A Deepavali post...Azhaguraja review.

Happy Deepavali to everyone!  May the festival of lights spread love, joy, peace & prosperity in your lives.

One experience that repeats itself every Deepavali is when you try to light a flower pot or an atom bomb gingerly, very gingerly and as you move away seeing the sputtering flame you wait eagerly for the fountain of sparks or a loud bank but then you get a fizzle, also called as a “boossu”.  Azhaguraja the Deepavali release starring Karthi with Santhanam and directed by Rajesh (with an impressive pedigree) is a big fizzle.

A movie with the family especially with lots of kids in a drive in should have ensured a lot of fun and the premise of a Rajesh movie who with Santhanam had given two recent hits would have been the icing on the cake, unfortunately this cake ended up on our faces and told us that reputation does not matter much and past performance at the box office must be discounted before every movie.

For a long time we were left scratching our heads trying to make sense of the movie and desperately searching for a cue to laugh. It was very annoying to see Karthi laugh uncontrollably on screen before a puzzled audience trying to figure out the big joke. Movie makers must remember that simply putting Santhanam on screen does not ensure a laugh even if he does play a drag queen. The scene where Santhanam dresses up as a woman and the rich old man falling for him is can be as painful as “Powerstar dancing in your dreams”.

The other annoying part is role of the heroine, how much longer can the woman play the role of the dumb blonde? The initial premise of a delusional singer was interesting but then it falls flat without any sign of recovery.  I am sure those who follow classical dance will cringe at the grave disservice that comes on screen.  Only thing that seemed promising was veteran actor Prabhu dubbing for Karthi for the flashback scene but the novelty lasts for only a minute or so. And the less said about the songs the better.

You can stretch a rubber band only till it breaks and so also these supposed one line stories that get made into movies, only problem here is that even the one liner is vague. I feel for those working in the comedy channels who after acquiring this movie will need a microscope to pull out comedy bits for their shows.

Nothing azhaghu in this movie and best avoided.