Love stories are always the same: Boy meets girl. But the ways a story is spun and
narrated does matter a lot. Gautham Menon, with his usual charm has essayed a
graceful movie with a brilliant title ‘Neethane En Ponvasantham’. The theatres
attracted huge crowds in the first week possibly because there is no other biggie
release as of now but also because the promo trailers have kept the youth audience
anticipating the release of the movie for a long time now. One more reason
probably for the wait is the first ever composition by the maestro Ilayaraja for a
Gautham Menon movie.
The opening song is always for the hero of the story, and so is it here. The
song ‘Pudikkala Maamu’ highlighting Santhanam impresses the audience a lot and
sets the spirit high. The story opens with the title ‘A few moments from the love
story of Nithya and Varun’, so the audience can understand what they are gonna
see in a while. Varun (Jiiva) and Nithya (Samantha) are childhood friends in whose
lives misunderstanding plays a significant role. When they meet in Varun’s college
during a cultural fest, love re-blossoms. Things go well until Varun gets into an
IIM. They don’t try a long distance relationship even. Hence occurs a break. What
happens next is the rest of the story.
Prakash (Santhanam) as Varun’s best buddy and Jenny (Vidyulekha) as Nithya’s
friend drive the humor side of the movie with grace. The story is not magical but
very practical. It can be said that Gautham Menon has directed a new generation
love story and has nailed it in his attempt. But the truth is that he could have
done a lot better. Gautham’s movies lately have become something of the same
phenomenon. Three romance movies in a row: I appreciate his guts because
only he can do this and do it right. But it all follows the same storyline that
we are mostly able to predict what happens next. People who expected much
from ‘Neethane En Ponvasantham’ after watching ‘Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya’
were terribly disappointed because the flavor missing from the movie is: romance!
Sitting back and reminiscing about the movie, I remember more of fights between
the couple. This movie is good but this necessarily need not have been released
right after Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya.
After the movie credits roll and even after you go home, your mind radio doesn’t
stop playing the music after you watch the movie. Also the movie gives you a
great opportunity to relive a few moments of your life, maybe not everyone. The
movie is targeted mainly towards the youth audience, so no wonder if older people
don’t like it. The movie, though drags in a few areas especially in the second half,
it gives a few moments which create a huge impact and makes our heart a little
heavy. One more appreciable fact about the movie is that, in the second half three
songs come back to back but we don’t feel bored at all since they come along with
the story and the lead pair doesn’t literally travel to some exotic locations to dance.
The character of Nithya is beautifully portrayed and the emotions are expressed
so well by Samantha. The costumes for not only the lead pair but also for all the
major characters are elegant and simple.
Totally, the movie is worth watching once and one branded ‘Gautham Menon’ on
it. The Director has done a commendable job but Gautham Menon is capable of
doing better if he just comes out of his ‘Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya’ reverie.
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