Spoilers ahead…
In most films, we can sense the director’s terror that the audience is going to tune out and start looking at their smartphones – hence the frantic cuts, the soundtrack whoosh accompanying the change of camera angles, the insistence that every scene carry a punch. Madhumita’s Moone Moonu Varthai exists at the other end of the spectrum. It’s so low-key that you feel one of those whooshes would blow it right off the screen. Maybe that’s why I liked it. And it’s full of little surprises, right from the title. I thought the three words were “I love you” – I expected a rom-com. But there’s a nice little high concept tucked in here. That, too, is refreshingly low-key.
The film opens in a hospital where K Bhagyaraj (playing himself) is undergoing treatment for a panic attack. Few premises are more mouth-watering, few actors more suitable to be struck by this condition – but this track, disappointingly, is set aside as a framing device. A rather redundant one. Arjun (Arjun Chidambaram) happens to be in the same hospital, and when he discovers Bhagyaraj is there too, he barges into the latter’s room and begins narrating a story – his story. Why cast an actor with all the screen history that Bhagyaraj brings, only to use him as an audience substitute?
Over the opening credits, we see various people talk about Arjun as a loser – though an amiable one. He’s the kind of guy who quits his job because his supervisor wouldn’t give him the day off to watch a CSK match. A man-child, in other words. Arjun knows that his best friend – named, wait for this, Karna (Venkatesh Harinathan) – has to prepare for an office presentation, and yet he keeps distracting him, the way a bored child would. His indulgent grandparents (SP Balasubrahmanyam, Lakshmi) probably have something to do with the way he is. The story, then, is about Arjun becoming less child, more man.
I’m not going to oversell Moone Moonu Varthai. This is not the kind of film for which you use superlatives. I kept thinking… light… easy watch… nice, relaxed vibe. The high concept is in the business idea Arjun and Karna cook up. They become human telegrams – deliverers of bad news. You know this film is not working for you if you hear this idea and think: Why not email? But it didn’t bother me at all. This is exactly the kind of borderline-absurd thing a man-child would dream up, caring little about the feelings of the recipients of all this bad news. One of the clients is MS Baskar, who shows up in a purple robe, pipe in hand. Just looking at him made me laugh.
The film doesn’t do serious very well – but that’s, fortunately, a small part, like when Arjun’s girlfriend Anjali (Aditi Chengappa) closes the door on him. Most of the other potentially heavy moments – a nanbenda scene; a scene with the increasingly concerned grandparents – are treated with a light touch. I’ve rarely seen a Tamil film where so much booze is consumed and with such little narrative consequence. There’s no item-ish dance in a bar, no drunken drama. The songs could have been axed, but I suppose no film can afford to go that low-key.
Moone Moonu Varthai is a talky comedy, and it would have fallen apart with the wrong actors. Madhumita’s strength is her cast – especially Venkatesh Harinathan, who’s a superb ham. Just watch him belt out the title song of Padayappa. But he also aces a number of bittersweet moments. One of them involves a girl he’s fallen for. She rejects him. The scene makes us squirm a bit – we’ve gotten so used to laughing at (and with) Karna that we’re not sure how to respond to a situation that’s threatening to turn somewhat serious. Santhanam would have cracked an alliterative one-liner. Vivek would have turned faux-melodramatic. But Venkatesh Harinathan takes it on the chin, and is soon making a joke about kadalai. Like the film, he’s pleasantly nuts.
KEY:
- Moone Moonu Vaarthai = just three words
- kadalai = slang for flirting; also, nuts (the G-rated version)
- nanbenda = a Tamil-cinema friend (namely, much more melodramatic than your regular friend)
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anoan
June 27, 2015
Could we make this gender neutral please?
“This is exactly the kind of borderline-absurd thing a man-child would dream up”
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venkatesh
June 27, 2015
Great to see Capital Film Works back in business,
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another anon
June 27, 2015
@anoan: you are joking right?
