18 Vayasu

My review: 18 Vayasu

"Renikunta" team is back with their second venture "18 Vayasu". Nothing wrong in trying out a story with a mentally ill person as a protagonist. But before that one wishes that the writer-director Paneerselvam could have done some background research rather than plunging into the project with the help of hearsay. Okay that can be excused , atleast he could have woven a screenplay that is interesting to sustain one's attention throughout the period of two and half hours.

The screenplay is very loose & disjointed with suddenly things happening according to the wishes of the writer rather following a natural course. One of the symptoms of the psychotic hero in mimicking the animals that he sees while distressed seem to have forced into the narrative. After a point that too fails to evoke any interest.

Dialogues are routine with few lines thrown into feed to the misogynists in the audience (who seems to form a sizable number,,!)

Jhonny fits into the role that he plays well though he must do a lot of work improving his emotive skills. He looks stiff in most of the scenes. In certain sequences he evokes unintended laughter from the viewers by trying to mimic animals. Debutante Gayatri is natural in her portrayal of the "damsel in distress " act. She looks pleasant to the eyes & emotes well too. Satyendran as "Jackie" (whom we have seen in lots of movies in brief roles) has got a plum role for the first time in his career & he has done justice to the opportunity.

In Charles Bosco's music "Enakkenave nee", "Unnai Onru " & "Entha Ulagil" are good melodious numbers while he needs to do a lot of learning to do as far as background score is concerned. Background score is  pretty amateurish.

Sakthi , the cinematographer has done a very good job capturing the emotions well. Technically movie is good & glossy.

On the whole, "18 Vayasu" has a good plot but poor screenplay ensures that one's patience is tested by the time movie reaches intermission. By the time movie ends one feels a great deal of relief.

Bottomline: Poverty of imagination.

2/5