The major drawback of the movie is the communication/understanding gap between the director and his audience. This story was originally conceived by a Tamil speaking/thinking director (Gautam Menon) for a Tamil audience. It did exceedingly well in TN and carried over to Telugu Nadu with an equal measure of appreciation.
Having lived in both sides of India, I appreciate the difference of thought in the masses; The Southerners are an obsessive lot and pay a hell lot of importance to words such as *love* and *emotion*. The northerners are a more practical (slightly more on a relative scale) lot in the love front and they term affections of this magnitude as ‘obsession’.
The story may be based in Mumbai, but Juhu can never be Anna Nagar culturally. An Anna Nagar guy falling for an Ernakulam girl was believable and this Juhu guy doing the same looked abnormal and *typically obsessive*. A Kerala girl in Mumbai falling for a *vella* guy would look improbable for the people in the northern half of our country. I can hear a few of my Punjabi buddies taking my case on that point.
Gautam Menon has missed the trick by failing to draw a original Mumbaikar. A original Mumbaiya guy falling for a Ernakulam mallu in his own original way and style would have made an interesting watch. After two memorable outings in Tamil and Telugu, Gautam Menon falls in this Bollywood venture.
Other low points:
• Lyrics, they lacked the punch that was there in the Tamil version. Javed Aktar’s dismal run continues. He has failed to substantiate words suitable enough to carry people into the worlds of their imagination, to be able to connect with the characters in the feeling of pain, joy, despair, helplessness, confusion
• The characterisation was weak. The role of a friend which stood out in the Tamil version was lacking in terms of strength of characterisation. The UP bhaiyya just did not leave an impression as a guy we meet in our day to day life.
The highs:
• The music, AR Rahman delivers yet again….melodious numbers which were betrayed by lack of support from the lyrics department.
• The photography was brilliant and a delight to the eyes.
• Gautam menon does have an eye for beautiful women and excels in capturing and displaying them in full measure. Trisha (the best of the lot _first in class advantage), Samantha and Amy Jackson are women who will linger in the mind of the Indian audience , particularly the corporate kind.
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