33 Thoughts On Vai Raja Vai

A young man with a special gift, his cash strapped family and a belly baring girlfriend. This one‘s far far away from the world of 3.

No Anirudh. No Shruti Haasan. The boys in the front row seem to miss Ms. Haasan the most. Volubly.

Another boy tells them to go watch Gabbar is Back. No takers though.  

I say my Thanks to the powers that be for keeping Sunder Ramu away from this one. And, Siva Karthikeyan.

Gautham Karthik is almost..docile in this film. None of that hyperactive energy that made him jump around a la Tom Cruise on the Koffee Kouch.

Priya Anand too, remains blank faced. We wonder why.

Gautham Karthik plays his father..I mean, Karthik in this film. A ‘Saadhaaaarrnamana’ boy blessed with an ‘asaardhamaaanaaa’ talent. Voice overs are not yet his forte, clearly.

Another mountain he hasn’t yet conquered? Dancing. The man has impressive acrobatic skills..but moving his body just so is not in him yet.

Meanwhile, a man in the backrow has begun dancing. He’s a little better at it.

Sathish is here as well. Sidedish is what his friends call him. A weird metaphor for his role in this film. There but for a few minutes. A few very unfunny minutes.

Priya Anand looks truly pretty in this one.

Bouncy hair

A lot of designer wear.

There’s a rhyme in there,

Somewhere.

Gautham Karthik too is pretty. Beyond pretty. Probably the only man here who can look good even when he frowns ferociously. Which is all the time in this film.

Except maybe Ashok Selvan.

As couples go, they are pretty perfect. Life is all feeding ducks and walking in the rain. And also, jumping up and down in slo mo. I liked what Ram and Janani did better.

Vivek, though, makes it all better. An all new makeover, some spiked hair and just like that, he’s a whole new man. A comedian who doesn’t have to try too hard to stay too relevant. Which makes us believe that he will definitely end up playing Gautham Karthik’s son’s sidekick sometime in the future.

Absolutely no sign of life in the theatre. A few stragglers walk in after an hour; grumbling about Uttama Villain.

By this point, Gautham Karthik is in such deep..err, shit; that he has to break a vow made to (who else?) his dad and use his power.

The friend intones : With great power comes great responsibility.

That’s about the only time the ten people in the hall crack a smile. The rest of the time though, we’re all Gautham Karthik ourselves. Stern faced and blessed with ESP too. By this point, I know exactly what’s going to happen.

Taapsee and her yellow dress though. They change my mind.

The boys in the front row too seem to agree with me. They cheer up enough to put down their phones. That’s clearly a compliment of the highest order.

Aishwarya Dhanush is kickass, though. Her heroine’s a pathologist and Taapsee, well she’s a mathematician. The only math lovers we’ve come across so far are all ones named Malathi and Sujatha; with a permanent sneer on their faces. Shreya too sneers at everything. But, she wears Gucci too. And is not just a senseless television director who messes with things far beyond her control for TRP’s.

Something tells me I’ll need a ton of popcorn to get through this one. Maybe some french fries too. There’s only so many blank faces we can see. Because by this point, Gayathri Raguram too has joined the game.

This film so could have been called ‘How Yuvan got his groove back’. But just not yet.

Daniel Balaji is in this one too. A menacing glare firmly trained on Gautham Karthik and playing the sort of role he could probably do in his dreams by now. A bit of Amudhan and some Ravi, too.

Gautham, Gautham, Gautham. Just smile a bit please.

Briefly entertaining the possibilities of Gautham and Taapsee getting together in this one. Now that would be one hell of an awesome twist.

Though sadly, I’m the only one who seems to have thought of it. Like seriously, Gautham. Why not, bro?

By now, everybody seems to have revived the age old practice of stepping out for smoke breaks during songs. Always a bad sign.

Now that didn’t happen to Ok Kanmani, says the couple in the back row. Funny how suddenly they decided to watch the film. Especially when they spent the first half otherwise engaged.

The Bengaluru guy to my left doesn’t know who Aishwarya Dhanush is. I judge him immediately.

He also fails to recognise Dhanush when he comes onscreen. Kokki Kumar in DA house, peoples. And he’s frickin’ awesome.

Ash leaves the door firmly open for a sequel. If Dhanush is a part of it, then I’m down for it, homies.

If not..well, there’s always that DVD of 3, to relax with.