| R.V.Udayakumar is not a director known for comedy. Sentiments are his forte and
his biggest hits to date, like Kizhakku Vaasal and
Ejamaan , have had strong emotions at their core.
So he is a surprising choice as director for Singaravelan, another of Kamal's
occasional forays into comedy. The movie is a full-length comedy feature with
no place for sentiments of any kind. Without a complicated story, the movie relies
on its script to raise laughs and is only partially successful.
Velan(Kamalhassan), a villager, is told by his mother that he is supposed to
wed his uncle's daughter Sumati(Kushboo), who has been born and brought up in the
city. Unfortunately a family feud has separated his mother from her brother, who has
stipulated before dying that his daughter could marry anyone but his sister's son.
So Velan is not supposed to reveal who he is. Velan travels to the city where he teams
up with some friends and proceeds to woo Sumati. She falls for him but complications
arise when he reveals who he really is.
The movie begins by giving us hope that it is going to be cleverer than it
ultimately ends up being. Kamal's account of his father's death gives us the
idea that the movie is going to successfully spoof popular tamil cinema cliches
but the movie doesn't venture into that field again. Instead it descends into regular
comic territory with liberal doses of visual humor, slapstick and double
entendre. There is no dearth of comedy with Koundamani and Vadivelu responsible
for most of the laughs. Koundamani has his usual share of insults and putdowns(though
the target this time around is Vadivelu instead of Senthil) while Vadivelu, though
not having much to say, makes us laugh with his appearance and antics.
Several sequences do succeed in making us laugh. Kamal's visit to Kushboo's house,
where he flatters Manorama, is one such sequence. The scene where Jaishankar visits
Kamal's house also features funny lines at a fast clip from everyone in the cast.
'Venniradai' Murthy contributes to the fun in the scene where Kamal is admitted to
the hospital covered in bandages. But the number of double entendre dialogs mar
an otherwise enjoyable comedy film. Double meaning comments about Kushboo's most famous
assets are scattered throughout the movie, both in dialogs and songs(O Rangaa...
in particular), and make us squirm uncomfortably in our seats.
The masala elements tagged onto the end feel more out of place here and seem more like
part of a regular masala movie. While the sudden revelation of the manufacture of
counterfeit money is silly, Jaishankar's murder is definitely out of place considering
the tone of the movie until then. Closing out the movie with the same Sonnapadi...
song but in a different context is a nice, clever touch.
Considering Kamal's luck with memorable soundtracks and that the movie is an
Ilaiyaraja production, the fact that it has some great songs comes as no big
surprise. Innum Ennai... is very melodious. Poattu Vaitha... is
sung very well by Kamal himself with the song hitting a lot of really high notes.
Thoodhu Selvadhaaradi... is another melodious song. Pudhucheri...
is choreographed well with Kamal managing a variety of musical instruments on
his body.
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