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jai
June 27, 2015
@another anon: Ya of course he’s joking…. A woman-child is much worse
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Priyangu
June 27, 2015
“They become human telegrams – deliverers of bad news”.
Reminds me of “Up in the air”, where Anna’s character is slightly woman-child but in a different way.
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Sai Ramani
June 27, 2015
Nice review, Baradwaj. But, seriously, what’s up with the spoilers? I squirm before I press on to read the review. Would hate to see your reviews become Hollywood trailers. Everything good is in the trailer and the last scene might be the only surprise.
Cheers for your great work
Sai
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Arun Rathakrishnan
June 29, 2015
Did you know that Venkatesh Harinathan was the Step Mani: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avJvqQv3jIY?
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brangan
July 6, 2015
No one else found this film somewhat okayish?
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Madhu
July 6, 2015
It is not yet up in tenktkotta, BR 😦 Even an oler one, CSK that you had reviewed (and I wanted to watch it because of your review) are yet to come. I miss Bangalore! But, I don’t know if these movies would have run long in Bangalore either,
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Pranesh
July 6, 2015
Our local San Jose theater has gone off the boil these days. I wonder how TheOneWithTheH (or whatever his name is) watches low-key movies. I couldn’t watch Kaaka Muttai when I was in India briefly and it didn’t run anywhere here. Everyone seems to be preparing for Bahubali.
I might finally have to turn to torrents, the one thing I avoided doing for small movies.
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brangan
July 7, 2015
Pranesh: You mean movies this small get released there as well? Wow, things sure have changed 🙂
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bart
July 16, 2015
Naale naalu vaarthai: Neenga romba nallavar saar!
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Madhu
July 18, 2015
It was good. Not, great or wow, but good. It sagged and dragged and annoyed (well, if your wife doesn’t cook good food, why the hell don’t you try cooking for a change!) until they got into the business, after which it was entertaining. Again, not so much, but not so bad either. That scene where the grandfather consoles the grandmother (during the tremors) that he would indeed be okay and the friends making up scene were good, not overtly sentimental but caring. Neat movie.
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apala
July 20, 2015
BR-sir,
Caught this one also on HeroTalkies this weekend! It’s an easy watch and I liked Venkatesh a lot (he reminded me or Mr. Bean – for some reason!).
Simple film but works okay.
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Enna_koduka_sir_pera
July 20, 2015
Just saw this film. Was okayish. The jokes slightly bordering towards the mokkai, but the Karna actor had a really good comic timing. Thanks for reviewing the small Tamil films that come out. Would have missed some little gems – CSK (thankfully I gave it a chance beyond the first 15 minutes reading your review, after which it turned into such a good thriller) , Rajathandiram, Poovarasam Peepee (it took me back to my childhood days – of innocence and the thrill in solving neighbourhood crimes). I also caught another nice little movie – Kurai Ondrum Illai. It’s a mixture of genres and slightly struggles weaving the two and has some contrivances towards the end, but the romance was so realistically portrayed in the movie and the actress was excellent and could speak volumes with her eyes (as well as speak Tamil). Would be nice to read your thoughts on this movie.
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apala
July 20, 2015
@Enna_koduka_sir
I saw that “Kurai Ondrum Illai” movie too. It was very pleasantly light – could have done better in some scenes/character selection etc., – but worked a lot better than lot of other tamil “star” movies! Pleasant to see no drinking scenes, gags on girls, forced comedy track etc…. agreed that it struggles weaving social theme (never really gets going, though had potential) into romance theme and the ending could have been handled better as it was really contrived. The lead pair was good along with that “photo studio” dude. I am not sure whether BR had a chance to catch this.
A good attempt which entertains to some extent.
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sridharvisu76
September 26, 2015
Good to watch it. But without your review won’t have had the patience to sit through some portions of the movie
Liked it… But MMV is YMMV
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brangan
September 26, 2015
sridharvisu76: IMO, every movie is YMMV.
BTW, hadn’t heard of this acronym earlier, so thanks 🙂
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