Gorilla Tamil movie DVD Released

: It would be easy to dismiss Gorilla as a silly, far-fetched film, but the fact is that the film works. The chief reason for this is that the director, Don Sandy, understands the silliness and gets the the cast and crew to tag along for this fun ride.

The film revolves around three down-on-luck friends, who have their own problems. Jeeva (Jiiva, likeable), is a petty criminal, but has fallen in love with Jhansi (Shalini Pandey, trapped in a mandatory romantic interest role), who is being pressured to get married. Sathish (Sathish, whose wisecracks click this time), who is his family’s sole breadwinner, has been given the pink slip at his work, and Venkat (Vivek Prasanna) is an aspiring actor who hopes he can become a hero if he has money. Into their life walks Sadhik (Madhan), a farmer who is on the verge of committing suicide after being turned down by the banks. All four hatch a plan to rob a bank, in an inebriated state, and circumstances force them to follow through with what seems to be a ridiculous plan.

The bank robbery and the events that follow border on the absurd, but Sandy dives into it gleefully and uses comedy effectively to make us overlook the lack of logic. And like many filmmakers these days, he uses issues from the near past – from 15 lakh being credited into every citizen’s account to Hindi speakers being appointed in govt jobs in Tamil Nadu, hospital footage, Aadhaar card, Digital India, Vijay Mallaya, fishermen shootings, Marina protests – to offer crowdpleasing political commentary. The main issue that he focuses on is the one involving the plight of farmers, and this is where the film feels exploitative, especially with dialogues that talk about how banks are trusting beer company owner more than ‘naattukke soru podra vivasaayi’ when issuing loans. There are times when the film comes dangerously close to being melodramatic and ruining the farcical nature of the plot. Thankfully, the cast ensure that things don’t turn too serious, cracking a joke or two to lighten the mood.

As for the chimp, it only adds to the nuttiness (it even has a habit of hitting people in the nuts). Sure the film would have worked even without this character, which mainly is used for reaction shots, but right now, it’s inclusion only adds to the film’s anything goes approach.