Director Manikandan’s comedy 144 features a young and vibrant cast, including Mirchi Shiva, Ashok Selvan, Oviya, and Sruthi Ramakrishnan. The trailer opens in black and white. A group of people approach a local king-of-sorts to resolve an issue. The leader proposes the ‘Kazhudhai Kaal Neechal’ competition to determine the winner, and suddenly, colourful visuals enter the screen. Sean Roldan’s catchy music makes everybody and take notice.
There’s Mirchi Shiva, with his usual brand of slapstick humour. He introduces himself as Shaik Wasim Akram from Dubai, Mundasupatti Ramadass as Shaik Shoaib Akthar, and Oviya as Jenifer Lopez. A second later, we see Ashok Selvan as a cab driver in a village. In proper village slang, he tells Sruthi Ramakrishnan, “Inga Yaarum 100% nallavangalum illa, 100% kettavangalum illa.”
Enter the plot. A huge container is hidden. Surprisingly, the place where the container is hidden goes missing. With sloppy VFX visuals, Shiva and Ashok Selvan are chased. We know it’s going to be a comic ride. Subtle though.
Shiva also comes up with his usual English dialogues to Oviya, ” Please my understand try to Kalyani my situation.” The trailer ends with a line, “Something is hidden inside this village.” We’ll find out what when 144 releases.