Sillunu Oru Kadhal

Year 2006 seem to be the year of disappointments, especially the movies that comes with so much hype and hoopla failed to impress all kind of target audience. “Pudupettai” had a classic first half, but self indulgence of Selvaraghavan spoiled the second half and it neither was called a crap or a classic which Selvaraghavan aimed and expected the movie to be? Then came much expected “Imsai Arasan 23m Pulikesi”. which in spite of being made as socio-historic-satirical comedy in a different way, couldn’t impress all kind of audience. Gautam Menon’s ‘Vettaiyadu Vilayadu’ was a disappointment considering that it was expected to be a (so called) masterpiece by KK fans and as a quite different movie from KK by Kamal fans as we have Kamal Haasan as hero but it is more of a Gautam movie that Kamal’s and it failed to satisfy either. Though it worked partly up until the first half, second half went haywire. These aren’t as bad as a movie which we are going to talk about now, it is just that they didn’t meet our expectations.

Here comes ‘Sillunu Oru Kadhal’ which is the biggest disappointments of this year. At least the other three movies were genuine attempts in which makers have tried hard to do something different in Tamil cinema but this one though it tries to be poetic and romantic all through it turns out to be none of what it expected to be. Instead it turns out to be a fashion show of Surya, Jyothika and Bhoomika with various colorful costumes and hair styles. Krishna has got an interesting plot but his execution and screenplay which is made to fit in all commercial ingredients spoiled the novelty in the theme. The movie is all about a wife who comes to know about her husband’s past love from his personal diary. The only wish of her husband is to live with his ex-ladylove at least for one day in his life. And what will happen when a wife decides to make such a wish of her husband’s to come true?

Nothing much really happens in the first half, it is filled with unnecessary comedy scenes of Vadivelu which evokes yawn than laughter. Though it starts quite interestingly with Surya and Jyothika getting married without any interest, it soon shifts to their life after 6 years in Mumbai. It would have been better it Krishna had few interesting scenes to show how their relationship got better and how they started loving each other so much. The story doesn’t really take off in the first half, and for good or bad Jyothika finds Surya’s personal diary too late in the movie. Second half is even worse (except for Santhanam’s usual witty one-liners) with the Surya and Bhoomika love portrayed in an even more unconvincing way. The basic flaw in the movie is that though it deals with two deep love of Surya at two different times, both are shown in a shallow and unconvincing way and as the screenplay is pivoted around these two love stories, it fails miserably.

R.D.Rajasekhar and Antony does their usual job well and it helps the movie look technically sound and savvy. A.R.Rahman’s background score is as bad as the movie. Though the songs are good, it is simply wasted. In spite of a bad screenplay, Surya gives a neat performance. See for a mix of shock, surprise, fear, embarrassment all at once in his face when he sees Bhoomika in his house after six years. Jyothika is OK. Bhoomika is weakest character in the movie and so is her performance.

The couple who looks like made-for-each-other in their real life marriage photos lacks chemistry on screen in this movie and that is the (lack of) power of the screenplay of Krishna. Sillunu Oru Kadhal – NIL.