I am sure there wouldn't be anyone in Tamil Nadu who have not enjoyed the cult classic, Thillu Mullu that got released in the early 80s. Directed by Balachander, the movie has been telecast so many times in different television channels that some of the dialogs have become a regular even while we tend to use them on a day-to-day context. The movie itself was a remake of a Hindi original called ‘Gol Maal’. Since the current crop of directors prefer to take a shortcut to stardom with short films or remakes, director Bhadri who had done a couple of unknown movies had decided to dwell on brand ‘Thillu Mullu’.
A big relief was that the director had not gone for a scene-by-scene remake and had invested his thoughts on a fresh presentation that will suit the sensibilities of the current generation while trying to retain the original essence of the script. The first step in implementing that was through roping in a whacky actor like ‘Shiva’, who has done some comic roles in the past and hence the premise to this remake was established well.
Shiva breathed in oxygen to the script that had some breathing problems every now and again primarily due to a rehashed and crass screenplay. Since we had seen him in ‘Tamizh padam’, his character gelled well for his profile. His sense of humor was immaculate and the timing was precise. Also he had the additional burden of doing a role that was made memorable by none other than our 'Super Star'. His execution was precise as his character definition was proper.
Isha Talwar in the heroine’s role was a big let down. She hardly got her expressions right and the mouth sync was a fiasco.
Prakash Raj with his ‘Muruga’ philosophy was engaging, but failed to deliver anything special.
‘Kovai’ Sarala’s role was overdone with a spear always poked across her tongue and so it lost the fizz after the second time.
Ilavarasu’s character could have made much more impactful.
‘Parotta’ Soori’s role was a new addition but was not a justifying attempt as he has not delivered the goods as was expected from him.
Santhanam had a guest appearance at the end to mark a similar one done by Kamal in the 1980’s classic. But somehow Santhanam just managed to pass muster as expectations were sky high on him.
Music by Yuvan was a mere upgrade from MS Viswanathan’s classics from the original.
Editing was again a disappointing department wherein an extra song and the last 30 minutes could have been trimmed down or totally chopped off as they added little value to the story. Also they acted as speed breakers in an otherwise pacy script.
Cinematography was bad as there were so many out-of-focus shots and one can see mics popping out on screen more often than not.
The movie would have been much more engaging had the director cared to add some more comic elements and discipline in his script.
Verdict: Below Average
Rating: 2/5
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