Idhu Kathirvelan Kadhal (2014)

Kathirvelan is your average boy next door, with a loving family. He is a Hanuman devotee who doesn't want to be interested in girls. He goes to Coimbatore to patch up his sister with her husband (she has eloped top marry the guy but has returned after a minor tussle) and there, he meets Pavithra, the girl living opposite his brother-in-law's house. He, not surprisingly, falls in love with her and with the help of his friend Mayilvaganan tries to woo her. But she thinks she loves Gautham, her friend who is actually a rogue. There is also an enmity between her dad and Kathir's brother-in-law. And, then, there is Kathir's dad, who, already betrayed by his daughter, expects his son to stay true to him. If Udhayanidhi wanted to play it safe in his debut Oru Kal Oru Kannadi, he continues in the same vein here and so, your reaction to this film, obviously, is OK OK. He is the happy-go-lucky guy who is not above going after his girl (read stalking) but is decent enough to wish her happiness even after she rejects him. And, with a plot that feels only too familiar, director Prabhakaran (who earlier directed Sundarapandian) loosely strings together scenes that are funny in parts (largely due to Santhanam's one-liners) and sentimental enough to bring in the "family audience". The film isn't bad per se but displays very little ambition and is only mildly interesting. Every conflict is resolved in a matter of two or three scenes — and in very convenient fashion — that nothing seems to be a serious-enough obstacle. Gautham only wants to bed Pavithra, while she has fallen in love with him, but this sub-plot gets resolved through a scene in which Kathir overhears Gautham's intentions and warns Pavithra. The long-standing enmity between Kathir's brother-in-law and Pavithra's father, which could come between their romance is resolved lightheartedly with a mimicry artist, in a cinematic manner! Even the final problem — of convincing Kathir's dad — is resolved with a couple of heavy-handed sentimental dialogues. In one scene, Santhanams exclaim how many flashbacks he will be made to suffer, and it is as is the director is telling us that he realizes these problems, and assuring us that as long as it is entertaining, we needn't bother.