Pachai KiLi Muthucharam

(Pics adopted from Behindwoods and Musicindiaonline)

Venkatesh (Sarathkumar), a medical rep. and Kalyani (Andrea)are happily married and have a son. The 4-year old kid is suddenly identified with diabetes, and that affects their marriage life. During his daily journey to work by train, he meets Geetha, (Jyothika) a married lady with a daughter, and they become friends. They are slowly attracted to each other and a relationship starts developing pretty fast between them. When they think they can get away with it, they are jolted by a huge shock which comes in the form of Lawrence (Milind Soman).

I really liked this movie. I have neither read the novel or watched the movie 'Derailed' and I got it confirmed that this is pretty much a replica of the original movie, except may be for the last 30 mins. The story is pretty fast-paced from the beginning, whether it deals with the soft relationship between Sarath and Jo or the twists and turns that happen later. The old title for this movie and the fact that my best friend could guess it midway, as told to me earlier, made me expect a twist when I got a break during the 5 mins. of interval. When it comes, it is accompanied with a couple of mini twists as well.. so watch out.

When the main theme starts evolving, I got a feeling that this is tamil's answer to KANK. The conversations between Sarath and Jo are so believable and we get the feeling as if this is really happening in front of our eyes. Jo has got some best expressive lines similar to what she utters in Kaakha Kaakha. The interactions between Sarath and Andrea are very sweet and romantic. Andrea's reaction when she comes to know of her husband's mistake is something new to the Tamil cinema, and it completely suits to her personality shown thus far. Goutham proves again that he has a unique way of looking at relations and emotions, suiting to the present age.

Sarath comes off with flying colors as a typical middle class man who is simple, afraid, love-seeking, confused, and loving to his family. Except for a couple of fight scenes which could have been avoided with some clever thinking, he has played probably a most realistic role ever in his career. I wish he gets to act in such down-to-earth roles more in the future. Jo looks very different (interesting make-up). As always, Goutham brings the best from her. Sad that we will get only one more movie from this good actress. Andrea (the female voice in 'KaRka kaRka' of VV) is beautiful, sweet, elegant and does well in the short screen time she gets.. more than what one can expect from a newcomer. Where did she come from? Milind reminds us a lot of 'Pandiya' of Kaakha, in his actions and dialog delivery, and I think Jeevan has provided the dubbing voice.

PachaikiLi muthucharam is not a flawless movie. The last half an hour was a bit dragging, though the song that fits there makes it tolerable. As mentioned earlier, Sarath's realistic performance becomes unrealistic when he bashes up a dozen goondas single-handedly. Jo's last few minutes in the movie come off as irritating, though it is a new Avatar for her. These are above-minor hiccups in an otherwise engrossing movie.

As one can expect of a Goutham movie, the technical aspects are top-notch. The songs are picturized pretty well - especially the "Un sirippinil" (seems inspired from the remix version of "yeh vaada - Tu tu hai meri dil...)". Though it reminds us of 'Partha mudhal' of VV, it is shot better than the latter. 'KAdhal konjam', though comes pretty late, is worth waiting for. 'Karu karu' blends with dialogues rather well and the picturization of 'Unakkul naan' (Surprise lyricist: Rohini) reminds of 'Uyirin uyire'. Aravind Krishna's camera captures the mood of the film pretty well.

Very sweet title for a nicely made movie. Watch it - it is different.