All roads led to the theaters where this movie got screened today. Nothing deterred me from booking tickets for the first day first show on a working day. Such was the hype and hoopla which surrounded it, thanks to the ‘Kola Veri’ phenomenon which kick started it, followed by the coming together of the legends’ daughters - Aishwarya and Shruti Haasan with Dhanush pitching in to give the much needed star power.
‘3’ refers to the 3 stages in the life of Dhanush and Shruti Haasan as a couple, right from their school days when it starts as a puppy love, tracking them until their post marital life where fate intervenes and spells havoc in their life.
A warm welcome to Aishwarya Dhanush; as a debut director, she has chosen a not so conventional script for her maiden venture and has managed to partly execute it with elan. The first half was engaging, where Dhanush along with Sivakarthikeyan provided some genuine laughs and the scenes were such that anyone can relate to their love life. There was also a suspense factor which managed to grip the viewers until the interval.
Though cliched in every sense, the scenes in the first half were shot afresh and the chemistry between the lead pair of Dhanush and Shruti was dashing enough to say the least (no doubt they had the kollywood rumour mills spinning for a while now!!). The second half, on the contrary, was absolutely melodramatic and took an about turn and wobbled indefinitely before crash landing into the abyss.
Dhanush might get nominated for yet another national award, as it was another feather in his cap as he has delivered a dashing performance. The penchant emotions for his lady love throughout the movie and also as an incapacitated husband who wages a war against fate in the latter half, he has delivered as always.
Shruti Haasan has managed to improve by far from her debut venture. She was in almost every frame and managed to justify her matured role. Only thing which annoyed everyone were her somewhat similar expressions for almost all the scenes and she only managed to cry like her father.
Sivakarthikeyan was a major strength for the first half and Sundar, who was earlier seen in ‘Mayakkam Enna’ was given a more beefy role in the latter half and did a decent job at it.
Prabhu and Bhanupriya as Dhanush’s affable parents were there to justify the movie’s star power and Rohini did her bit as Shruti’s mother, with an emotional overtone.
Music by Anirudh, needless to say, has become a phenomenon. But after watching the movie, I realized that it was not only ‘Kola Veri’, but there were other songs which were worthy enough, but got overshadowed because of the ‘Kola Veri’ phenomenon. All the romantic numbers were picturised beautifully with a poetic touch, especially ‘Kannazhaga’. The much publicized ‘Kola Veri’ number must have been intentionally placed post interval, and blended along with the story, but there was nothing exceptional about the number. Anirudh has also done an awesome job at BGM, where he has used minimalistic music, which gelled well with the proceedings.
Velraj’s camera angles were breezy in the first half, while jerky enough to showcase the growing tension in the script in the latter.
Kola Bhaskar’s editing in the latter half was a big let down and almost spells doomsday for the movie as it hampered the pace big time.
Overall, the movie is an average fare, with a brilliant performance from Dhanush yet again; but it can be watched once by keeping your expectations at an all time low, though one cannot avoid the restlessness which creeps in during the latter half.
Verdict: Worth a watch - Average
Rating: 2.5/5
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