Considering the first efforts of recent cinematographers-turned-directors like Thankar Bachan
( Azhagi ), Jeeva( 12B ) and K.V.Anand
( Kanaa Kanden ) - more the first two than the third though - Vijay
Milton had rather large expectations to live up to. But he sticks to safe ground, delivering a regular
romance with familiar characters for the most part. But some different touches, in style in the first
half and in storyline in the second half, make the film likeable and engaging on the whole.
Mano(Bharath) has come to the city from his village to get his girl Nandhini(Deepu). But the girl of
his dreams is in love with Prem(Arunkumar), a cricketer and his goal is to break them up. He finds out
that he has a partner-in-crime in Jothi(Mallika Kapoor), who is in love with Prem. So Mano and Jothi set
out to separate Prem and Deepu so that their own one-sided romances have a chance of succeeding.
As Bharath and Mallika join hands to break up another romance, the film starts off with an accent on
comedy. Their plans are pretty amateurish and it is clear that the director's intention is to make us
laugh rather than give us the impression that the two are very serious about their goal. But the fact
that each of them wants to separate the couple without their own sweetheart getting hurt in anyway leads
to some gentle laughs.
Director Vijay Milton tries to spice up the story with some visual inventiveness in the first half. So we
have cartoon characters and thought bubbles adding some variety. AIBI is a soft romance
and so these don’t really fit into the tone or mood of the film. But they do offer something different
to look at since the story itself is quite clichéd.
But the clichéd story eventually works to AIBI’s advantage. The predictable path the
story takes manages to lull us into a sense of complacence before surprising us very effectively. The
surprise is handled very well in terms of where it is placed in the film, the build-up, the method of
the actual revelation, etc. and succeeds in reenergizing the film. It doesn’t stand up too well to
post-mortem analysis since it raises a lot of questions and opens a number of holes but works at that
moment.
On one hand we have Arun and Deepu, who are in love. And on the other hand we have Bharath and Mallika,
the film’s leads, who are trying to break them up. The eventual pairs are rather clear and so, as the
story proceeds, the film seems in imminent danger of its characters falling in and out of love rather
quickly and without much reason. That is usually a recipe for unimpressive characters. But the movie
moves the screenplay in such a way that the characters remain true to their hearts. So they earn our
respect by the time the movie ends.
Bharath is energetic as always, whether he is fooling around or talking about his love. Mallika Kapoor
looks a little chubby and like most newcomers, hams it up quite a bit when trying to do comedy. Arunkumar
is dignified while Deepu slips into her role quite well. Yuvan Shankar Raja delivers a different
soundtrack and there is no regular duet though it is a love story. Odi Vaa…, in both its fast
and slow versions, is the pick of the numbers while Kaadhalai… scores points because of its
funny picturization. Yuvan’s voice in Kanave Kalaigiradhe… just sounds just as bad when seeing
the song sequence on screen.
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