Tenali

What's new?

With a Kamal movie, you can always expect something new. For the second time in a row (after Punnagai Mannan), I am watching a Kamal movie which has something to do with Srilanka. This time, it was a great feast of comedy that hides a great tragedy faced by Tenali Soman, a Srilankan tamil guy, whose father was killed and mom was raped in front of him, and his house was bombed. Since then, this guy is scared of everything.

Noticeable

Another movie, where the start was superb! Making Jayaram look like a hero in the beginning to paralyzing him in the end, was an amazing transformation over a period of 120 minutes and almost every minute of it was enjoyable, except the time-bomb part, which seemed like a drag. Kudos to KS Ravikumar, who makes a cameo appearance as usual!

Crazy Mohan's dialogues were superb and suited the situation very well. He has done an excellent job along the lines of MMKR and Avvai Shanmugi. Some of the sequences make you roll out of your chair in laughter. The Kamal-Crazy combo is one of the best when it comes to Kollywood comedy.

Jayaram has done an outstanding job in this movie. His acting equals or exceeds Kamal's in this movie. It was a tough role for him and he has done very well. This is arguably his best comic performance. Delhi Ganesh, Ramesh Kanna and Charlie provided good supporting comedy. Although the latter had not much to do, he was in the water most of the time! Diamond Babu was his usual one-track self but provided some good laughs over the course of the movie.

Kamal was great throughout the movie and his expression transformation from comical to emotional was swift and exceptional! His dialogue delivery was exceptional, he spoke the Srilankan tamil with such great ease! This is a master at work and I am one of those fans who believe that this guy is far more talented than Sivaji Ganesan, although the latter must have inspired him through his childhood.

Jyothika seems to have no problems standing on top of stools, as her heels in this movie indicate. However, it was a good strategy to make her look thin. Devyani had a secondary role and she was average. The kids were cool, specially the girl was cute.

A.R.Rahman's tunes were great, "Ho Jaye" is well remembered. These were well supported by good picturization and excellent locales.

Verdict

Great feast of comedy with some dragging sequences. But overall, it is very enjoyable. One word of caution though, you need to get used to the Srilankan Tamil accent, which can be somewhat annoying (due to lack of understanding). But since I had a Srilankan tamil neighbor, I got used to the dialect and was able to enjoy this movie. Thursday, June 16, 2005 at 11:20 AM