Hara Hara Mahadevaki - Climaxes in a Sukhanubavam
A clear cut trailer and a Clean A censor certificate has already set up the audience for what to expect in Blue Ghost Pictures, 'Hara Hara Mahadevaki' directed by Santhosh P Jayakumar and the heartening thing is that the film delivers what it promised despite its flaws.
The anthology opens with Thalaivar (Ravi Maria) hatching a plan with his henchman Idi (Namo Narayanan) to plant a bomb hidden in a freebie bag at a ruling party meeting and employ Spike (Mottai Rajendhran) and Kumar (Karunakaran). The second story involves Ravi (Bala Saravanan) an expert at changing fake currencies with a similar bag containing one crore ruppes. The third one has Ramya (Nikki Galrani) breaking up with her funeral organizer boyfriend Hari (Gautham Karthick) and the fourth episode involving a couple whose child is kidnapped while staying at a resort and the cop R.K. Suresh on the case. All these stories collide at the Hara Hara Mahadevaki resort and all hell breaks loose leading to a Sukhanubavam climax.
Gautham Karthick playing the central role is a much improved actor who eases into the character of Hari and scores best in the place where he mouths a lengthy dialogue about his business as a funeral service organizer. Nikki Galrani continues her lucky streak in choosing another film that works well for her and credit to her for confidently managing the adult situations and dialogues which otherwise would have fallen flat. The actors in this film work in pairs and it is Mottai Rajendran and Karunakaran who have the edge over the others in terms of the character scope and comedy timing. Watch out among other scenes for Rajendran's explanation of his underwear policy and the duo enjoying an uproarious kiss exchange between the hero, heroine and friends. Sathish after a long gap gets some good lines to get his comedy timing right while Ravi Maria and Namo Narayanan deliver their own laugh packages. Bala Saravanan is left alone and since he does not have much of a chance to unleash his counters on anybody his character is a bit of a disappointment. The weak link that pulls down the film is the episode involving the kidnapping and poor R.K. Suresh is drowned by the amateur actors surrounding him.
The director plays up the crowd in the opening itself by flashing a thanks card to the viral Whatsapp Swamiji whose voiceover and Karadi references are used to good effect while running the title card and for delivering punches of the adult variety all over the screenplay. There are also cleverly camouflaged pokes at current politicians and policemen which receive thunderous applause. Once all the characters enter the Mahadevaki resort the laugh volume is raised to the loudest. The writer-director throws up his aces like the bags constantly changing hands, a duel between a pastor and tantric, snakes, the bomb and a kiss exchange between his leads and the thing is all of these hit the bullseye in triggering non stop laughter.
On the downside the film takes a long time for its setup which is a yawn and as mentioned earlier the shoddily conceived and executed kidnap episode is a major let down. There is too much dependence on talking heads to deliver the jokes and hence the screenplay and visual execution is just about average.
Balamurali Balu who has scored the music has come up with peppy numbers and the Hara Hara Mahadevaki Swamiji tribute is the standout along with the saavu kuthu number. Cinematography, editing and the other technical aspects are in tune with the budget. Santhosh P Jayakumar has delivered the most explicit adult comedy ever in Tamil cinema and that does not take anything away from him as it is a legitimate genre and he has juggled his running gags up nicely. All the others before him have failed in this genre because no one ventured fully into it as he has done.
Verdict : With the Swamiji's blessings go for it to have many a wicked laugh that ends in a sukhanubavam climax
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