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| Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham |
Four friends go to Bangkok for a bachelor party, get totally drunk, only to wake up on a remote island with no recollection of how they ended up there. And, no, this isn't their 'Hangover'!
There is a scene in the second half of Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham in which Naradar (Mano Bala) tells Lord Siva (Subbu Panchu) that the story isn't progressing and by this time, people will be posting on Facebook and Twitter that the first half of the film is super while the second half is mokkai. It is delivered as a knowing wink at the audience, suggesting to us that the director, Chandru, knows he has hit a dead end. Sadly, it is also the most profound statement in the entire film — not only on the audiences of today but also on the films we get these days, including this one, which just turns dreary, minutes after we enter the second half.
The film does begin in a promising way, with Naradar showing videos of the main characters to Siva on his iMac! This Mt Kailash resembles the version we have seen in AP Nagarajan's mythological films from the 60s (including Saraswathi Sabatham) down to the costumes but with a difference — its inhabitants seem to be passionate consumers of Apple products. So, you see Parvathi using an iPhone, and Muruga playing Temple Run on an iPad (though the director fails to exploit the oddity of a God playing a game called Temple Run) and so on. We are thus introduced to the film's Earth-set characters — Ramarajan, a quack of sorts, who is in love with college student and reality show contestant Jaishree, his friends Gopi, a corrupt politician's son, Ganesh, a hapless husband whose wife does katta panchayat, and Krishna, a wannabe film star. These four characters are normal when sobre but turn into a nuisance when they get drunk, and that, Siva explains, is the reason he has chosen them for his thiruvilayadal.
So, in The Hangover style (which the movie acknowledges), the four go to Bangkok for a bachelor party after Ramarajan's wedding is fixed, get drunk there but, then, they wake up to find themselves on a remote island with no recollection of how they ended up there. They are clueless when it comes to getting out of the place and so does the movie itself. What was a mildly amusing affair turns tedious and we are left with the sorry sight of witnessing the antics of VTV Ganesh, a sloppy effort to integrate the original Saraswathi Sabatham into the plot, and an even cruder attempt to wash all this
off with a "message" (about drinking) in the end. And, this takes the fun out of what could have been dismissed as pointless fun.
