Hey Sinamika

They say that the opening shots in movies at times give you an idea about what the movie is about. Well, in the case of choreographer turned director Brinda’s first film Hey Sinamika the first 5 minutes of the film will definitely give you a clear idea about the scripting mess you will have to sit through. Written with such laziness and desperate to be colorful and glossy, Hey Sinamika is the cinematic equivalent of a facepalm. When the heroine loudly cried, saying, “I need you, Yaazhan,” the audience laughed. Frankly, I couldn’t blame them for their lack of empathy as the film was extremely mediocre.

Yaazhan and Mouna met at a cafe in Cochin. Suddenly there was a hurricane-like wind, and Mouna helped Yaazhan get out from there. 2 minutes of Aila Mathi Choora, and now they are married for 2 years. It’s only after marriage that Mouna realizes the annoying side of Yaazhan. His over-caring nature and the way he talks nonstop make her feel exhausted, and she decides to plan something that would give her a break from Yaazhan. That plan and its consequences are what we witness in Hey Sinamika.

In the opening shot, Dulquer Salmaan is speaking to a Malayali waiter about coffee in the broken Malayalam of a Tamilian. And the Malayali waiter was replying in a Malayalam provided probably by Google Translate. In the first 10 minutes of the movie, I found myself praying for the Malayalam to end. After an awful start, Brinda then shows us the scarcity of imagination. The eccentric ways in which Madhan Karky is trying to place the hero as an unbearable individual are actually intolerable. In the first half, the movie wants itself to be treated as some kind of Vadivelu sidetrack comedy. And in the second half, suddenly, it wants to be this relationship drama, and the plot development is just bizarre.

Other than being this guy who is loved by women all around him, I don’t think there is anything there in Yaazhan to excite any actor. By the way, the vivaciousness of the character was presented neatly by Dulquer. Aditi Rao Hyderi is basically playing that Kaatru Veliyidei stereotype again, but this time on a lighter tone. The shifts in the drama of this movie are so shaky, and even someone of Aditi’s caliber can’t do much about it. Kajal Aggarwal as the psychologist Dr. Malarvizhi, is just about okay. This character actually needed a psychologist, and Madhan Karky and Brinda decided to make her a psychologist by profession. Nothing much is there to talk about the other characters. Yogi Babu appears for one pointless scene, and he also lent his voice for the statutory warning.

In her directorial debut, Brinda goes after eye-candy visuals and cheesy storytelling. Every step in the story is exaggerated, and this melodrama fails miserably in evoking sympathy towards any of the characters. The fights and demands look ridiculously silly. This cliched scripting trope of delaying a conversation so that the movie can be two and a half hours long is visible here too. And to achieve that, we have some pointless humor and even a rap song featuring Dulquer Salmaan where he is bringing a revolution in Pondycheri. Preetha Jayaraman is helping Brinda in making the movie look like a glossy ad film. If chopping off unnecessary scenes is considered good editing, then Radha Sridhar has done a terrible job. I felt bad for Govind Vasantha when I heard the song based on Fish Rock.

Hey Sinamika thinks that it is a sweet and poetic take on romance. But all it can do is induce a headache. Brinda wants her movie to be colorful and full of romance. But the script by Madhan Karky never really knows where to go and ends up being a film that wants to glorify or justify individuals’ controlling and demanding behavior in a relationship.