P.Vasu is always late in joining the bandwagon. A year back, the theme of lovers
marrying with the consent of their parents was the hot topic, with a spate of movies
like Jodi and Poovellaam
Kaettuppaar offering the same theme inspite of being released within a few
weeks of each other. The theme has since died down but Vasu tries to resurrect it
with his latest offering Vannathamizh Paattu, that also reunites him with his
favorite hero Prabhu. The movie is just a medley of other movies, some his own and some
not.
Bhoopathy(Prabhu) joins a household of the village zamindar(Radharavi) as a servant. The
zamindar and his brother-in-law(Anandraj), who is also his best friend, are staunch
enemies of love and lovers. Infact, the zamindar had shot the man who his sister had dared
to fall in love with. Turns out that Bhoopathy has already married the zamindar's daughter
Bhuvana(Vyjayanthi) and is now posing as a servant to get her father's acceptance to the
wedding.
Just pick any sequence of scenes at random from anywhere in this movie and I'm willing to
bet that any person who seen a few movies by P.Vasu will instantly identify the collection
of scenes as another offering from him. His trademark sentiments(including the 'thali'
sentiment) are present and several scenes in the entire movie bear his stamp and remind one
of his earlier movies. The theme of a woman with relatives opposed to love was seen in
Senthamizh Paattu while scenes like Prabhu being asked to sing by Radharavi and
singing for Vyjayanthi remind one of the superhit Chinna Thambi. Considering that
Vasu's previous offering was Seenu , a remake of a Malayalam hit,
this begs the question whether he has anything original to present.
The movie tries to hold our interest with a couple of twists but these are quite evident
way before. The fact that Prabhu is there because of a previous relationship with
Vyjayanthi is obvious though the fact that they are married is a little surprise(I
thought that they would have just been in love). Artificial hurdles are placed in the
path of Prabhu trying to disclose the secret to Radharavi, through Anandraj's son who
wishes to wed her and Anandraj's daughter who has also fallen for Prabhu. Neither of
these makes proceedings any more interesting. The dialogs and the twist near the end
offer Anandraj a chance to raise his character a few notches in the eyes of the viewer.
There is a little fun in the way Prabhu ends up getting married to Vyjayanthi. Her claim
of being engaged to him(he is a respected man in the village) and the effect it has on
the villagers is quite fun. Prabhu gets the chance to play a double role though the
character of the father and its picturisation reminds one of the flashback in Muthu.
Vadivelu's comedy is a mixture of unfunny and vulgar and so quite tough to get through.
While his habit of sleepwalking leading him into trouble when he ends up sleeping next
to Radharavi is tolerable, even if not terribly funny, his spotting of Anandraj in the
buff and the following double entendre dialogs are very obscene. But his comedy
track does give us an inkling as to why Vivek is so enjoyable and popular.
Prabhu is fast reaching the point where he is no longer acceptable as a hero. He also
overdoes the role of the father with his objective of making the role stand out.
Vyjayanthi is very pretty(looks like a softer version of Susmita Sen) and though her
acting needs some polishing, she might have been noticed in a better film. Mahichandana,
the other debutante, is forgettable. Radharavi and Anandraj perform their roles adequately.
S.A.Rajkumar's songs are pleasant but never reach the level needed to prop up a movie that
has music as a key ingredient.
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