Happened to watch Perazhagan recently in Satyam complex in Chennai. The movie has it all... big banner, top rated actors/actresses, comedy, romance, action, moving scenes, good performances... but there was something amiss.
The story opens on how the hunch-backed Chinna (a.k.a Prem Kumar :p) goes off with Vivek (Kuzhandai) to see a girl and on the way dreams about getting married to a beauty (Malavika). Yes, they were light moments.. putting the viewer at ease.
Then we have Karthik(another Surya) in a boxing game who starts hitting rowdies who try to play smart with Jyothika... u don’t understand why he is so mad.. then he tells u that he can’t stand anything happening to his lady love...
So the story goes on and on showing the viewer what a nice, lovable guy Chinna is although he is hunch-backed & buck-toothed and what a tough, demanding, unrelenting guy Karthik is, which I found quite boring (how long can u keep telling the viewers what kind of people these two are). Then comes Jyothika No. 2 into the picture... the story picks up a bit with the relationship of Chinna and Shenbagam.. the care and affection show by them towards each other, how Chinna uses Shenbagam’s blindness to his advantage to impress her... then we have Jyothika No. 1 falling off a cliff... and the story becomes a drag after that although your heart goes out to Shenbagam when she gets frightened by the sight of Karthik. Jyothika has done really well in these scenes.
From then on, it was a long wait to see what would be the end!
All the actors & actresses have done a neat job.. Vivek’s timely jokes, Surya’s matured performance as Chinna, veteran Manorama’s expressions, Jyothika’s expressive eyes. The story is also pretty straight..
But perhaps is it the screenplay that should have been pruned a little and the direction that needs to mature a bit? Probably this is what I missed in otherwise a perfect movie!