has run out of ideas in the screenplay and has directed this as and when happens. There are so many gun shots fired in the movie. In song sequences too! Huh!
Aravindan plays the guy who entangles himself in the web of criminals accidentally. And that’s pretty much that could be said about him. The lovely looking Charmee establishes that she could be quite annoying at times. She meddles with the movie’s flow most of the times with her mono-acting. And since her character is not properly developed, her whole existence in the movie seems like an excuse for skin show. That said, no characters in the movie seems to have been developed the way it should have been for a thriller.
V Jeyaprakash is your average suave villain; Kota Srinivasa Rao reminds you of how talented he really is, and how underused, as well. Dheeraj seems to have had a ball with his horrible accent and playing a thorough, sadistic baddie.
Harsha’s editing is good with new techniques but one feels the movie could have been trimmed more. Sugumaran’s camera work is good at times. The blue tone to preserve the thriller effect of the movie is sore to the eyes. Sometimes, the original color of the costumes and props are lost on the tone. Dharan’s BGM score is good and the same cannot be said for the songs.
Overall, Laadam is a very poor effort from a promising director. It is best to avoid the movie unless you are a fan of Charmee.
And yes, someone please tell me how many gun shots were fired in the movie.
- C. Karthik |
