A handsome youth and a pretty girl. A crippled ugly hunchback and a blind lass. The romance between the first pair and their travails, and the bonding between the second and their testing-time of love forms the crux of the subject. With humour thrown in ample measure, the script laced with sentiment, pathos, action, suspense and tragedy, director Sasi Shanker has weaved a fairly engaging tale, a wholesome family entertainer.
It’s a film where yet again the screen chemistry between the lead pair gives life to the scenes. Both Suriya and Jotika act in double roles. Suriya is Karthik, a hot-blooded college-goer, in love with Priya. Suriya is also Chinna, the ugly buck-toothed crippled hunchback running a phone booth, a go-between for the earlier pair. Into his life comes a blind poor girl, an orphan to whom he gives refuge.
Handsomely turned out is Suriya as Karthik (Anuradha Sriram has done the costumes). But getting an edge is Suriya as Chinna, who covers up his inadequacies by his tall talk. While one Jothika looks trendy, it’s the blind unglamorous Shenbagam, who wins our sympathy.
The common enemy of the foursome is Varada (a menacing looking Boby) who wreaks havoc in their lives. The film is the remake of the director’s Malayalm hit Kunji Koonan (inspired by Chaplin’s City Lights). But the director has reworked the second half of the story, to fit in Jothika’s double role (there were two heroines in the original) a rowdy, murder, eye- donation and a lover’s dilemma. The new version has turned out well too, action and suspense prevailing, where the earlier version was total humour.
Finally here is one film where one welcomes the antics of Vivek. The actor with his perfect timing and wisecracks peps up the proceedings, particularly in the scenes with Chinna. Undoubtedly a major contribution to the film’s entertainment value.