Almost every situation and frame of Ragasiyamaai is a pointer to the complete lack of ideas on the
part of its director. It is clear that he has spent absolutely no time trying to come up with any twists in a familiar
story or present any of the aspects of the film in a new fashion. From its rich girl-poor boy love story that is opposed
by the girl's father to the problems faced by the couple after they elope, every sequence in the film gives rise to a
feeling of deja vu.
Ammu(Prasanna), an aspiring sculptor, and Vijayalakshmi(Neelam), daughter of a minister('Pyramid' Natrajan),
fall in love after a few meetings. But Viji's father is unwilling to accept their love and this prompts the couple to
elope to Gujarat.
The way the romance between Prasanna and Neelam is handled is the first clue to the uninspired nature of the entire
film. Their first meeting is cinematic(wouldn't any girl slap a guy who brushes her hand when touching the plate at the
temple?!) and the depth of their feelings for each other after a few uneventful meetings is unconvincing. So we never feel for
them and remain unmoved when their romance runs into problems. There are just a couple of scenes(like Prasanna's argument
against bonsai trees) that stand out as being a little different.
The director seems to have taken for granted that a girl's father will oppose his daughter's romance and never tries to give
a reason for 'Pyramid' Natrajan's opposition to Neelam's romance. There is a little suspense about the route the movie will
take when they go to the register office to get married but once the outcome of that particular sequence is known, the movie
once again settles down into predictability. And since they were in such a hurry to get married, it is never clear why they
never attempt to get married after running away.
The tone of the movie momentarily takes a unexpected turn when 'Pyramid' Natrajan attempts to get information about his
daughter and her lover from their friends. The means he uses belong in a hardhitting, police movie and not the kind of light
romance that Ragasiyamaai has tried to be until then. Thankfully it doesn't last long. But the reason he finally
undergoes a change of heart is convincing. The movie then uses a real-life event to separate Prasanna and Neelam but
there is nothing new even here since the event the same has been used before in Indru Mudhal .
(though that movie managed to elicit a lot more suspense out of it). But the setting does make the moments where Prasanna
searches for Neelam quite suspenseful.
Prasanna, one of the heroes in Five Star , is acceptable in the loverboy role and emotes
quite well in the climax too. But Neelam is wooden and the lifeless voice adds to her non-performance. 'Pyramid' Natrajan
does what he can with the stock character while Karunas has a few one-liners that raise some chuckles.
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