Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada

Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada looked very promising in its first half and a good chunk of the second half was also impressive, but the film’s climax was way too over the top that you sort of curse the maker for ruining it like that (At least I did). With every Goutham Menon elements abundant in the narrative, Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada was an interesting content that got ended up as an average.

Our hero is the BTech graduate who has completed MBA and isn’t doing anything right now. He has a road trip plan before joining any career oriented job. Leela, his sister’s college friend who aspires to be a script writer comes to his house to stay for a few months as part of a project. He is attracted to her, but hasn’t told her about it. Things all get an interesting twist when Leela decides to join him in his road trip. The supposed to be happy and romantic road trip gets in to a phase were everyone was in huge trouble. The film dwells in to the reasons of all those complications.

GVM starts the film in that VTV comfort zone. From the architecture of the house to the numerous scenes involving gates, you tend to remember the filmography of the director. And Mr. Menon uses quirks to admit the deliberate references. The natural conversations and the organically developed humor make that episode really a jovial one. Then the film gradually goes in to that NH10 zone where we get to see two helpless common people getting hunted by a system that has cops and goons. Too many murders were happening and Goutham Vasudev Menon doesn’t seem to have any inhibition in killing those who were supposed to be rescued by a typical Tamil hero. I was impressed by all those parts and then happened the climax! Yes, a movie that looked realistically satisfying got plunged in to a typical Masala movie’s zone of hero worshipping.

Silambarasan has the boy next door charm in the first half of the movie. But when the movie enters those hefty emotional areas and dilemmas, his portrayal wasn’t completely convincing. Like all the Goutham Menon heroines, Manjima looks beautiful and has a gracious screen presence while being that cool girl. But as we all know, where she fumbles is when she starts to cry. A few in the audience started to yell “Don’t make her pry, please..”. Baba Sehgal as the antagonist was convincing with his unconventional looks and the arrogance in the portrayal. Choreographer Sathish should focus on choreography.

Goutham Menon is that director who is known for mixing practicality and filmyness evenly. Here also like I mentioned above you get to sense that practicality of the love between the main leads. Even in those darker zones, GVM somehow convinces the audience about how this very common man ends up in a killing spree.  If he had ended the film on a distressing note, it would have been a better movie on the whole staying true to its reality. The problem with that over the top climax is that it looks too swift and very unreal. A portion that needed almost an entire movie or at least even half of it, got reduced in to 5 or 10 minutes. A few songs are placed awkwardly but the awkwardness of some songs looked refreshing. The cinematography and edits are just okay. The unique album of A R Rahman is already a chart topper. Fights were less intriguing.

Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada was a disappointment for me on the whole. It had a really charming beginning, riveting events and a climax that spoiled the whole feel of the movie up to that point. You should watch this movie and in my opinion you should leave the theater after that scene where the hero is taking the heroine to a hospital.

Rating: 2.5/5