Settai

Settai, it’s the official remake of the Hindi blockbuster Delhi belly which worked big time in the box office for its hilarious making and a refreshingly rough content. But sadly, the movies rebirth in Tamil after two years looses that hilarious factor due to the additional luggage’s that are quite formulaic for a commercial Tamil cinema.

The plot revolves around three youngsters JK, Nagaraj and Cheenu who are working in a news media. JK‘s  Girlfriend happens to deal with a diamond smuggler and was asked to deliver a package to a man unaware about its content. Unfortunately some mix-ups happen and the delivery wasn’t done properly. The problems the three guys gets to face after this and how they manage to pull out of this is what basically Settai all about.

In comparison with Delhi Belly, director Kannan hasn’t tried to replant anything creatively. The characters and scenes of Delhi Belly are all there. The added masala in the movie is what that disturbs the fun part. The avoidance of such conventional clichés was what worked for DB. It nearly takes 20 minutes for Settai to reach the point where Delhi Belly started and those 20 minutes was a bizarrely embedded comedy just to introduce its USP Santhanam. Irritatingly placed songs are also quite disturbing especially the second one having Hansika and Arya.

In the direction department, Kannan hasn’t done anything special to make it different from DB. In fact by placing the story again in Mumbai the movie somewhat looks like a dubbed version. As I said the writing has used the entire DB along with some additional materials to make things worse. With Santhanam cracking his same old comparison jokes, the fun factor is definitely there. But too much clarity in explaining and the lack of roughness makes Settai stand way below its original. Cinematography is Satisfactory and the cuts needed a bit more energy. The BGM is almost the same as that of DB and the music of the irrelevant songs are good.

Acting side, Arya fails to bring in that cool shaded agony in his face. Even the makers seem to have confusion in writing the character. Santhanam once again shows his caliber in delivering humor with his typical style. It is in fact his performance that helps the movie in maintaining the comic feel. Premg was disappointing as Cheenu. The characters innocence demanded a kind of humor which was unfortunately missing. Hansika is pleasing with her childish attitude and Anjali was also a good choice as Shakthi. Nassar was good in his antagonist appearance.

Overall, Settai is an average film. They have used the entire Delhi Belly to make us laugh and they have added a few from their pocket to disturb us. I am giving a generous 2.5/5 for Settai. Delhi Belly is still the better butter.