Singaara Chennai is another film that falls into the same category as Image . It
has a kernel of a story that, in the hands of a much better director, could possibly have been developed into an interesting
film. But the movie is undermined by a disastrous screenplay that for some unknown reason, seems to rely more on an
unfunny comedy track rather than the main story.
Surya(Abhinay) and Bhuvana(Rathi) are young lovers on the run. The couple, who belong to different castes, has run away
to escape from Bhuvana's dad(Vijayan), a caste-obsessed councillor. They arrive in Chennai and engage Kumar('Kalabhavan'
Mani), an auto driver, to take them to the house of Surya's close friends. But Kumar seems ready to go to any lengths to
keep them in his auto. Meanwhile, a string of murders has been happening in Chennai and the fact that one of them
has happened in an auto makes the young couple even more scared of Kumar and desperate to escape from him.
The main story in Singaara Chennai has enough potential to keep our interest and contains many of the ingredients
that make up an interesting movie. It has been guided along quite skilfully with characters that have shades of gray, keeping
us guessing about their true motives. Ofcourse, we also have to overlook the completely idiotic acts of Abhinay and Rathi(which
include dispatching the auto driver to check if Abhinay's friends are home and opening a suitcase stuffed with money in the
auto). Though there are a few places where the sequences seem stretched or completely unnecessary(like the dance on the
street), the track as a whole keeps us involved.
But for some inexplicable reason, the director seems to have no faith in the main story arc and relies more on the comedy
track. The track, which has a flimsy link to the main story, deals with an auto driver and his customers. None of the episodes
in the track are even remotely funny and the overacting 'Kanal' Kannan as the auto driver doesn't help matters. The episodes
seem longer and longer as the movie proceeds until the main story seems like it was sandwiched between scenes in an
unfunny comedy movie.
Like Image, this movie too redeems itself towards the end as the threads are tied together. The pace picks up
noticeably since there are no more comedy interruptions and there are some nice surprises. But the revelations don't
stand up to scrutiny though and there are too many loopholes.
'Kalabhavan' Mani doesn't overact as much as usual though his mimicry, which seemed fresh in
Gemini , seems out of place here. Abhinay is adequate. With
Anbe Un Vasam and now this, Rathi seems to be landing some of the worst projects out there.
But she is cute and passes muster in the few scenes where she gets a chance to emote. Karthik Raja's tunes are
easy on the ears and he gets his illustrious father to sing the title song.
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