Vellithirai

‘Velliththiria’, the remake of Malayalam movie ‘Udayananu Tharam’, fails where the original fails, and when it scores it isn’t at par with original. Udayananu Tharam is more of a satire on the hero centric Indian film industry. It openly pulled the legs of popular Malayalam stars. The script didn’t leave even Mohanlal behind, who himself is a part of the movie. In Tamil version, though there are dialogues about and pointers to big Tamil heroes, it really doesn’t have the same impact as that of the Malayalam version.

The original version was fun throughout, because it is Srinivasan who portrays the wicked and cunning wannabe hero role, who turns into a superstar. Srinivasan’s appearance makes all his cunning actions, funnier and light, though on surface it badly affects our hero whom we are supposed to empathize with in the movie. But here we have Prakash raj playing this cunning role, whose actions after few initial scenes, looks villainous and don’t have the lighter feel that the original had.

Inspite of a genuine portrayal by Prakash raj, his looks and his image as a villain in Tamil movies makes the proceedings feel more heavy and serious. The assistant director and a heroine loving each other, their marriage, and its consequences forms a boring sub plot in the original and it is retained as it is in this version, and though it is with far less melodrama, it dampens the flow. Inspite of its cons, if you haven’t seen the original, probably you may enjoy the movie for Viji’s trademark funny one liners and the interesting climax sequence.