Any film which has Sundar C associated with it either as a director or an actor, the viewer can take it for granted that he can enjoy two hours of fun and frolic and who cares if logic is not a part of the equation. His latest offering ‘Muthina Kathirikai’ directed by his former associate Venkat Krishnan provides the laughs, but lacks the charm of the original ‘Vellimoonga’.
Sundar C plays the role of Muthupaandi a middle aged small time politician who has difficulty getting married and also making a headway in his career. His political rivals are the brothers VTV Ganesh and Singam Puli who themselves are rivals belonging to different parties. In the middle of the mayhem Sundar sets his sights on Maya played by Poonam Bajwa who turns out to be the daughter of his childhood sweetheart Kiran and his schoolmate Ravi Maria. All the hero’s enemies join forces and fix Poonam’s marriage with Vaibav. The hero faces the twin challenges of launching his political career and marrying the girl of his dreams. Whether he achieves them forms the rest of the screenplay.
Sundar C fits the role of the village politician to the T and has delivered one of his finest performances till date. He has handled comedy, sentiment and action with ease. He also gets to deliver a mass hero punchline in the well choreographed fight with Yogi Babu’s men. Poonam Bajwa has nothing much to do except putting on a smile and wading through draped in colorful sarees. One of the songs exploits her glamor display to the maximum. VTV Ganesh and Singam Puli provide the laughs in most of the scenes they appear with the former scoring when caught red handed with a call girl and the latter when Sathish tries hard to explain politics to him. Sathish is his usual self as the quintessential friend while Sumithra as the mother of the hero has more screen space than the heroine. It is rather a sad sight to watch yesteryear glamor girl Kiran as the heroine’s mother, but her silent exchange of glances with Sundar brings the house down. Yogi Babu is an absolute scream in the one scene he appears and Vaibav puts in a cameo. Sriman and Ravi Maria are also part of the cast.
Siddarth Vipin’s background score helps the proceedings while his songs are not up to the mark of his previous work. Bhanu Murugan’s cinematography is pleasing and N.B. Srikanth’s editing drives through. Debutante Venkat Raghavan’s forte seems to be dialogues and the film has more than a few that hit the right chords.
The original film worked to a great extent due to the rural flavor, but this remake is robbed of that and there is only a sense of déjà vu in most of the scenes especially the long drawn out election episodes. The film fails to impress as a whole due to the inconsistent screenplay and the 80s style presentation. The team could have done well if they had taken as reference Sundar C’s ‘Kalakalappu’ and ‘Theeya Velai Seiyanum Kumaru’ or even ‘Aranmanai’ for a master class on how to perfectly balance high voltage comedy and slick film-making.
Verdict: Go for it if episodes of comedy is all that you are looking for.
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