Santosh Subramaniyam

With Santosh Subramaniyam, Director Raja, 'Jayam' Ravi's brother, once again proves that he has mastered the art of remaking. Delivering a good remake requires that the director select the right film to remake, populate it with the right cast and package it in a way that it suits Tamil tastes without losing the spirit of the original. Raja did this perfectly in 3 films, Jayam , M.Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi and Unakkum Enakkum and with Santosh Subramaniyam, he makes it four out of four. Consistently entertaining, it is solid, feel-good entertainment, even if most of the credit goes to the technicians behind the original Telugu film Bommarillu.

Santosh('Jayam' Ravi) could be called an unwilling daddy's boy. His life is controlled by his father Subramaniyam(Prakashraj), who decides everything from his underwear to what he eats. Santosh is determined to choose two things in life - his career and the woman he marries - but even these seem in doubt as Subramaniyam asks him to work in his own office and fixes an alliance for him. Santosh then runs into Hasini(Genelia) and falls in love with her but has to decide how he is going to break the news to his dad.

The film is a close copy of the original(while I didn't remember Bommarillu very well and so was able to enjoy this film, seeing a scene did remind me of its equivalent in the original) and the presence of actors like Genelia and Prakashraj(who played the same roles in the original) and the soundtrack(for which Devi Sriprasad has reused his original tunes) underscore the sense of deja vu. On the other hand, there have been a number of remakes that massacred their originals but Raja has delivered a remake that works as well as the original as far as entertainment value goes. So, in the final reckoning, while a director who crafts such a fun, feel-good film would deserve a lot of praise Raja can, at best, be given a backhanded compliment for not having messed things up.

The movie is populated with some wonderful characters. Hasini, in particular, is a really winsome role. Her innocence, frankness and friendliness make her very loveable and so its no surprise when Ravi falls for her or his family takes to her. Santosh is like most movie sons as he hangs out with friends, drinks and curses his dad but the difference is that he does all this on the sly. At home he is a model son, letting dad run his life. So his out-of-home activities, though familiar, take on a slightly different meaning here since they seem like his way of rebelling against his dad. Subramaniyam is strict and overbearing but its difficult to dislike him since that is just his way of giving his children the best(a nice shot between them is the intermission shot, which has Ravi pumping his hands into the air in joy while Prakashraj is looking on but the shot is framed such that it looks like Ravi is hitting Prakashraj in the heart).

Its the story though that allows all these characters to develop their individualities and catch our eye. Placing Genelia in Ravi's house allows us to see that the lives of all the characters there are controlled by Prakashraj and its nice that some of these characters too, apart from Ravi, play a part in opening Prakashraj's eyes to this fact. In the same way, Ravi's friends are around mainly for humor but they do play a part, in a nice scene, in letting Prakashraj and Ravi realize how lucky they actually are to have each other.

Raja definitely has a nice eye for humor. Without a separate comedy track or even long-ish setpieces that are obvious as comic detours, he manages to keep us smiling throughout. Every relationship, whether its the romance between Ravi and Genelia or the relationship between Ravi and Prakashraj is moved along with subtle humor. Even the overt humor, like Baskar's hilarious antics to keep Shayaji in the dark about the whereabouts of Genelia, work wonderfully since they are integrated into the film. And a number of the one-liners and comments uttered primarily by Santhanam and Baskar would make even 'Crazy' Mohan proud.

'Jayam' Ravi mostly plays second fiddle to Genelia and sometimes, Prakashraj but he maintains his boy-next-door image with this role. He has some fast dance steps in almost all the songs but though its obvious he has tried real hard, there is no grace in his dancing and he doesn't look he is having fun doing it. Genelia initially threatens to damage her character with her acting but eventually wins us over. Prakashraj does the dad's role perfectly and doesn't ham at any point. Geetha is solid as usual while Kausalya tends to be a bit too animated in her expressions. Santhanam is not his usual irritating self because he gets some very funny lines and Premji Amaran gives him company. Shayaji Shinde seems a bit miscast initially when he tries to do comedy but is good in the serious scenes. The songs are passable with the group song America Endraalum... being the most energetic of the lot.