`Rain, Rain Come Again' is a lesson on what overconfidence can lead to. Carried away by the phenomenal success of `4 the People', director Jayaraaj comes out with yet another youth-oriented caper that is no match to its predecessor.There is no denying that innovative music contributed heavily to the success of `4 the People', but there was a semblance of a story line with well-etched characters to back it up.
In `Rain, Rain...' the story and characterization are sacrificed at the altar of technical gimmickry and intoxicating music. Jayaraaj, also credited with the story, makes a hotchpotch of it. He takes inspiration from every possible source, be it Karan Johar's `Kuch, Kuch Hota Hai' for yuppie-ness and M. Night Shyamalan's `Unbreakable' for eeriness. It seems that screenplay-writer Sarath Sivadas was just assigned to fit in a few scenes between songs.
The story begins with two neighboring colleges, always at loggerheads for some unstated reason. Half of the reel time is taken up by the game of one-up-man-ship between the two colleges. The other thread of the story is about the fight between the good and the evil, and the evil is represented by none other than the followers of Satan himself. And, there is no symbolic representation of the evil like drugs or anything evil. The evil is only presented in religious terms.
The entirely new cast gets no opportunity to display histrionic capabilities. The actors have to either look stiff or start dancing when the music starts. Except for Renji V. Nair, who plays the sinister professor following the satanic path, nobody makes an impact.
`Rain, Rain..' is inconsistent in the technical department, too. The camera work by Gopinath is jerky, as in MTV Grind. It looks okay in song sequences but otherwise it makes tiresome viewing.
The only saving grace Jassie Gift's music. The dusky composer also appears in almost every song as if to leverage his brand equity. All seen and said, you can watch this movie if you feel that you have still not grown beyond the college-going age, and if you do not mind dancing in the aisles when the song sequences are on.
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