There are some writers that can make the dullest topics interesting, like Michael Lewis did with Moneyball or Bill Bryson does with all his books. “I’d read a phone-book if they wrote it,” people say about these writers. This is also true of movies made by director Vijay. Almost invariably, I’d rather read a phone-book than watch one of his films.
Give him a crime thriller, and he will make you cry over some milk the thieves split during the heist. It was meant for a little baby who is the apple of her dying grandfather’s eye.
And in Vanamagan, which at first glance appears to be an Indianised remake of George of the Jungle, he continues this fine tradition. Jayam Ravi is a man brought up in a jungle, and he moves to a city and manages to fall in love with a very fetching looking Sayyesha Saigal. She is somehow related to Prakash Raj. Typical clueless jungle-man move.
The original is a parody, the remake is the type of earnest, sentiment-infused films that Vijay specializes in dishing out. Jayam Ravi seems to have decided that either Vikram in Pithamagan or a Chitti in Endhiran should be his inspiration for this particular movie. Prakash Raj and Vijay are a match made in heaven. Poor Sayyesha Saigal.
Just keep a phone-book handy, is all I’ll say.
Starring Jayam Ravi, Sayyeshaa, Prakash Raj – with music by Harris Jayaraj.
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