Many segments of movies like Dheena and
Dhil made it obvious that the movies were targeted at the
college going section of the audience. Perhaps inspired by their success, director
Venkatesh offers us Chocklet(what's with the odd spelling?!) that is even
more clearly targeted at the same
demographic. But instead of a cute romance or youthful sequences, he stoops to take
the cheap route, stuffing the film with large dollops of glamour, double entendre
dialogs and vulgarity. But the strategy just backfires since the overdose will
only serve to keep away the majority of the movie-goers.
Aravind(Prashanth) is a college student, in love with Anjali(Jayare), a student
from another college. AC Jayachandran(Livingston), who is estranged from his
wife Sharada(Suhasini), is his close friend. Aravind takes it upon himself to
unite the sparring husband and wife and offers to fix up the marriage of their
daughter with the boy of their choice. But what he doesn't know is that their
daughter is none other than Anjali, who has vowed not to live with her parents
until they get together. Aravind succeeds in uniting the couple but is then
asked by Sharada to give up his love since she wants her daughter to wed the
boy chosen earlier.
Tamil cinema has never had much luck in accurately(or even entertainingly) portraying
life on a college campus and Chocklet is one more addition to the list.
Boisterous students, scantily-clad girls and harried teachers are once again the
inhabitants of this filmi college. Eternal college students Charlie and
Dhamu(guess they couldn't get Chinni Jayanth's callsheet!) are on hand as Prashanth's
friends and barring one scene, there are no signs of classes taking place in either
college. The students spend their time in groups, chatting, dancing and teasing the
girls. There's also the event without which no tamil movie set in a college seems to
be complete - the 'inter-college dance competition'.
While recent movies have generally been quite decent with only the occasional dance
sequence giving way to glamour, Chocklet seems to revel in vulgarity.
Double entendre dialogs make their way into almost every scene with
the vulgarity peaking during Prashanth and co.'s trip to the ladies hostel. Even
Prashanth's dialogs with Jayare are laced with double meanings. Many lines are
silenced and even the ones that have escaped the censor's scissors make the movie
unwatchable with family. Jayare is never adequately clothed, especially in the
song sequences and there is a double role for Mumtaj, who seems to be
ubiquitous these days. Her second role has been unabashedly inserted for the sake
of glamour and all her dance sequences in both roles make us wince with their
gyrations and vulgar movements.
By itself, the movie contains the ingredients for a passable story. Prashanth
trying to unknowingly arrange his lover's wedding and Livingston helping him
in his romance contain a little suspense on the outcome. There is a little
twist regarding the Jayare's suitor and Suhasini's machinations from then
onwards raise some interest by giving us a unique villain. But the climax
turns prepostrous with Prashanth literally coming back from the dead.
Prashanth does what he can, fighting and dancing with gusto. Jayare displays
a lot but not her acting ability. Mumtaj does what's expected of her. She's
put on a whole lot of weight and seems to be everywhere these days with
abundant glamour but lack of any discernible acting ability. The seniors come
up with nice performances. Suhasini, seen onscreen after a long gap, does well
as the sheep in wolf's clothing. She does well using her eyes to communicate
in the scenes where appears to sweettalk Prashanth while threatening him.
Livingston doesn't indulge in comedy for a change but is believable as the
good-hearted police officer. Deva turns to his favorite duppanguthu
tunes for the college atmosphere.
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