1.5 / 4 STARS
DIRECTOR: GEETHA KRISHNA
ACTORS: PRABHU DEVA, BABLOO
ACTRESSES: SIMRAN, RADHIKA CHOUDHARY
MUSIC DIRECTOR: ILAYARAJA
STORYLINE:
Prabhu Deva plays Srinivasamurthy, a poor young man who only lives well because he is friends with Babloo's character, a rich man's son. Srinivasa, wanting to get married, advertises in the personals and gets a positive response from Tulasi (Simran) and her father (Nasser). Without ever seeing each other, over phone conversations, the two fall in love. Srinivasa sends Babloo's father to fix up the engagement-- unfortunately, Babloo's father and Nasser have a bad history. The engagement falls apart. Nasser commits suicide in his grief.
Tulasi, saddened by all of this, goes to Singapore. Here, Babloo is studying, and when he is hit by a car, it is Tulasi that nurses him back to health. A la "While You Were Sleeping" (Hollywood movie), everyone assumes she and Babloo are lovers. When Babloo wakes up, he DOES love her, and asks for her hand in marriage. Srinivasa comes to Singapore, too, (where he's followed everywhere by annoying Radhika Choudhary) but when he realizes his best friend is about to marry his lover, he keeps quiet about his identity and goes back to India.
Tulasi dumps Babloo at the altar, unable to marry him, and she, too, runs off to India. The rest of the story is about how Tulasi and Srinivasa meet.
COMMENTS:
The beginning sequence of Tulasi's and Srinivasa's love developing over the phone is refreshingly original. It's more realistic for them to love this way than just seeing each other, love at first sight, etc. But then the story falls apart after the engagement is ruined.
I was horrified by the Singapore sequences. I lived in Singapore for three years and let me tell you, just because you speak with a "la" doesn't mean you're speaking Singaporean. The accents the actors used to make themselves Singaporean were horrid, and Ko-Vay Sarala's was the worst. Furthermore, Radhika Choudhary just came off as a spoiled brat.
The ending is implausible, the storyline weak, but you can watch it once, I guess, if you have the time (no pun intended) and if you're an avid lover of Tamil movies.
Oh yeah, Babloo's acting isn't very good either (he was much better in "Aval Varuvalaa") and they should have let Prabhu Deva dance a little more.
NOTE ON THE MUSIC:
The songs are pretty good and well worth listening to. The best songs are "Kaadhal Nee Thaanaa".and "Thavikkiraen."
RECOMMENDATION:
You can skip this one and not feel too bad.
VIJAY VANNIARAJAN