Kuruvi

With Dhill, Dhool and Gilli, director Dharani showed us that he had mastered the art of creating fast-paced, well-balanced masala films that had no dull moments. All of them were variations of the David vs. Goliath story of a common man going up against someone way more powerful and spiced up the basic story with action, comedy, romance and sentiments. The formula's intact in Dharani's latest film Kuruvi but something goes drastically wrong in the way it has been translated to the screen. Predictable, outdated and boring, it is a disappointment, more so because it is from the same team that gave us the enormously entertaining Gilli.

Vel(Vijay) is a racecar driver who lives with his extended family. He has been the breadwinner for the family ever since his dad Singamuthu(Manivannan) abandoned them after accumulating a lot of debt. Vel learns that Cocha industries, based in Malaysia, owes his dad a lot of money and working as a kuruvi(someone who transports goods between Malaysia and Chennai), he travels to Malaysia to recover the money from Cocha. With Cocha(Suman) unwilling to hand over the money, Vel robs his diamond, apart from unwittingly capturing the heart of Cocha's sister Devi(Trisha), and returns to Chennai. Little does Vel know that his dad and his employers are being held as slaves on a piece of land that is jointly owned by Cocha and an MLA Konda Reddy(Ashish Vidyarthi).

Dharani's previous three films were so successful since he mixed brain and brawn in the right proportion. The heroes there beat up the bad guys too but they also came up with clever plans that put the villains in trouble or helped them escape their clutches. But Kuruvi relies on brawn almost exclusively. Whether Vijay challenges the villains in their own place or is caught in a tight spot, he only flexes his muscles and rarely puts his brain cells to use. Even opportunities for some clever planning, like the diamond heist, are left unused. Ofcourse, the villains here are not the kind who call for such cleverness. Suman doesn't kill Vijay even when he is face-to-face with an unarmed, jailed Vijay and after planning en elaborate death for him, walks away without checking if he is actuallydead(apart from being thick-headed, he is also apparently thick-skinned since, at another point, he doesn't realize that he is actually hurt enough to be bleeding!).

Vijay's first car race starts off as a perfectly good, well-filmed race capable of giving the film a rousing start. But then as Vijay's car loses its gas pedal and he clenches the cable between his teeth to continue the race before dramatically leaping over the finish lane, it is transformed into a cheesy, ego-massaging stunt. This kind of an over-the-top punchline exists for every action sequence(in another example, a nice little chase through tight streets is ended by a ridiculous leap from a building to a railway track bridge), rendering them completely ineffective (even the romance is not spared from this sort of action as Vijay saves Trisha while hanging on a rope with fireworks exploding the background). And when the action is not exaggerated, it turns violent with Vijay's choice of weapons being an axe and a knife. When a film that is primarily an action thriller is filled with this kind of exaggerated action sequences, boredom sets in pretty quickly.

Thankfully, the romance and comedy relieve the boredom somewhat. Vivek, as always, has some funny lines and moments(the time he is caught at the airport metal detector is the best of the lot) and tags along with Vijay to keep things moving. The romance isn't particularly imaginative but with Vijay and Trisha sharing good chemistry, it has enough fun and cute moments to keep us interested.

With the loud villains, the isolated land and the workers trapped as slaves, Kuruvi reminds us of the second half of Thagappansamy once Vijay moves to Cuddappah. Thats not a good comparison since all adjectives that applied to that film - silly and outdated, to name a couple - apply to this one too. With Vivek out of the picture and Trisha on hand just for the duets, Dharani struggles to move the story forward and employs obvious, irritating tactics(like Ilavarasu requesting Vijay to control his temper) to stretch things out. There are a few attempted comedy interludes but they are unfunny and seem out-of-place considering the seriousness of the proceedings. The area is gorgeously barren and the diamond-mining delivers a unique setting(as shown in the quick fight between Vijay and Ashish Vidyarthi) but these are wasted by the dragging screenplay.

Vijay is his usual, energetic self, throwing in his usual comic expressions, punchlines and Rajni dialogs(here it is "Unmaiyai Sonnen"). Of late, he has started trying out complicated steps that look more like exercise than dance steps and this takes the fun out of Dandanaka Darna.... The simple but graceful steps in Palaanadhu... and Mozhu Mozhunnu... are a lot better to look at. Trisha goes through the entire first half with a bemused expression that suggests that she wasn't taking things too seriously. She looks cute though some of the dresses in some of the song sequences don't suit her too well. Suman doesn't make much of a impact, especially since he is immobilized for quite a bit of time while Ashish Vidyarthi gets on our nerves with his shouting.

This kuruvi flies real low.